The Little Princess

Plot synopsis:
Sara's army captain father must put her in boarding school because he has been ordered to the Boer war. He brings her to the "best" girls' school in England, but the owner, Miss Minchin only accepts her after he emphasizes his financial and social status. He instructs Miss Minchin that he will reimburse her for additional expenses to ensure that Sara has the best of everything in his absence.The unspoiled Sara enjoys her privileged life but misses her father. Her kindness stuns the young school servant, Becky. Sara befriends Ram Dass, a servant in the house next door, who is from her beloved India. She also makes friends with a teacher and her secret boyfriend, the riding instructor, and assists their meetings. Sara also discovers a secret dancer, Miss Minchin's brother Bertie, and they delight in impromptu performing when they won't get caught.Sara's father's letters cease when his station at Mafeking is besieged. When new troops arrive and relieve Mafeking, Sara's hopes are dashed when her father is reported missing and presumed dead. Miss Minchin is furious because she has received no reimbursements for Sara's special treatment. She confiscates all of Sara's presents and possessions, and keeps her on as a servant although her work will never repay her debts. She assigns Sara to work in the kitchen and sleep in a cold room in the attic.Sara refuses to believe her father is dead. She performs her chores but always checks new arrivals at the soldiers' hospital in hopes of finding him. Bertie enlisted in the army and works at the hospital, so he aids her search despite his misgivings. They dance and sing for the wounded men.In the servants' quarters, Sara comforts herself by furnishing her room with her imagination: a comfortable bed, a warm fire, plentiful food and books. Her friend Ram Dass observes her misery, and one night he secretly makes her room into the luxurious palace she has envisioned.In the meantime, Sara's father is brought to the hospital, but due to his amnesia is unidentified. He is scheduled to be transferred to another hospital the next day. That morning, Miss Minchin discovers Sara's new things and assumes they are stolen. She locks Sara in to await the police.Sara desperately escapes in order to check the hospital. She is stopped at every turn until she stumbles into Queen Victoria who is visiting the soldiers. The Queen allows Sara to search, and she finally finds her father. She hugs him and cries, but is devastated when he does not recognize her. Finally, she gets through to him and they are happily reunited.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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.
But Shirley/Sarah doesn't, and that's a reason that I really like this movie - it shows someone who tries to make the best of a bad situation, and never gives up hope.I also believe that the movie is an accurate portrayal of the life and times of the turn of the century, as it was made only 40 years after the Boer War. I think that Victorian England was captured well in this movie; after all, we do a pretty good job of displaying the 1960s on film these days.Overall, though, it is Shirley Temple at her singing/dancing/acting best in this movie, and she does a wonderful job from start to finish..
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.
This Shirley Temple feature is worth seeing for a number of very nice moments in the story of "The Little Princess".
Charming film in color where Shirley Temple's dad goes off to fight in the Boer War. She is left is a fancy girl's school with a headmistress who is stern.When word is brought to the school that the father, who adored his Sarah (Temple), has been killed and the child is left penniless, poor Sarah is shut up in the attic and made to work in the kitchen.
Move over Cinderella.Sarah never gives up hope that her dad (Ian Hunter) is living and she searches feverishly for him.When a Indian mystery man (Cesar Romero) makes her room beautiful during a ballet sequence, Sarah is suspected of stealing.Mary Nash is the wicked headmistress and acts in the same way as Margaret Hamilton in "The Wizard of Oz." Richard Green and Anita Louise play lovers, who are discharged from the school, by Nash for loving each other.The ending is wonderful when Sarah finds her dad with the help no less of Queen Victoria (Beryl Mercer).Enjoyable tale for children and adults alike..
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.
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.
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.
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.
1899, London, irrepressible Sara(Shirley Temple) is a little girl in Victorian epoch sent to boarding school ruled by a harsh,hateful headmistress named Mischin(Mary Nash) while her widowed father(Ian Hunter) is posted in South African -Transvaal- during the Anglo-Boer war.
