Shirley Temple

THE LITTLE PRINCESS

20th Century Fox, 1939.  Directed by Walter Lang.  Camera:  Arthur C. Miller, William Skall.  With Shirley Temple, Richard Greene, Anita Louise, Ian Hunter, Cesar Romero, Arthur Treacher, Mary Nash, Sybil Jason, Miles Mander, Marcia Mae Jones, Beryl Mercer, Deidre Gale, Ira Stevens, E.E. Clive, Eily Malyon, Clyde Cook, Keith Kenneth, Will Stanton, Harry Allen, Holmes Herbert, Guy Bellis, Evan Thomas, Kenneth Hunter, Lionel Braham, Les Sketchley, Robert Cory, Herbert Evans, Vesey O'Davoren, David Thursby, Eric Lonsdale, Bob Stevenson, John Burton, Hilda Plowright, Claire Verdera, Joan Manners, Lilyan Irene, Eve Conrad, Frank Baker, Rita Page, Charles Irwin, Morton Lowry, Patrick X. Kerry, Jenifer Downing, Ann Howard, Cecil Watson, Connie Leon, Sidney Bracy, Olaf Hytten, Gerald Rogers.

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When Captain Crewe is called to service during the Boer War, he enrolls his little daughter Sara in a boarding school run by the heartless Amanda Minchin.  Sara, a generous, unspoiled child, is dubbed "The Little Princess" by her schoolmates because of her distinguished family.

At the school, Sara is befriended by Amanda's jolly brother Bertie, her riding teacher, Geoffrey Hamilton, her tutor, Rose (who's in love with Geoffrey), Becky, the little skullery maid, and Ram Dass, the servant of Lord Wickham who lives across the way.

On the day of Sara's birthday party, Miss Minchin receives word that Captain Crewe has been reported killed in action and all his assets confiscated by the enemy.  To pay for Sara's expenses, Miss Minchin sells the girl's clothes and makes her a kitchen servant, sending her to live in the attic.

After losing her father, Sara also loses her friends when Geoffrey goes off to war, Rose is fired by Miss Minchin when she learns of her love affair, and Bertie leaves because he can no longer tolerate his sister's cruelty.  However, Sara's spirit remains undaunted, and she refuses to believe that her father is really dead.  After each debarkation of wounded men, she rushes to the hospital to find him, missing him several times as he lies in bed, shell-shocked.

Finally, on the day that Captain Crewe is to be shipped to Edinburgh, Sara runs to the hospital where Queen Victoria is visiting.  The Queen intervenes on behalf of the little waif and, with her help, Sara is at last reunited with her beloved father.

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Notes
The film is based on the novel Sara Crewe by Frances Hodgson Burnett (New York, 1888).  The working title of this film was Little Princess.  Frances Hodgson Burnett adapted her short novel Sara Crewe for the stage under the title A Little Princess.  The play ran in London and New York from 1902-1903 and, according to modern sources, was so successful that Scribner's, Burnett's publisher, asked her to expand her original novel, using scenes from the play.  That novel was also titled A Little Princess and was published in New York in 1905.

According to a news item in DV, in 1934, Fox started negotiations with Paramount to purchase the rights to The Little Princess, the 1917 Artcraft film that was also based on the Burnett novel, starring Mary Pickford and directed by Marshall Neilan.  The DV item states that Fox wanted the story as a vehicle for Shirley Temple.  According to the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, the first treatment of the screenplay entitled "A Little Princess" was written by Julien Josephson and Walter Ferris.  A second revised treatment was then written by Julien Josephson and Philip Dunne.  These treatments were then discarded in favor of an original story and treatment by Rian James entitled Little Princess.  This was discarded for a new treatment entitled The Little Princess, written by Ferris and Ethel Hill, the writers credited with the final screenplay.

According to records of story conferences contained in the Fox files, Darryl F. Zanuck suggested Arleen Whelan for the role of "Miss Rose" and Reginald Gardiner for the role of "Bertie."  Another news item in HR notes that a special trailer was made for this film using new high-speed Technicolor stock that was also utilized in the filming of Gone with the Wind. 

Music includes "The Fantasy," words and music by Walter Bullock and Samuel Pokrass.

American Film Institute Catalog