The Blue Bird

Essentially Shirley Temple's child star career ended with The Blue Bird. After this she was cast in teen roles and eventually young adults. If not the best way to end her child star career and the biggest money maker at the box office it certainly was one expensive way.

Interesting as well because the rumors had it that Darryl Zanuck saw the big money that The Wizard Of Oz made over at MGM with Judy Garland and decided this was action he wanted 20th Century Fox in. So he shot the works financially and the famous Maeterlinck story The Blue Bird was adopted for Shirley Temple.

The Blue Bird is a symbol for good luck and prosperity and one that Shirley and little brother Johnny Russell had has disappeared. A magical fairy played by Jessie Ralph sends them on a journey into an Oz like land with their animated pets, Eddie Collins as their dog and Gale Sondergaard as the cat. Sondergaard is truly interesting, she plays the animated cat like she was being the Spiderwoman and really acts like a fifth columnist for the kids.

The story even resolves itself like the Wizard Of Oz.

The Blue Bird got Oscar nominations for Special Effects, but lost to Alexander Korda's The Thief of Bagdad.

It never came close to raking in its cost for 20th Century Fox. It was the end of Shirley Temple as a child star. Ironically MGM had wanted her for The Wizard Of Oz, but Zanuck wouldn't let her go. It was then they signed Judy Garland who cost L.B.Mayer not a dime as she was under contract.

Seeing it today it's an interesting children's fantasy and may have not gotten the praise it deserved back in the day.

An extraordinary fantasy from 1940, THE BLUE BIRD is a much discussed drama with acute stings for a child audience. Kids today in 2005 would certainly immediately respond to the more severe points of this very strong lesson in life - and aware adults who watch it with them will have much to discuss - especially after the 'heaven' sequence with the unborn children. This 1940 BLUE BIRD is much maligned as is the 1975 version...and isn't that just so tiring?! What is it with 2005 comments that just criticize a film so well intentioned and produced like this? Apart from the Pixar 3D cartoons, family movies made today are not better than this 1940 and 1975 production, in fact this film of 1940 is easily as well produced and as emotionally powerful as THE WIZARD OF OZ which is the template (as opposed to Shirley) for this version. We all know the debate about OZ and this film (read other comments) but his is a much maligned and unappreciated major film, lavishly produced at a time when the world was heading into war and a moment for the reflection of what was going to happen to the children's hearts and heads. Don't believe me? Well have a good look and listen to the 'unborn' sequence. One of the great quiet emotional thumpings an adult can get while gasping for breath in a truly superb 'old movie' sequence. Fox need to allow this film to fly again and a DVD release is much deserved. Moaners just should shut up and stop trying to off-put educated families from seeing the genuine wonders and heart in this excellent film. And Johnny Russell! what a kid star! where do they find a 70 year old character and looks in a 6 year old's body and face? such is the genuine truth in THE BLUE BIRD and all its incredible realism.

THE BLUE BIRD (20th Century-Fox, 1940), directed by Walter Lang, adapted from the story by Maurice Masterlinck, is an interesting failure in Shirley Temple's movie career. A worthy follow-up to her previous success of THE LITTLE PRINCESS (1939), a family oriented story also produced with lavish scale settings and glossy Technicolor, THE BLUE BIRD, a dream-like fantasy often labeled as the studio's answer to THE WIZARD OF OZ (MGM, 1939) starring Judy Garland, could have or should have become a box office success, but it didn't. Using the same opening credit method from Temple's HEIDI (1937) introducing the cast and staff through a series of flipped pages from an open book, THE BLUE BIRD, coming nearly three years later, did allow the now taller Temple to break away from her sweet wholesome image to a selfish, disagreeable adolescent. Unlike her most typical films where she often played either an orphan, or a daughter of a widowed parent, THE BLUE BIRD gives her a set of parents as well as a little brother.

Black and White prologue: Set on Christmas Eve in a little German town sometime in the 19th Century, Mytyl Tyl (Shirley Temple), and her little brother, Tyltyl (Johnny Russell) at the Royal Forest are introduced trapping a rare little bird into a cage. On the way home, Mytyl is called over by Angela Berlinger (Sybil Jason), a sickly child resting by her bedroom window, if she would be interested in trading the bird with one of her possessions, but is refused. Aside from Angela's mother (Leona Roberts) who labels Myrtyl as a selfish child, so do her parents (Russell Hicks and Spring Byington), which explains why Mytyl is never very happy. Problems soon arise for the family when Mytyl's woodcutting father is called to war and to report Christmas day. As the children go to bed for the night, (shift to Technicolor) they each dream of themselves searching for the Blue Bird of Happiness, thus, meeting with numerous characters to guide them: Fairy Berylune (Jessie Ralph), Light (Helen Ericson), their dog and cat, Tylo and Tylette (Eddie Collins and Gale Sondergaard), magically changed to human form. While going through many aspects of human experience, Mytyl and Tyltyl visit the past, going to the land of memories in the cemetery where they are briefly reunited with their deceased grandparents (Al Shean and Cecilia Loftus); living the life of richness in the mansion of Mr. and Mrs. Luxury (Nigel Bruce and Laura Hope Crews); roaming through the forest where danger awaits, with uprooted trees and blazing fire; and moving into the future where the children visit the Palace of the Unborn where they make the acquaintance of children awaiting to be born before finding their destinies on Earth - but still no finding of the blue bird of happiness. Upon their awakening, further events await them. (While it would be asking too much to accept two children to be having the exact same dream while sleeping, but considering this to be a fantasy, it's possible acceptance to the viewer).

