Underplayed Gems

The Little Princess (1939)

The Little Princess poster
Directed by
William A. Seiter, Walter Lang
Genre
drama film, comedy film, musical film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 31m
Rated
G
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 125 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A young girl is sent to a strict boarding school while her father fights in the Boer War. She uses her imagination and kindness to endure hardship and cruelty.

whimsicalsentimentalhopefulmusicalchildlike wondercomedicemotionaldramatic

What happens

The Little Princess is a 1939 American drama film directed by Walter Lang. The screenplay by Ethel Hill and Walter Ferris is loosely based on the 1905 novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was the first Shirley Temple movie to be filmed completely in Technicolor. It was also her last major success as a child star. This film was the third of three in which Shirley Temple and Cesar Romero appeared together, following Wee Willie Winkie (1937) and Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937). 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 Arthur 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's ending was drastically different from the book. In 1968, The Little Princess entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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