Powerful

Fantastic!

best movie i've ever seen.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As Shirley Temple's mother has previously died, she is very close to her father, here played by Ian Hunter. He is a soldier who is called away on duty. She says a prayer for him to come home. In fact, they had a prayer they said together all the time due to his vocation about although he may be gone he is never far away in spirit and will be home soon. Meanwhile, she keeps him in her heart and she is his little princess. 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. Due to the conditions, Shirley is unable to continue her studies as she had been, but she is kept on by the hard schoolmistress, only for appearance's sake, but Shirley is forced to keep quarters in a stuffy attic and having to work for what schooling she is getting. Anita Louise plays a kind teacher and Richard Greene is her young suitor and horse riding teacher to the girls. But the film belongs to Ms. Shirley and Mary Nash as the cold headmistress. I had started to watch Shirley Temple movies at the beginning of the year and thought I would review most of them. But oddly enough I reviewed a couple and then stopped, maybe because most of them seemed very similar and I must not have been particularly inspired with anything to say, but I had to comment on this film. In most of the early films, young Shirley with her curly locks tugs at your heart and manages to mend fences between bickering family members and winning the heart of crotchety old men in the process. But here, she is using more of her emotions and inner will in her scenes and therefore investing more of herself; in short, she's really acting here and really getting into the moment. The highlight of the film, at least to me, is when she talks back to Mary Nash in one particular scene up in the attic. Everyone keeps insisting that her father is dead, but she still feels in her heart that he isn't and no one can tell her otherwise. She is insistent on visiting the hospital for the incoming injured. 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. By the end, you feel so uplifted and so happy for her when lo and behold..... And, Mary Nash is exceedingly chilling as the detestable headmistress. 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.

When I was a child watching Shirley Temple films on television, I wanted to be Shirley Temple but so didn't everybody. I now realize that even Shirley Temple wanted to be Shirley Temple. She plays Sara Crewe, a captain's daughter, who is left in a London boarding school by a mean governess who runs the school. At first, Sara is treated like a princess but when her father is reported dead, she is moved upstairs to a pitiful attic room. She now must serve her former classmates who taunt her reversal of fortune. Shirley Temple is perfect as Sara. Everybody loves Sara except the mean principal. It's impossible not to love her. The fact that this was in color and filmed in Hollywood in 1939 where they did a superb job in recreating London.

Based on the 1905 novel 'A Little Princess; being the whole story of Sara Crewe' by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The Little Princess was a pretty good adapted movie. I wouldn't say, it's the best adaption of the novel, because it's far from that. In my opinion, the film should had been title 'The Soldier's Daughter' because how different, it was with the novel. 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. Her life as a princess wasn't long, as Captain Crewe's money dry up, and her father is believe to be dead in the battlefield. Miss Minchin harshly force the young woman to serve under her making her life miserable. This doesn't stop Sara's will power and belief that her father isn't dead; and she do anything to find out if he's still alive. Although it maintained the novel's Victorian London setting, the film introduced several new characters like Richard Greene and Anita Louise as the young romantic couple, Sir Geoffrey Hamilton & Miss Rose. They're employees of the boarding school, whom go against the wishes of Miss Minchin. Then there is mean-spirited Lord Wickham (Miles Mander) who has Ram Dass (Cesar Romero) as an Indian servant under him. It isn't really explained why he has an Indian lascar for a servant, and there is no logical explanation for why he would want to redecorate Sara's garret room. I guess, having an Indian sailor next room seem too unrealistic in Victoria Era England to the filmmakers. Another character added is Hubert (Arthur Treacher) who became friends with Sara over music. One thing, way different than the novel is the musical number. I know a lot of Shirley Temple's previous films had this, but this movie lacks music and songs good enough to remember. Shirley Temple and Arthur Treacher had a musical number together, performing the song "Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road which was way too short. Temple also appeared in an extended ballet dream sequence that was a bit distracting from the main plot. The whole dream scene was just awful and felt like filler. Another big change is the storyline. The movie used the Second Boer War and the Siege of Mafeking as a backdrop. In the book, the father was just visiting India and got ill to the point, he got brain fever. It wasn't war. The film covers only a timeline of a year, while the book go nearly four years. One of the biggest change in the film is the ending. The film's ending was drastically different. Without spoiling too much of it; this adaptation changes the fate of Captain Crewe. In my opinion, it's a better ending than the book. Still, it's does kinda mess up the plot of a young adult learning how to deal with death and to better herself through the actions of her own well-being. I just didn't like the whole Queen Victoria cameo helping her find her father. It was just outlandish & unrealistic. I can do without all the over Patriotism oozes out of every scene of the film. The main film is about this girl trying to reunite with her father, not the Boer War. Second off, there is no Mr. Thomas Carrisford character in the film. The acting in the film were pretty alright, but nobody really stood out. Shirley looked a little old for the part, but she pulls it off. At the part when she was by the window crying to say goodbye to her daddy was emotional. It was nice to see her react in a film to things like loss and death in a story. The trouble is, she can't pull off the emotion of making herself cry. In the movie, Shirley portrays a child not only with steadfast hope but patience, manners, politeness and kindness in the face of appalling adversity that you rarely see in film today. Who would believe that a child under that pressure could be so gracious? I love when Shirley as Sarah does snap back against her bullies like taunting from Lavinia (Marcia Mae Jones). I have to say, if the film was little bit more dark, it would had work better. It remind me of a Charles Dicken's novel. The director did good on keeping his camera low down, at a child's eye-level. Also striking is his use of multiple angles which really gives dimension to the sets or highlighting a sudden change in mood. This movie was the first Shirley Temple movie to be filmed completely in Technicolor as before that, producers believe these incredibly bright lights produced so much heat that a child, Temple's age would be hurt working under such conditions. Sadly, this was her last major success as a child star. The film is easy to find since it's in the public domain due to the failure to renew its copyright registration. This means that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely or usually badly edited. Some DVDs have really extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation or more copies of the film. So watch out for that. There are countless remakes of the novel since then. In my opinion: 1995's A Little Princess directed by Alfonso Cuaron was a bit better one than this, but this Little Princess is widely considered to be one of Shirley Temple's best film and I have to agree. Enjoyable tale for children and adults alike. So check it out.

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.