At 11 (though she believed herself to be 10 because her mother shaved a year off her age), Shirley was still quite a child when she made "The Little Princess." But because she was no longer as cute and cherubic as she was at 6, when "Stand Up and Cheer!" first made her a star, it was to be her last successful film in a children's role.As Sara (a Hebrew name meaning "princess"), Shirley plays her standard rags-to-riches storyline in reverse: Sara's wealthy widowed father loses everything in the Boer War, and her cruel boarding school headmistress Miss Minchin makes her an underfed, overworked servant girl to pay the tuition debt her father owed.
To the movies, where Shirley Temple, her unwavering hopefulness (as present in "The Little Princess" as in any of her movies), and her cute song-and-dance numbers -- with titles like "Laugh, You Son of a Gun" (1934), "You Gotta Smile to be Happy" (1936), "Be Optimistic" (1938), and "Come and Get Your Happiness" (1938) -- cheered up the entire nation.
The same singing and dancing cheers up Sara Crewe while she's working as a galley slave in 1899 London, as Shirley performs "The Old Kent Road" with her pal Arthur Treacher (her four-time co-star).In short, "The Little Princess" is Shirley Temple's career in a nutshell.
Her tears range from joy to hysteria as she tries to tell the shell-shocked soldier that she is his daughter.This is a lavish technicolor delight with Shirley Temple at 12 doing an expert job as Sara, the little miss who has to bear the indignities of a boarding school once her father has been declared dead in the Boer war.
One of Shirley's best performances with a wonderful cast of supporting players: Richard Greene, Anita Louise, Mary Nash, Sybil Jason, Arthur Treacher and Cesar Romero all doing expert work..
She was never too realistic with those parts of a movie, but convincing in every other way.Also, I prefer Temple's more light-hearted films, of which is not one, although Arthur Treacher was a good guy and fun to watch.
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.
I awarded this film 5/10 as just about average.It has an infantile plot for children & families around in 1939.For the female teenagers there is Richard Greene (later famous in the 1950s for the British TV series "The Adventures of Robin Hood").I only watched it after searching on Youtube for Anita Louise who played another girlfriend Helen Wentworth in the film "Love Letters"(1945) & Titania in "A Midsummers Night's Dream" (1935), both in my DVD collection.The plot closely resembles a British pantomime with wicked witches, ugly spiteful sisters & handsome princes with Shirley Temple playing Cinderella in reverse.I read all the previous user reviews before writing this piece and accept most of their valid criticism of this film, they are evidently more versed in this particular Frances Hodgson Burnett's tale than I am.What film producer ever sticks slavishly to the original book since they mostly want to produce their own version on film.Their most bankable star was Shirley Temple so she naturally had to appear in most scenes, as they hopefully had to provide a dividend to the film company's shareholders.Cinema goers in 1939 who had seen ST sing & dance "The Good Ship Lollipop", would have had an expectation of seeing her in a similar act, in this case the old musical hall song, "Knocked Them in the Old Kent Road".I would have liked to have heard a fuller version of this song with more sung and danced verses.As stated the acting was in almost pantomime style, more suited to young children and their parents..
Still, this was a family movie that still thrills me as a 20 year old.This movie stars Shirley Temple as a little girl whose father goes to war.
News hits that her father may possibly be dead, and Sara goes on multiple searches to make sure that it is not true.This movie has a ton of fun moments, including a dream Sara has where she's a princess and she has Ms. Minchin imprisoned for wanting 2 people in jail for kissing.(This will make more sense when you see the movie.)There are a few other moments that I would like to mention, but I would rather have you see the movie yourself to experience them.But now I have to mention why this is a 9, and now I must spoil the end of the movie, to an extent.
The Little Princess finds Shirley Temple put in an exclusive boarding school by her father Ian Hunter who is a soldier and about to be posted to the Boer War. He's also a person of some substance and the schoolmistress Mary Nash is just glad to have her seeing all those pound note signs in front of her eyes.
The woman is a true Grinch.But as it is in Shirley Temple's world, the good grownups way outnumber the bad ones and they include young lovers Richard Greene and Anita Louise, Nash's brother Arthur Treacher who is an old music hall performer though Nash doesn't like that getting out, not respectable you know.
As for Romero this is the second time he played an Indian in a Shirley Temple picture, the first being Wee Willie Winkie where he also befriends Shirley.But you really got to hand the film to Nash who is such a mean old thing with her exaggerated ideas about propriety and etiquette as long as you can pay for it.The Little Princess holds up very well and is still fine family entertainment for a young audience..
