Search - Shirley Temple - America's Sweetheart Collection, Vol. 5 (The Little Princess / Stand Up and Cheer / The Blue Bird) on DVD

Buried Shirley Temple Treasure

Barbara J. Frederick | St. Louis, MO | 01/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Again, we have three movies packaged together, but this time it's two clear winners and an "OK, for the historical significance" corny one.



This version of The Little Princess is my favorite, in spite of the fact that it does not stick all that closely to the book, since none of the movies have done so. But it is more authentic than the more recent (and very good) Warner Bros. version from the 1990s. Shirley is the poor little rich girl whose adoring widower father puts her in Miss Minchin's snooty school in London while he goes off to the Boer War. She has lived all her life in India, and is accustomed to a very different lifestyle. But she adapts well, even when word comes that her father lost all his money and died. Shirley refuses to believe he is dead. Minchin turns her into a servant to pay off her outstanding tuition and costs advanced. So she goes to the attic and sleeps in what is mostly a storeroom, next to Becky, the Cockney servant, and finds that out the window of the room she looks directly into the house next door, where an elegant Indian servant can be seen in the window.



The story relies rather too heavily on coincidence, but that's really its only flaw. Shirley is marvelous in the role, other actors we know and love (notably the "cowardly lion") brighten the story, and Shirley even meets Queen Victoria herself! Of course, her father is alive, and she finds him, with Victoria's help.



Stand Up and Cheer is another of those "feel good" depression era movies, but this one is far more charming than most. Shirley is very, very young, and just as cute as anyone can imagine. The most important part of this movie is having it available for the history of film.



Shirley's father (Notice how she has a great many more fathers than mothers in her movies?) is an unemployed vaudeville actor who has incorporated Shirley into his act, where of course she steals the show every time. So when the government creates a Department of Entertainment (bread and circuses, you know; there were really many such projects in the New Deal), they are recruited to make the country "stand up and cheer." The song that tells it all has lyrics that start "I'm laughing, and I've got nothing to laugh about." Again, some offensive stereotypes of blacks, but what can we do?



The Blue Bird is the hidden gem. It was not popular when it was new because Shirley uncharacteristically plays a spoiled brat at the beginning. But since she learns better, I don't consider that a problem. The movie was clearly made to compete with The Wizard of Oz, and in my opinion [blasphemy warning!], it has more going for it as a story than Oz does. Shirley and her little brother are sent on a mission to find the Bluebird of Happiness by a friendly witch -- oh, sorry, a "good fairy." She travels through the graveyard to find her grandparents, who explain that they "wake up" whenever someone remembers them. They want her and her little brother to stay, but they have been warned by their spirit guide, named Light, not to stay more than an hour. Their grandparents have a large cage full of birds, but none of them is blue.



They wander around and look for the bird, and have a variety of interesting encounters, but the most remarkable place is the one where little boys and girls live until it is time for them to be born. There is a strong mystic thread here, and seems to imply reincarnation, both pretty esoteric for 1940.



Of course, they find the bluebird at home. As Dorothy put it, "There's no place like home.""