The Little Princess

&nbsp 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.

Plot:
At the start of the film Captain Crewe arrives at Miss Minchin's school for girls. After initial reluctance Miss Minchin admits his daughter Sarah to the school. When the other girls see her she is declared a Princess to the annoyance of Lavinia, the eldest and, prior to Sarah's arrival, most valued pupil.

Although scared for her father, Sarah is distracted by her riding lessons. We get our first hint of Miss Minchin's true colours 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. Sarah 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".

Sarah hears news that Mafaking 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 Sarah he is a former theatre actor (as Capatain Crewe suspected when he first met him). Captains 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 to expel Sarah though it will reflect badly on her school and instead stops the party abruptly and makes her a school servant.

The other servants, except Sarah'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. Then her brother leaves in a fit of rage. However Sarah gains new solace in a friendship with Ram Dass who lives opposite her attic room.

In her new role Sarah 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', Sarah 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, Sarah 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 over her. Miss Minchin arrives in the attic to punish and upon discovering the valuable items in the room, locks her in the attic and calls the police. Sarah escapes and runs to the hospital with Minchin in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile a man appears in the hospital muttering the words 'Sarah, Sarah', the doctors not realising he is, in fact, Captain Crewe. After initial refusal, Sarah gains permission from the Queen to search the hospital. When she finds him he at first, does not remember her.

Meanwhile, Miss Minchin arrives at the hospital and is appalled that her brother thinks Sarah is innocent. A staff member announces Sarah has found her father, Miss Minchin exclaims: "Captain Crewe is alive!" and is met by her brother retort "Well of course. How could she have found him if he wasn't?". the film ends with Sarah helping her father stand for the national anthem.

Cast:
Shirley Temple

Ian Hunter

Mary Nash

Richard Greene

Anita Louise

Sybil Jason

Cesar Romero

Arthur Treacher

Marcia Mae Jones

Ira Stevens

Amber Amir

Length: 91 minutes

Director: Walter Lang

Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck and Gene Markey

Writer: Ethel Hill and Walter Ferris

Editor: Louis Loeffler

Music: Charles Maxwell, Cyril J. Mockridge, and Herbert W. Spencer

Cinematographer: Arthur C. Miller

Release Date: March 10, 1939

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Country: United States