THE LITTLE PRINCESS (1939)

SHIRLEY TEMPLE

 

The Little Princess is a 1939 American drama film directed by Walter Lang, based on the novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was the 1^st Shirley Temple movie to be filmed completely in Technicolor & was her last major success as a child star. Temple stars as Sara, a little rich girl enrolled in a prestigious boarding school while her father goes off to fight in the Boer War in Africa. When Sara receives news of her father's death, the school's ruthless headmistress makes the newly penniless girl a galley slave & forces her to live in a cold, dark garret. After filming was completed, the studio requested additional scenes be shot, pushing the cost over USD$1 million (over USD$20 million today). This made it the most expensive Shirley Temple film. As part of the preparation for the movie, great pains were taken to ensure every aspect of it was true to the1899 England time-period & setting of the story.