{"id":9481,"date":"2009-09-02T13:16:51","date_gmt":"2009-09-02T20:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9481"},"modified":"2020-12-08T23:44:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T06:44:46","slug":"little-princess-the-1939","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9481","title":{"rendered":"Little Princess, The (1939)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Sara has no mother, and we&#8217;ve never been separated for more than a few days.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Little-Princess-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Little-Princess-Poster-198x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-56578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Little-Princess-Poster-198x300.png 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Little-Princess-Poster-677x1024.png 677w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Little-Princess-Poster-85x128.png 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Little-Princess-Poster-178x270.png 178w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Little-Princess-Poster.png 745w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen her father (Ian Hunter) leaves to fight in the Boer War, Sara Crewe (Shirley Temple) is sent to a boarding school run by snooty Miss Minchin (Mary Nash). When notice arrives that Captain Crewe (Hunter) has died a penniless man, Sara becomes a servant at the school &#8212; but she refuses to believe her father is really dead.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Boarding School<\/li>\n<li>Cesar Romero Films<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Ian Hunter Films<\/li>\n<li>Search<\/li>\n<li>Shirley Temple Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nDespite its generally acknowledged status as &#8220;one of Temple&#8217;s best films&#8221;, Peary isn&#8217;t a big fan of this Technicolor adaptation of Frances Hodges Burnett&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/A_Little_Princess\">Victorian children&#8217;s novel<\/a>. He argues that &#8220;while it is lavishly produced and features what was [Temple&#8217;s] last impressive performance as a <em>child<\/em> actor, the story is flimsy and predictable&#8221;, and notes that by 1939, &#8220;it was getting tiresome watching Temple&#8217;s little girls suffer.&#8221; Modern viewers, however, won&#8217;t have to experience the same sense of fatigue, given that we can pick and choose which of Temple&#8217;s <em>many<\/em> childhood films &#8212; Peary lists just five of her earlier hits in his book &#8212; we want to see. Diehard fans of Burnett&#8217;s book may be disturbed by the many changes made in the screenplay, but the spirit of the novel remains intact, and Temple (who looks nothing like Burnett&#8217;s description of the protagonist) brings a much-needed air of optimism and spunk to the role of poor Sara Crewe. Equally impressive is Temple&#8217;s co-star, Sybil Jason, who plays a young Cockney maid. [It&#8217;s interesting to note that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/thismonth\/article\/?cid=81551&#038;rss=mrqe\">Temple was, in fact, jealous<\/a> of Jason&#8217;s performance, given the adulation heaped upon her by the film&#8217;s crew.] <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Shirley Temple as Sarah<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/little-princess-temple.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/little-princess-temple.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9485\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Sybil Jason as Becky<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/little-princess-becky.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/little-princess-becky.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9486\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look as one of Temple&#8217;s most famous films. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0031580\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/3959\/the-little-princess#articles-reviews?articleId=81551\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Sara has no mother, and we&#8217;ve never been separated for more than a few days.&#8221; Synopsis: When her father (Ian Hunter) leaves to fight in the Boer War, Sara Crewe (Shirley Temple) is sent to a boarding school run by snooty Miss Minchin (Mary Nash). When notice arrives that Captain Crewe (Hunter) has died a penniless man, Sara becomes a servant at the school &#8212; but she refuses to believe her father is really dead. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9481\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9481"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56580,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions\/56580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}