Film

Little Miss Marker

Little Miss Marker turns a gambler's cynical racket into a Depression-era fairy tale, with Shirley Temple's precocious moppet unofficially adopted by a bookie who can't afford to lose a bet on a fixed horse race. Equal parts wisecracking comedy and heart-tugging sentiment, it's brisk, funny, and shameless about its own sappiness — ideal for anyone who wants old Hollywood charm without pretending to subtlety.

TMDb rating3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like sentimental Depression-era comedy where a tough gambling crowd gets softened by a bright child who refuses to be intimidated, and you don't mind old-fashioned sweetness.

Skip it if you find 1930s child stars cloying or want a brisk modern comedy; the sentiment is laid on thick and the story leans hard on its one adorable hook.

What it asks of you: About 79 minutes, mostly light and brisk, asking you to sit with old studio conventions, stagey gags and a little sentiment rather than to track any complicated plot.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Paper Moon1973

A con man drags an orphaned girl across the Depression-era Midwest, and the fake father-daughter act slowly stops being fake. Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's real chemistry gives it a tenderness no script could invent, wrapped in gorgeous black-and-white photography.

But The comedy is drier and more melancholy than Marky's world — less wisecracking cheer, more quiet ache underneath the grift.

Paper Moon poster

Bright Eyes1934

The same year, the same star, the same recipe: Shirley Temple as an orphan melting a household of grown-ups, plus the song that made her immortal, 'On the Good Ship Lollipop.'

But It leans even harder into sugar than Marker does — if the sentiment there tested your patience, this won't help.

Bright Eyes poster

Guys and Dolls1955

Damon Runyon's Broadway bookies, gamblers and showgirls get the full musical treatment, with Sinatra and Brando trading wisecracks over craps games and dames. It's the grown-up, glossier cousin of Sorrowful Jones's world.

But No child at the centre, and the musical numbers stretch the runtime — commit to the singing or skip it.

Guys and Dolls poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Little Miss Marker

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Florida Project2017

Same shape as Marker — a hardened adult drawn into looking after a child he never asked for — but told with none of the fairy-tale gloss, in the unsentimental register of modern social realism.

A six-year-old runs wild through a purple motel on the edge of Disney World while the adults around her scrape by, and a weary manager quietly becomes the closest thing to a guardian she has.

But There's no plot, no wisecracks, no rescue arriving — this is a slow, unresolved, sometimes devastating look at poverty most comedies never touch.

The Florida Project poster
More like this (8)

Annie1982

Another orphan, another gruff rich man she cracks wide open — this time with showtunes and Depression-era optimism turned up to eleven. Pure comfort-food nostalgia if you grew up on it.

But The songs and sentiment are broader and brassier than Marker's — less pickpocket charm, more full-blown showbiz spectacle.

Annie poster

The Champ1931

A washed-up boxer and his devoted son claw for dignity in the same Depression-poor world Marky grows up in, minus the jokes. Wallace Beery won an Oscar finding the tenderness in a drunk.

But It's a genuine tearjerker with none of Marker's comic relief — go in braced, not looking for laughs.

The Champ poster

It Happened One Night1934

The same year, the same Depression-era wit, but aimed at adults: a runaway heiress and a wisecracking reporter spar their way across the country. The screwball comedy that basically invented the genre.

But No child, no sentiment, no bookies — just two very fast talkers falling for each other. Different engine entirely.

It Happened One Night poster

The Kid1921

Chaplin's Tramp finds an abandoned baby and raises him on scraps and nerve, silent-era proof that hard men and small children have been softening each other on screen since before sound existed.

But Silent film, no dialogue, and Chaplin's slapstick rhythms take some adjusting to if you've never watched one before.

The Kid poster

My Man Godfrey1936

A wealthy family adopts a homeless man as their butler on a whim, and screwball chaos with real Depression-era bite follows. Same era, same mix of comedy and social conscience.

But It's a satire of rich people rather than a story about a child — the sentiment sits in a very different place.

My Man Godfrey poster

Pollyanna1960

Hayley Mills' relentlessly cheerful orphan wins over a whole stubborn town, in a Disney film that plays Marky's basic trick — a child reforming hardened adults — completely straight and sunny.

But It's slower and more wholesome than Marker, with none of the racetrack grit or gambling-den atmosphere.

Pollyanna poster

Bugsy Malone1976

Marker put a real child inside an adult vice world for pathos; Bugsy Malone flips it — puts children playing at being adults, inside the same speakeasies and rackets, purely for comic spectacle.

Every gangster, gun moll and boxer in this Prohibition spoof is played by a child actor, guns fire splurge cream instead of bullets, and Paul Williams' songs turn the whole underworld into a giggling musical.

But The novelty of an all-child cast wears thin for some, and it's more spoof than story — plot is thin, gag is thick.

Bugsy Malone poster

Gloria1980

Same premise as Marker, stripped of comedy — a hard, self-interested adult forced by circumstance to look after a child they don't want, except here the debt collectors carry guns instead of betting slips.

A tough, chain-smoking gangster's moll ends up the reluctant protector of a small boy the mob wants dead, alternating between exasperation and fierce, unwilling love. Gena Rowlands is magnificent in it.

But It's a real crime thriller with guns and genuine danger — nothing cute or Depression-quaint about it, and the stakes are lethal.

Gloria poster

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Recommended by

Paper Moon, Guys and Dolls, Wee Willie Winkie