The Little Princess

This Shirley Temple feature is worth seeing for a number of very nice moments in the story of "The Little Princess". It might be a little longer than necessary, and the story development is sometimes uneven, which keeps it from achieving its full potential. It offers the young Temple a variety of material to work with, and she has some very good sequences.

For the most part, it follows the familiar story, though often embellished, particularly towards the end. The story and Temple's characterization give it a rather different feel from, for example, the silent version that starred Mary Pickford. Here, Temple projects much of her own persona, with her best moments coming with Arthur Treacher, who plays the easygoing brother of the stern headmistress. The character of Becky is still significant, but Temple does not ever have the rapport with her that Pickford and Zasu Pitts had in the earlier version.

As a result, it's a bit uneven overall, but for those who enjoy this kind of story, it's still worthwhile. The public domain print makes it somewhat difficult to evaluate the production end, although it clearly contained plenty of detail and color. It's a decent if unexceptional feature whose high points are usually worth waiting for.

A small child, affectionately known as THE LITTLE PRINCESS, must endure great hardship after her father is killed in the Boer War.

Shirley Temple had her last great box-office triumph in this splendid Technicolor adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett childhood classic. No longer a tiny tot - she turned eleven the year THE LITTLE PRINCESS was released - but still a little trooper, Shirley exhibits once again the tremendous charm & talent which made her Hollywood's top box office draw. With wrinkled brow & tremulous lip or bouncing curls & joyous smile, she adeptly displays just the right mood or mannerism to keep the focus of the audience's attention firmly grasped in her chubby fists.

The supporting players' roster is abundantly well cast: stalwart Ian Hunter appears as Shirley's soldier father - this very fine actor wisely uses his acting skills to keep from being completely upstaged by the mighty moppet; handsome Richard Greene & lovely Anita Louise play the riding master & teacher who befriend Shirley - their roles aren't terribly significant, but they fill them quite well.

Mary Nash is once again cast as Shirley's tormentor, this time playing the evil-spirited headmistress of an exclusive girls' seminary. This accomplished actress did not appear in many films, but she could generally be counted on to provide a vivid performance - notice the relish with which she essays her small part in the medieval fantasy sequence (`I know my rights, I know the law and what I say I saw, I saw!'). Long-legged, adenoidal Arthur Treacher plays her henpecked brother; he is a delight during his two romps with Shirley to the music hall ditty ‘Knocked ‘Em In The Old Kent Road.'

Cesar Romero quietly portrays an Indian servant in a small, but important, role; Miles Mander & E. E. Clive both appear as hardhearted, crusty old gentlemen - only one is regenerated by film's end. Sweet Beryl Mercer makes the most of her few moments as a stately, kindhearted Queen Victoria - while Eily Malyon is a true fright as the school's slatternly cook. Marcia Mae Jones participates in one of the film's most memorable moments, when, as a particularly vile teenager, she receives a face full of fireplace ashes, courtesy of sweet Shirley.

Special attention should be given to ten-year-old South African Sybil Jason, who plays the wistful waifish charmaid who idolizes Shirley. In her American film debut, Warner's LITTLE BIG SHOT (1935), she proved wonderfully winsome & winning, but the storm of attention surrounding Miss Temple (exactly 19 months older than Miss Jason) tends, at this remove, to swamp the boats of the other female child stars of the period. However, delightful Sybil deserves to be remembered & appreciated for her own accomplishments.

The Stolen Kiss, a lavish fantasy dream sequence, provides a welcome few minutes change of pace for Temple, Nash, Louise, Greene, Treacher & Romero.

Shirley Temple, Ian Hunter, Richard Greene, Anita Louise, and Cesar Romero star in this great classic that still is outstanding even though it was released in 1939. This is the story (written by Frances Hodgson Burnett) of Sarah Crewe who was left at a boarding school while her father leaves to fight in the Boer War. She makes few friends but all the other girls think she is a selfish child. Some of the friend's she makes are Becky (Sybil Jason) a kind-hearted servant and two teachers, Rose (Anita Louise) and Birtie Minchin (Arthur Treacher) who is brother of the infamous Miss Minchin (Mary Nash). This truly is a great film that is still a Shirley Temple classic.

THE LITTLE PRINCESS (20th Century-Fox, 1939), directed by Walter Lang, based upon the story by Frances Hodgeson Burnett, ranks one of Shirley Temple's best known and most revived feature, as well as her first in Technicolor. Capitalizing on her previous success with screen adaptations to literary children's novels, including HEIDI and WEE WILLIE WINKIE (both 1937), THE LITTLE PRINCESS displays Temple's talent in heavy dramatics at best, especially with her two key scenes, one in which she teary-eyed bids goodbye to her father as he goes off to war; and another where she stands firm, looking angrily straight at her evil boarding school mistress as she is about to slap her face for standing up to her. Like a fairy tale, this production includes good characters along with a wicked one (wonderfully played by Mary Nash), along with some dialog usually found in storybooks, such as one little girl saying on how Sara Crewe (Temple) looks just like a princess, with the overly jealous girl sarcastically responding, "Princess, INDEED."

