THE LITTLE PRINCESS (2oth Century-Fox 1939) Fox Home Video

Shirley Temple's tenure as 2oth Century-Fox's most bankable star reached its apex – and, unfortunately, also, its end – with Darryl F. Zanuck’s personally supervised Technicolor masterpiece, The Little Princess (1939), directed by Walter Lang. The movie, scripted by Ethel Hill and Walter Ferris, is very loosely based on the celebrated novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, maintaining its Victorian London trappings, but precious little else. Zanuck, who would lose interest in the trajectory of Temple’s career after the colossal implosion of The Blue Bird one year later, herein has paid meticulous attention to the little girl who made his studio all that money – requesting additional scenes at a staggering $300,000, easily to push the movie’s total budget over the $1 million mark, making it Temple’s costliest picture to date. Great pains were taken with Bernard Herzbrun and Hans Peters’ art direction, Thomas Little’s set decoration and Gwen Wakeling’s costuming, to ensure strict adherence to vintage Victoriana bric-a-brac, circa 1899. Given an escapist ballet sequence, Temple underwent extensive training with ballet instructor, Ernest Belcher. Yet, despite its deviations from its source material, The Little Princess is a charming example of Hollywood’s affinity for a ‘merry ole England’ that likely never was, but somehow, seems to have lived on in the fantasy works of Lewis Carroll and J.M. Barrie, herein, oozing saccharine from every pore. The great mystery and success of the picture is undeniably – and almost exclusively – owed to Temple who, even as heavily endowed with such maudlin tripe, manages to unearth kernels of life’s truth from beneath the ever-thickening morass, translating its pure hokum into movie art of the highest order.

Lang’s movie version emerges as a sumptuously mounted, often poignant melodrama. Temple is Sara Crewe, the privileged, though quite unspoiled daughter of Capt. Reginald Crewe (Ian Hunter). At war’s start, Sara is placed in the pampered care of Amanda Minchin’s (Mary Nash) private school while her father goes off to fight. Life at the school is blissfully serene. Sara fits right in and makes friends quite easily. She is unselfish and giving of herself. Miss Minchin affords her new charge a great deal of latitude, believing the better she caters to Sara the greater her fee for her care will be, once the Captain returns from the battlefields. Unfortunately, word reaches Amanda the Captain has been killed abroad, and worse – his estate is virtually penniless. In order to pay for her education, the rather cold-hearted Miss Minchin strips Amanda of her comforts, making her a servant at the school and relegating her to quarters in a drafty attic apartment where Sara must feverishly work night and day to stay warm and remain focused on her future.  Never fear, however. Sara is ever the optimist. She befriends Ram Dass (Caesar Romero) the dashing Arabic servant to the curmudgeonly Lord Wickham (Miles Mander), and easily wins the respect and support of Amanda’s brother, Hubert (Arthur Treacher), a butler at the school who eventually sneaks Sara into the sick ward of the military hospital to search for her father among the wounded soldiers.

The situation worsens between Sara and Miss Minchin, the latter, finding irksome the child’s blind faith. Sara is also taunted by fellow school girl, Lavinia (Marcia Mae Jones). In reply, Sara dump ashes on the stuck-up girl. Alerted to this incident, Miss Minchin storms the attic, determined to make an example of her ‘wayward’ charge. Instead, she discovers blankets Ram Dass has given Sara to keep warm. Assuming these are stolen, Minchin locks the girl in the attic and telephones for the police, determined to be rid of Sara once and for all. The resourceful Sara makes a daring escape and is relentlessly pursued by Minchin. Meanwhile, at hospital, a newly arrived patient, suffering from amnesia, is brought into the ward, muttering ‘Sara, Sara’ over and over again. Indeed, it is Capt. Crewe, his papers having been lost and his identity unknown – even to him.  Initially barred from entry, Sara sneaks past the guards, but is subdued before she can reach her father. Bursting in on a visit from Queen Victoria (Beryl Mercer), the empathetic monarch grants Sara permission to investigate the hospital for her father. Rather predictably, Sara is reunited with the school’s riding instructor, Geoffrey Hamilton (Richard Greene) and Miss Rose (Anita Louise) to whom she earlier played matchmaker. Stumbling upon Capt. Crewe as she struggles to hide from Miss Minchin and the police, Sara stirs her father’s memory. The movie ends with Capt. Crewe, helped to his feet as Sara and Queen Victoria regard one another for the last time.

The Little Princess is a shameless tear-jerker, heart-warming and unapologetic in its lavishness and schmaltz. Temple excels as the unflinching and devoted girl who remains steadfast in her devotion and pure of heart, despite having to endure many hardships. The Hill/Farris screenplay tends to drag a bit during the movie’s middle act, but only occasionally does its treacle lean to the rehearsed. Instead, what emerges is that ‘warm fuzzy feel good’ of the ‘family entertainment’ ilk – oft attempted in Hollywood movies, though rare to completely satisfy. Mary Nash makes for a fairly good villainess, stern and toffee-nosed, menacing from the peripheries of the screen. While a good many of the supporting parts are quite simply that – and shamelessly in service to Temple’s star turn – all of these players do their part to ensure memorable bits of business throughout the story that, if not integral to the plot, nevertheless, augment what is here with a delightful, timeless quality, sure to appeal to both the young and young in heart.

Fox’s DVD transfer is satisfactory, though not amazing. As with virtually all other vintage Fox product that comes down the pike, there are no surviving 3-strip Technicolor elements from which a more refined image might be wrought. So, what is here is derived from an Eastman archival element of these recombined records. That said, The Little Princess exhibits some very saturated colors with a modicum of built-in mis-registration intermittently scattered throughout. Colors on the whole are rich, bold and vibrant. Contrast levels and fine detail are mostly, nicely resolved. There are several scenes where the image appears to suffer from a ‘thick’ characteristic – categorized by blotchy colors and a sudden loss of detail. Although brief, they distract. Age-related artifacts, however, are practically non-existent. Clearly, some clean-up has been performed. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 re-channeled stereo surround, with the original 1.0 Westrex mono mix also included – and much preferred. There are no extras. Bottom line: The Little Princess is one of Shirley Temple’s most loved children’s classics and for very good reason. It succeeds in tugging at our heartstrings while never making the audience feel as though they are being crudely manipulated. Great stuff. So-so DVD. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

0