In this children's story by Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of "The Secret Garden," little Shirley is in a private school when she is told that her father has been killed in the war and leaving his estate penniless.
Child actors Sybil Jason and Marcia Mae Jones costar and are really good (I really liked Sybil Jason a lot,) but the film showcases Shirley Temple at her best.
But, if you want to see only but the very best of her films, then see Shirley Temple as "The Little Princess," which is a heartwarming tale with America's Favorite Little Girl..
And, in some ways, the story is rather unpleasant and bizarre.The film begins with a Captain (Ian Hunter) and his daughter (Shirley Temple) going to a girls school to enroll her.
Shirley Temple was a little different because, as a child star, with each successive movie her roles had to reflect her changing age.
The Little Princess was made when Temple was ten, and as such it's a comparatively dark and dramatic story, at least in contrast to her previous appearances.And so, rather than just play the cutesy little girl with amusingly childlike emoting, we now see her reacting to things like loss and death in a story that occasionally borders upon real life, even if it's cutely saccharine in its resolution.
In "The Little Princess" a fairytale set in Victorian London, Shirley plays an army waif not believing her father died in the war.
Shirley Temple is as annoying and unlikable as ever as the "little princess" who is put in a crass orphanage after her father is believed to have been killed in the war.
Still, though, the Shirley Temple movie is an excellent movie on it's own, but don't watch it -- like I did -- expecting to see the Frances Hodgson Burnett book come-to-life..
With an eye on the regular cheques from the captain, the wicked spinster Amanda Minchin (Mary Nash) treats Sara like a little princess - until daddy is reported missing presumed dead and is discovered to have died penniless.
Of course, plucky young Sara refuses to believe that her father is dead, and the remainder of the film focuses on her search for him - with the aid of an unrecognisable Cesar Romero as a turbaned Indian servant - in the hospitals of London.There's something undeniably formulaic about this picture, even though it's clear from the accomplished cast and the use of technicolour that this is a prestige production.
Captain Crewe is off to fight the Boer War. He leave his daughter Sara (Shirley Temple) with Amanda Minchin (Mary Nash) at a private school for girls.
The script is mostly engaging, the film is beautifully directed by Walter Lang(who I remember best for the 1956 musical The King and I) and while darker in tone(I did miss some of the fascinating imagination aspects from the book admittedly) the story is still charming, with a fun song and dance interlude with Shirley Temple and Arthur Treacher and the ending is very moving.
I have not seen enough of Shirley Temple's films to judge whether The Little Princess is among her best or worst, but while a couple of the more emotional moments were a little forced her adorable appearance and charm makes for a delightful Sara overall.
Mary Nash's Miss Minchin is suitably nasty, while a young Cesar Romero is handsome and quietly composed as Ram Das, Ian Hunter in what he has is a loving father figure and as Bertie Arthur Treacher(whose scenes with Temple are among the best of the film) has an easy-going charm.
The Fox regulars, Technicolor, and material (bastardized Frances Hodgson Burnett) are top-notch.****** The Little Princess (3/10/39) Walter Lang ~ Shirley Temple, Mary Nash, Arthur Treacher, Cesar Romero.
I have nothing against Shirley Temple movies,but some of her movies that are based on books are awful and this was one of them.Shirley may know how to sing and dance,but there is a time and place for that and "A Little Princess" should not have been that place.
Directed by Walter Lang, the movie is about 12 year old, Sara Crewe (Shirley Temple) whom father, Captain Crewe (Ian Hunter) is called to fight in the Second Boer War. Sara is left behind in the care of Amanda Minchin (Mary Nash), the head of an exclusive private school for girls, where she lives in a princess like lifestyle due to her father's riches.
I know a lot of Shirley Temple's previous films had this, but this movie lacks music and songs good enough to remember.
The story here turns somewhat morose when Sara Crewe (Temple) learns her father (Ian Hunter) dies in the Boer War. That's a tough thing to put a kid through, young viewers that is, not the actress.
I thought Sybil Jason, who played Becky, the servant girl, was much more natural and believable - unlike Shirley, she didn't look like she was acting.