Set in London in the year 1899, Sara (Shirley Temple) is the daughter of her widowed father, Captain Crewe (Ian Hunter), who leaves her in a boarding school under the care of Miss Amanda Mirchin (Mary Nash) and her brother, Bertie (Arthur Treacher), a former music hall performer, before he goes off to the Boer War. Because Crewe is a well known figure and man of wealth, Sara is given the royalty treatment, as if she were "a little princess," causing jealously amongst one of the other girls, Lavinia (Marcia Mae Jones), who doesn't want to lose her place with Miss Mirchin. After Miss Mirchin receives news from Mr. Babbows (E.E. Clive) that Captain Crewe has been killed in the war, leaving daughter Sara penniless, she, at first, decides to put Sara and her belongings into the street, but Babbows advises her that this would not look good for her or the school. So the only other alternative is to place Sara from her luxurious room into a cold attic, taking her expensive clothing and auctioning it off to pay for her lodging, leaving Sara with only paupers' clothes to wear. In order to earn her keep, Sara must work long hard hours in the kitchen along with another girl, Becky (Sybil Jason), who befriends her. Being treated harshly, Sara becomes a hard and bitter child who tries to be a good soldier as her father had wanted her to be, but finds she's unable to do it, being at times both hungry and cold. Not wanting to believe her father is dead, Sara braves the streets of London at night in hope to one day find him amongst the wounded in the military hospital.

Also in support in THE LITTLE PRINCESS are Richard Greene and Anita Louise as the young romantic couple, with Louise as Miss Rose, an employee of the boarding school who loses her position for secretly meeting with Sir Geoffrey Hamilton (Greene) against the wishes of Miss Minchin; Cesar Romero as Ram Dass, an Arab servant to Lord Wickham (Miles Mander), Sir Geoffrey's grandfather; Eily Malyon as an unsympathetic boarding school cook; and Beryl Mercer as Queen Victoria, among others.

Aside from the heavy handled dramatics that resembles a dark Charles Dickens novel, THE LITTLE PRINCESS does take time for some song and dance, including "Down By the Old Kent Road" (by Arthur Chevalier and Charles Ingle) as sung and danced by Shirley Temple and Arthur Treacher; and as with Temple's earlier classic, HEIDI, there's a musical dream sequence, this one titled "Fantasy" by Walter Bullock and Samuel Pokrass.

As with HEIDI, THE LITTLE PRINCESS is prestigious Temple production. It also reunites her with her HEIDI co-stars, Mary Nash, Arthur Treacher and Marcia Mae Jones. And also like HEIDI, THE LITTLE PRINCESS gives the impression of a hurried conclusion.

Mary Nash gives a standout performance with her female interpretation of Mr. Murdstone from Dickens' novel, David COPPERFIELD, with Treacher a likable Micawber character from that very same novel. Temple and Treacher have fine screen chemistry, with this being their fourth and final collaboration together. The 1899 London period setting is wonderfully captured along with its lavish crisp Technicolor. Sybil Jason, a promising young child actress of Warner Brothers (1935-38), who didn't rise above the rank of Temple, is quite memorable playing the cockney orphan, Becky. Her performance is unlike anything she has done before, but sadly, after one more film, THE BLUE BIRD (1940), which also starred Temple, Jason's career would come to an end.

Unlike the other Shirley Temple movies of the 1930s, THE LITTLE PRINCESS became a public domain video title, being distributed through various video companies through the years (1980s and 1990s), and like the Christmas classic, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), which also fell victim to public domain, THE LITTLE PRINCESS became frequently shown on numerous television stations at any given time. The 1989 CBS Fox Home Video presentation of THE LITTLE PRINCESS does present this film with the best Technicolor print available, outdoing some others with duller looking copies. THE LITTLE PRINCESS was formerly presented on cable television's American Movie Classics from 1996 to 2001, and occasionally airs on Turner Classic Movies and on the Fox Movie Channel. Wherever THE LITTLE PRINCESS is found, it makes good family viewing.

One final note: the Frances Hodgeson Burnett classic included a 1917 silent film version starring Mary Pickford, and a 1995 remake with Eleanor Bron, both titled A LITTLE PRINCESS. But whenever THE LITTLE PRINCESS is mentioned, it'll be no doubt that the Shirley Temple version will be the one that comes to mind. (****)

While American audiences loved this and all the other Shirley Temple vehicles, across the Pond this story of a young girl refusing to accept reports of her father's death in combat must have struck a responsive chord with war-weary Brits who could easily identify with her troubles. Although the Hollywood film industry has always come under some well-deserved criticism for twisting history and other literary sources in its screenplays, they do get it right at times. The largely British cast and English setting give the classic story the right look and feel, and the romance and song-and-dance numbers don't take anything away from the main storyline. Shirley is even reunited with some of her co-stars from other films. (This includes Cesar Romero as a servant here. 8 of his next 11 films were westerns, a genre he'd never tackled, including a pairing with Randolph Scott as Doc Holliday to Scott's Wyatt Earp and a starring role in a handful of Cisco Kid features. Much later would come famous movie and TV roles as Kurt Russell's nemesis A.J. Arno in several Disney comedies in the 70's, and his most famous part, the Joker, in BATMAN.) In a year when so many great films appeared that were taken from the pages of popular books (GONE WITH THE WIND, THE WIZARD OF OZ, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME,GUNGA DIN, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS,THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, TARZAN FINDS A SON, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK) you can add THE LITTLE PRINCESS. If you never get to read any or all of these books, at least watch the films derived from them. You won't regret it. Dale Roloff