A Little Princess (1939 film)
Encyclopedia
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.
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.
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
American drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Walter Lang
Walter Lang
Walter Lang was an American film director.-Early life:Walter Lang was born in Memphis, Tennessee. As a young man he went to New York City where he found clerical work at a film production company. The business piqued his artistic instincts and he began learning the various facets of filmmaking...
. The screenplay by Ethel Hill and Walter Ferris is based on the novel A Little Princess
A Little Princess
A Little Princess is a 1905 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a revised and expanded version of Burnett's 1888 serialized novel entitled Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's Boarding School, which was published in St. Nicholas Magazine.According to Burnett, she...
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden , A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.Born Frances Eliza Hodgson, she lived in Cheetham Hill, Manchester...
. The film was the first Shirley Temple movie to be filmed completely in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
. It was also her last major success as a child star at 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, 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
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
and the Siege of Mafeking
Siege of Mafeking
The Siege of Mafeking was the most famous British action in the Second Boer War. It took place at the town of Mafeking in South Africa over a period of 217 days, from October 1899 to May 1900, and turned Robert Baden-Powell, who went on to found the Scouting Movement, into a national hero...
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.
Synopsis
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.
Cast
- Shirley TempleShirley TempleShirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
as Sara Crewe - Richard GreeneRichard GreeneRichard Marius Joseph Greene was a noted English film and television actor. A matinee idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran for 143 episodes from 1955 to 1960.It has been...
as Geoffrey Hamilton - Anita LouiseAnita Louise-Life and career:Born Anita Louise Fremault in New York, New York, she made her acting debut on Broadway at the age of six, and within a year was appearing regularly in Hollywood films...
as Rose - Mary NashMary Nash-Early life:Nash was born on August 15, 1884 in Troy, New York, to parents Philip Nash, who worked for B. F. Keith Vaudeville Circuit, and Ellen Frances MacNamara. She was educated at the Convent of St. Anne in Montreal and trained for acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts...
as Miss Minchin - Sybil JasonSybil JasonSybil Jason was a motion-picture child actress who, in the late 1930s, was presented as a rival to Shirley Temple.-Career:...
as Becky - Ian HunterIan Hunter (actor)Ian Hunter was a British character actor.Among dozens of film roles, his best-remembered appearances include That Certain Woman with Bette Davis, The Adventures of Robin Hood , The Little Princess and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
as Captain Crewe - Cesar RomeroCesar RomeroCesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
as Ram Dass - Marcia Mae JonesMarcia Mae JonesMarcia Mae Jones was an American actress whose prolific career spanned 47 years.-Career:Jones made her film debut at the age of two in the 1926 film Mannequin...
as Lavinia - Ira Stevens as Ermengarde
- Arthur TreacherArthur TreacherArthur Veary Treacher was an English actor born in Brighton, East Sussex, England.Treacher was a veteran of World War I. After the war, he established a stage career and in 1928, he went to America as part of a musical-comedy revue called Great Temptations...
as Hubert 'Bertie' Minchin - Amber Amir as Priscilla 'Prissy' Zinelli