Shirley Temple

THE BLUE BIRD

20th Century Fox, 1940.  Directed by Walter Lang.  Camera:  Arthur Miller.  With Shirley Temple, Spring Byington, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Eddie Collins, Johnny Russell, Russell Hicks, Al Shean, Sterling Holloway, Thurston Hall, Brandon Hurst, Scotty Beckett.

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After Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl trap a rare bird in the royal forest, Mytyl selfishly refuses to give the bird to her sick friend, Angela Berlingot. That night, Mytyl is complaining to her parents, when word comes that war has been declared and her father has been summoned to protect the frontiers.

The children then go to bed, where Mytyl dreams of the Fairy Berylume, who sends her and Tyltyl off to find the blue bird of happiness. Tylette, the treacherous family cat, and Tylo, the loyal family dog, go along to keep them company and Light shines in to to show them the way. They begin their search in the past, where the children come to the graveyard in which their Grandpa and Grandma slumber. Their grandparents awake to greet them, but no blue birds are to be found in the past. So, prompted by Tylette, the children continue their search in the land of Mrs. and Mr. Luxury. Soon discovering that happiness lies not in riches, the children begin to long for their parents; with the help of Tylo, they escape from the land of Luxury.

Tylette then ventures into the forest where, hoping to thwart the children's quest, she admonishes the trees to terrify them into returning home. The trees conspire with wind and fire to kill the children, and in the ensuing storm, Tylette perishes while the children escape to visit the Kingdom of the Future to search for the blue bird. In the future, they meet the unborn children of the world waiting for Father Time to take them to Earth in his ship of silver sails.

Finally returning home, Mytyl awakens to learn that a truce has been declared and finds the blue bird in her very own home. Filled with joy, Mytyl presents the bird to Angela, who experiences a miraculous recovery. As Angela fondles the bird, it flies away to freedom, but Mytyl assures her they will always be able to find it again.

American Film Institute Catalog

Bizarre, creepy gothic fantasy stars Shirley Temple, in a borderline child/adolescent role, as a spoiled brat who searches for the bird of happiness in a most nasty world of doom and gloom.

For a light-hearted fantasy, this is awfully depressing, full of moaning and weeping, especially in a hellish future purgatory where half-naked pre-adolescent spirits fret and moan over when they will be born.

Also harrowing is a truly inferno-like forest fire. Fox's attempt to cash in on the success of the previous year's The Wizard of Oz is, unlike it's predecessor, a stage-bound downer, yet parallels abound, including a black and white opening that switches to color, and a remarkably similar moral: "There's no place like home!"
But this plays more like kiddy horror than fantasy. Gale Sondergaard, famous for her Spiderwoman roles, is great as a conniving, evil cat. (Sondergard was, at this time, a member of the Anti-Nazi League Hollywood chapter, considered by some to be allied with the Communist Party, and she received some blacklisting due to this unfortunate misinformation.)

Shirley Temple's tutor, Francis Klamt, fought with the producers over a scene in which lightning strikes a tree and a piece of bark comes off. As it was originally planned, the bark could have flown in the wrong direction and injured Temple. Due to Klamt's complaint, carpenters built a safety ledge to protect Temple from flying props.

Although Temple had almost single-handedly saved Fox studios from bankruptcy during the depression, after this and a few other bombs, she was shown the door, and had the typical difficulty of child actors in adolescence.

Kiddiematinee.com