PIKE COUNTY, Mo. — It’s been 85 years since a veteran Pike County actor teamed with an incorrigible 10-year-old megastar for a very successful film.

“Little Miss Broadway” was released on July 29, 1938. The lead was portrayed by Shirley Temple in a cast that featured Claude Gillingwater.

It was the second of three films the Louisiana native would make with the iconic child star.

“Among all the Shirley Temple pictures, ‘Little Miss Broadway’ is one of the best,” one reviewer offered at the time.

The New York Times was more critical, saying “the devastating Mistress Temple is slightly less devastating than usual.”

The website oldmovieteams.org said the two were popular onscreen because Temple “had a talent for warming, indeed melting, the coldest of hearts,” including that of “everyone’s favorite old sourpuss.”

“The tall, thin, dour-looking Mr. Gillingwater had been typecast early on in his movie career as a character enveloped in an austere, sometimes querulous, almost always cranky and unyielding persona,” the site says. “But it was no match for the little cherub.”

In teaming with Temple, Gillingwater “is invariably coaxed out of his crusty exterior and exposed as nothing more than the avuncular old softy little Shirley Temple knew he was all along.”

The duo first worked together in 1936’s “Poor Little Rich Girl.” By then, Gillingwater was 66 years old and had a wealth of acting experience. Temple’s first appearance had been just four years earlier.

Despite his curmudgeonly appearance, Temple off camera “found him to be a very sweet and gentle man,” according to oldmovieteams.org.

“Little Miss Broadway” also featured comedian and singer Jimmy Durante, future U.S. Senator George Murphy and exemplary character actress Edna May Oliver, a descendant of Presidents John and John Quincy Adams.

In the black-and-white musical, Temple plays talented orphan Betsy Brown, who helps actors engaged in a battle with their crusty landlord. Gillingwater portrays a judge who agrees to Brown’s courtroom musical production before deciding a lawsuit brought about by the conflict.

The production includes Palmyra native Jane Darwell, who also would star in other movies with Temple as well as memorable roles in “Gone With the Wind,” “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Mary Poppins.”

Gillingwater was nearing the end of his illustrious career. He had started with silent movies in 1918 and ended up appearing in 92 films. He also was a founder of the Academy Awards.

Gillingwater suffered a back injury on the set of a movie just weeks before “Little Miss Broadway” began production. He never fully recovered from the pain and committed suicide on Nov. 1, 1939. The performer’s last film with Temple, “Just Around the Corner,” was released in 1938.

Shirley Temple Black continued acting and later became a United States ambassador. She passed at 85 in 2014. “Little Miss Broadway” can be found on DVD.