| The Little Princess | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Walter Lang |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck Gene Markey |
| Written by | Ethel Hill Walter Ferris |
| Starring | Shirley Temple Richard Greene Anita Louise Ian Hunter Arthur Treacher |
| Music by | Charles Maxwell Cyril J. Mockridge Herbert W. Spencer Samuel Pokrass |
| Cinematography | Arthur C. Miller William Skall |
| Editing by | Louis Loeffler |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | March 10, 1939 |
| Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Little Princess is a 1939 American drama film directed by Walter Lang. The screenplay by Ethel Hill and Walter Ferris is based on the novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The film was the first Shirley Temple movie to be filmed completely in Technicolor. It was also her last major success as a child star at 20th Century Fox, and remains one of her most well-known films.
Although it maintained the novel's Victorian London setting, the film introduced several new characters and storylines and used the Second Boer War and the Siege of Mafeking as a backdrop to the action. Temple and Treacher had a musical number together, performing the song "Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road;" Temple also appeared in an extended ballet sequence. The film was given a happier ending than the book.
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At the start of the film, Captain Crewe arrives at Miss Minchin's School for Girls with his daughter, Sara. After initial reluctance, Miss Minchin admits his daughter to the school. When the other girls see her she is declared a "princess" to the annoyance of Lavinia, the eldest and, prior to Sara's arrival, most valued pupil.
Although scared for her father, Sara is distracted by her riding lessons. Miss Minchin shows her true colors when we learn she is hostile to the riding master being in love with one of teachers, Miss Rose, whom she raised from a foundling. Sara helps them set up a meeting before he goes to the front, promising to help find her father. We also learn his grandfather is a Lord who disowned him "the day he was born".
Sara hears news that Mafeking is free and expects her father will soon come home. Assuming this is the case Miss Minchin throws Sarah a lavish birthday party where her brother tells Sara he is a former theatre actor as Captain Crewe suspected when he first met him. Captain Crewe's solicitor arrives with the sad news that Captain Crewe's mines have been taken by the enemy and he consequently died bankrupt. Miss Minchin is persuaded that to throw Sara out in to the streets will reflect badly on her school and, instead, stops the party abruptly and makes her a school servant.
The other servants, except Sara's friend Becky, treat her badly, perhaps resentful of her former privilege. While sad and isolated, Miss Minchin intercepts correspondence to Miss Rose and has her fired. As a result, her brother leaves in a fit of rage. Sara gains new solace in a friendship with Ram Dass who lives opposite her attic room.
In her new role Sara gets hungrier and more tired from her arduous duties and sneaks off to the Veterans Hospitals, convinced her father is not dead. After a string of episodes including a reprise of the film's most well known song 'Knocked 'em Up the Old Kent Road', Sara is at her wits end. One night she dreams of a land where she is Queen and is called to judge a case of an alleged stolen kiss. She wakes feeling warm and realises new blankets have appeared in her room. Although the audience knows it was a gift from Ram Dass and his employer, Sara has no way to explain it. However, she is more cheerful and therefore endures Lavinia's taunting. In the end however she loses her temper and throws coal ash over her. Miss Minchin arrives in the attic to punish Sara and, upon discovering the valuable items in the room, locks her in the attic and calls the police. Sara escapes and runs to the hospital with Minchin in hot pursuit.
Meanwhile the hospital is preparing to transfer a newly arrived patient, who is unable to communicate except to repeatedly say, "Sara, Sara" it is Captain Crewe, but "his papers have been lost" and no one knows who he is. Sara is initially barred from entering the hospital but sneaks in, only to burst in upon a visit by Queen Victoria, who grants her permission to search for her father. Sara searches the wards unsuccessfully, but happens upon her father as she hides from Miss Minchin and the police.
Miss Minchin, who pursued Sara to the hospital, is appalled that her brother thinks Sara is innocent. A staff member announces Sara has found her father, Miss Minchin exclaims: "Captain Crewe is alive!" to which her brother retorts, "Well of course. How could she have found him if he wasn't?". The film ends with Sara helping her father stand as the Queen departs.
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