Other members of the cast are Thurston Hall (Father Time); Sterling Holloway (Wild Plum Tree); and possibly every child actor in the movie business appearing briefly as Gene Reynolds; Ann E. Todd, Scotty Beckett, Billy Cook, Diane Fisher, among others. Johnny Russell, the doll-faced little boy has that rare distinction of having and sharing equal time with Temple, while the lesser known name of Helen Ericson as Light stands out as a sort of glowing guardian dressed in white angel with that Heavenly glow.

First produced as a stage play, then adapted as a silent movie (Paramount, 1918), and much later retold again (20th Century-Fox, 1976) directed by George Cukor, regardless of its negative reputation, it's the 1940 edition that's become the best known of the three due to frequent television broadcasts starting in the late 1960s, usually around the Christmas season. Though there are those who claim this BLUE BIRD has laid an egg, overlooking some dull passages, it does contain some fine moments of honorable mention: lavish scale settings with crisp, glossy Technicolor; the beautiful yet haunting score to "Through the World so Far Away" sung by children on with giant ship with the golden sail on their way to be born, this being one of the longer dream segments of the dream; and one with an important message. Reportedly consisting of occasional song numbers, all except one, "Lay Dee O," sung and danced by Shirley Temple to her grandparents, remains in final cut. In fact, this is one of the few instances where the film comes to life, being a sheer reminder of formula Temple cheerfulness. Eddie Collins adds occasional humor as the humanly frightful dog while Gale Sondergaard adds tastes of cat-eye wickedness, but no threat to Margaret Hamilton's scene stealing Wicked Witch of the West from THE WIZARD OF OZ.

Formerly available as part of the Shirley Temple Playhouse on video cassette in 1989, and later in DVD format, THE BLUE BIRD has turned up on numerous cable channels over the years, ranging from The Disney Channel (1980s), American Movie Classics (1996-2001), Fox Movie Channel, and finally Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 20, 2015). With the reportedly heavy editing of songs and scenes to abide to Temple's attention throughout, it's a wonder how THE BLUE BIRD might have turned out theatrically in completed form of more musical sequences as opposed to its 83 minute release of the blue bird search for happiness? Whether it would have made a difference between success and failure is anybody's guess. (***1/2)

Shirley Temple and Johnny Russell are the children of woodcutter Russel Hicks and his wife, Spring Byington. One day they find a blue bird in the forest and take it home. It escapes and they go on a journey to recover it.

This was a famous flop, and ended the unbroken string of hits for Miss Temple. Because victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan, everyone seems to have an explanation of why it failed out the box office. Miss Temple was aging out of her cute moppet appeal. It was overproduced, and the focus was on the Technicolor and fantastic sets. War in Europe made people impatient with the allegory. The movie's director, Walter Lang, blamed it on bad editing.

My explanation is a lot simpler: it lacks any sense of fun. It's all obvious allegory that is hammered into the audience's head like they are stupid. Miss Temple starts out as an unpleasant girl, and only gradually becomes nice. She doesn't dance, her singing is limited to one song. Her problems aren't real, so her overcoming them is muted in effect.

Maurice Maeterlinck's play may have been a triumph, but it was a triumph of spectacle. Spectacle can make a movie, but without any sense of engagement, it's empty. This movie is quite beautiful, in a visual sense, but its story telling, its message is mechanical an uninvolving.

Although 'The Blue Bird' was not a resounding financial success at time of release, and has always been cited as being a poor imitation of 'The Wizard of Oz', it is an unjustly neglected film. Individual scenes are striking, as for example those depicting the unborn waiting in a kind of heavenly limbo (with billowing clouds) before sailing off to their destination on earth. (You can spot Dickie Moore and Scotty Beckett among the unborn lads.) Shirley Temple and Johnny Russell are tremendously appealing as the young sister and brother searching for the elusive blue bird of happiness. A highlight is Shirley's excursion to the Land of the Past where she visits her dead grandparents and does a charming song-and-dance to a yodel song. The studio would have been wise to incorporate a few more such songs. With added numbers, this might have been a much more successful film. As it is, her role is not strong enough, as written, and yet we can appreciate her by the film's end. She is particularly affecting in the scenes with the unborn children, showing genuine charm and affection and looking radiant in technicolor. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (Special Effects and Color Cinematography), nominations which were well deserved. The spectacular forest fire is very effective, as are the special effects in general. In the supporting roles, Gale Sondergaard (as Tylette, the cat)has fun with a typical Sondergaard role, mistress of evil. Nigel Bruce and Spring Byington lend excellent support. Summing up, while the whole is not as great as its parts, this is a lavishly photographed film definitely worth viewing. Not a masterpiece, by any means, but there is much to appreciate and it should not be neglected.