Evening star., 1939-03-24

more critical followers have been in
sisting she could be.
1t is downright exciting to discover
that Twentieth Century-Fox has
been brave enough to costume every
body's darling as a little slavey in
one OF those nastily prim girls
schools. What is more, her charm
actually is enhanced, by those high
button shoes, those holey stockings,
that drab black dress and the
ragged shawl.
In addition to the rags and lavish
settings, THE Little Princess" has
been invested with numerous other
entertaining features. 1t has its
touches Of comedy to balance the
poignance, its tender incidental love
story, its compassionate. kindly
characters to even up for the cruelly
vlllalnous ones. In few words, II
is dramatic and entertaining.
X X Y
The single bit of equivocating In
letting Shirley play Sarah Crewe is
forgiveable Save for a brief Sc
quence which shows her peeling a
potato, and two others in which
she handles coal scuttle, the audi
ence is spared the pain of watching
her perform menial tasks. How
ever, she is shown living in a cold,
dark, unheated garret, of being
threatened with brutal treatment.
1t is novel, real, honest and COM
mendable, adjectives which have not
grown emaciated in the service of
Temple pictures.
There is fairy tale quality
about the production of The Little
Princess" despite the fact that it
deals with such historic reality as
the Boer War, a little girl and her
father, whose death in it she re-
fused so flercely to believe. It
manifests itself at every turn, most
especially in the scene in which
Shirley dreams a pretty dream of
prince charmings, princesses, testers
and witches-all the parts in the
sequence being taken by characters
from the real drama through which
she is living. This sequence, the
most elaborate of the production. has
about it an aspect of restraint that
is sufficiently appealing that it
might be model for other studios.
AS in the case of all Shirley Tenn
pie pictures, the leading lady is
seldom out of range of the camera.
Dramatically she IS at her best in
those passages when she is visiting
the hospital in quest Of the father
she insists must be alive, that in
which her dream of restored luxury
comes true and the f1eeting moment
in which she meets and charms
Queen Victoria.
\ \ x
The adults with whom Shirley
has been surrounded in THE Little
Princess" are talented people, but
next to the star, acting honors go
to little Sybil Jason. Looking like
a diminutive Luise Rainer and play
ing like one, Sybil turns the part
of the little slavey Becky into a
touching, vicariously comic thing to
remember.
Another notable accomplishment
Of the Aim in dynamiting players
out Of their familiaD ruts is what
1t has done to Arthur Treacher,
Hollywood's most successful Eng
lish butler is transmitted here into
q hammy music hall player. He
sings, tap dances, jigs and other
wise carries on like suddenly un-
inhibited butler. It is fine for
Treacher and audiences.
The coincidental romance is ham
died effectively by Anita Louise and
Richard Greene, Mary Nash and
Marcia Mae Jones are competent
in the senior and junior villainesses
roles, Ian Hunter is good as usual
as the loving father of the little
princess.
On the whole THE Little Prin-
cess" should win Shirley some new
fans. If she has room for any more
admirers.