The ickiest movie I’ve seen this year wasn’t a little indie awash with body fluids at Sundance. It was produced by 20th-Century Fox in 1938 and had what was apparently its first TV showing in decades at 6 a.m. on the day after New Year’s on the Fox Movie Channel. I’m taking about “Five of a Kind,” the third and last of the very elusive features starring the Dionne Quintuplets, who became worldwide celebrities upon their births in 1934.

I first became aware of these movies in 1978 via an excellent Canadian documentary (not, alas, available on video) about the tragic lives of the Dionnes, who were taken from their parents by the Canadian government and installed as a tourist attraction at a theme park called Quintland. (The two surviving Quints received a multi-million dollar settlement from the government a few years ago).

The documentary features several clips from the three movies, which presented a fictionalized and highly flattering version of Roy Allan Dafoe, the doctor who delivered the Quints and finagled his way into becoming their legal guardian so that he could sign an endless number of merchandising contracts.

Renamed Dr. John Luke, Dafoe was played in all three movies (“The Country Doctor” and “Reunion” were the first two) by Jean Hersholt, the Danish-born actor whose name graces the Oscars’ Humanitarian Award and who went on to play a small-town physician in the long-running “Dr. Christian” radio and movie series. (Hersholt also helped his Canadian nephew, Leslie Nielsen, get a start in Hollywood).

Though the Dionnes get star billing (as the “Wyatt” Quints) most of the footage of “Five of a Kind” is devoted to two rival New York reporters (Claire Trevor and Cesar Romero) trying to outwit each other and Dr. Luke to sign up the Quints for a series of radio broadcasts.

Wise Dr. Luke of course sees through their schemes, though he does allow the Quints to appear at a charity event in Gotham — via TV from Canada, in 1938! — for the big climax.

There are several scenes of the Quints interspersed through the movie, and it’s heartbreaking to watch these totally five little girls performing like, well, trained dogs for the cameras. It’s downright creepy.

You can see for yourself. “Five of a Kind” will be shown again on the Fox Movie Channel on Feb. 6 at 7:30 a.m., Feb. 24 at 7:34 a.m. and March 12 at 6 a.m.