The Little Princess

Director: Walter Lang, William A. Seiter Walter Lang

Overview

Shirley Temple's first Technicolor feature, The Little Princess was inspired by the oft-filmed novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Set in turn-of-the-century England, the film finds Temple being enrolled in a boarding school by her wealthy widowed father (Ian Hunter), who must head off to fight in the Boer War. At first, Temple is treated like royalty; her behavior couldn't be more down to earth, but this preferential treatment foments resentment. When her father is reported killed in the war, circumstances are severely altered. The spiteful headmistress (Mary Nash) relegates Temple to servant status and forces the girl to sleep in a drafty attic. She keeps her spirits up by hoping against hope that her father will return, and to that end she haunts the corridors of a nearby military hospital. Queen Victoria doesn't have to make a guest appearance in the tearfully joyous closing sequence, but it does serve as icing on the cake to this, one of Temple's most enjoyable feature films. Reliable Shirley Temple flick supporting actors Cesar Romero and Arthur Treacher are back in harness in The Little Princess, while adult leading lady Anita Louise figures prominently in a sugary dream sequence.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/15/2019
UPC:	0644827182121
Original Release:	1939
Source:	Reel Vault
Language:	English
Time:	1:33:00
Sales rank:	47,510

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Shirley Temple	Sara Crewe
Richard Greene	Geoffrey Hamilton
Anita Louise	Rose
Cesar Romero	Ram Dass
Arthur Treacher	Bertie Minchin
Mary Nash	Amanda Minchin
Sybil Jason	Becky
Miles Mander	Lord Wickham
Marcia Mae Jones	Lavinia
Beryl Mercer	Queen Victoria
Deidre Gale	Jessie
Ira Stevens	Ermengarde
E.E. Clive	Mr. Barrows
Keith Hitchcock	Bobbie
Holmes Herbert	Doctor
Evan Thomas	Doctor
Guy Bellis	Doctor
Kenneth Hunter	General,Capt. Crewe
Lionel Braham	Colonel
Eily Malyon	Cook
Clyde Cook	Attendant
Olaf Hytten	Man
Rita Page	Girl
Will Stanton	Groom
Harry Allen	Groom
Frank Baker	Officer
Walter Bullock	Composer
Samuel Pokrass	Composer
Louis Silvers	Composer

Technical Credits

Ethel Hill

Walter Ferris

Walter Lang	Director
Ethel Hill	Screenwriter
Walter Ferris	Screenwriter
Gene Markey	Producer
William A. Seiter	Director
Darryl F. Zanuck	Producer
Roger Heman	Sound Effects
E. Clayton Ward	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

Shirley Temple was at her most engaging in this handsome adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's story, playing plucky Sara Crewe, who finds herself orphaned and reduced to near-indentured servitude at the boarding school where she was formerly a student. Director Walter Lang manages to balance the drama, the little bits of song-and-dance (mostly courtesy of Arthur Treacher), the comedy, the romance (provided by Richard Greene and Anita Louise), and the Technicolor glow of the production, creating one of Temple's most enjoyable movies. Lang's handling of the actors is lively, engaging, and smooth -- he never lets the splendor of the Technicolor shooting, or the lavish sets, stand in the way of moving the story forward or letting his actors do what they're there to do -- the result is a set of highly memorable portrayals in an exquisite screen setting, presenting late Victorian at its most opulent and beautiful (and, at times, cruel). This is the kind of storytelling in which the old Hollywood had no equal, and looking at the pacing, drama, humor, and fantasy elements, one wonders what Lang might have made out of a movie such as Mary Poppins if he'd had the chance to work on that a quarter century later (not that Robert Stevenson did a bad job with the latter...). Additionally, his handling of the dream/fantasy sequence here anticipates his treatment, more than two decades later, of the action through the entire body of Snow White And The Three Stooges (and goes a long way toward explaining the success of that movie). But at the center of this movie's success is Temple, nearing the end of her childhood appeal but able to flex some real acting muscles, especially working in the same scenes with villainous Mary Nash. The only drawback to appreciating The Little Princess is the lapse of its copyright in 1967, which has resulted in a plethora of unauthorized television showings and video releases of the movie, most of them with highly substandard Technicolor, among other problems. The authorized Twentieth Century Fox DVD, released in the late winter of 2007, is the one to watch or to own.