AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

SnoopyStyle It's 1899 England. Captain Crewe is off to fight the Boer War. He leave his daughter Sara (Shirley Temple) with Amanda Minchin (Mary Nash) at a private school for girls. She's treated royally while her father pays handsomely. The top girl Lavinia is jealous calling her "The Little Princess". When her father is reported dead and his property confiscated by the enemy, Minchin wants to kick Sara out into the streets but reluctantly agrees to keep her in the cold attic as a house maid. Despite it all, she never gives up hope for her father and always treats the servant girl Becky with kindness. Meanwhile Minchin keeps the sweet teacher Rose under her control with lies.It's the first Technicolor film for Temple but I don't have the original prints. I do see enough to tell the unreal brilliant bright colors this film is meant to be. Little Shirley Temple is doing her adorable best with her song and dance. Mary Nash is always a good villain. The story is fine although it is done very melodramatically. The super sweet nature and the Temple mannerism do push it to the limit of corniness. It even has a ballet fairy-tale dream sequence which is so adorable and so cheesy good.

SanDiegoMovieViewer I enjoyed this movie. Actually, the part I liked least was Shirley Temple's acting. It seemed to consist mostly of tilting her cute little head one way, and looking coyly upwards the opposite way. Mild Spoiler: but, she pretty much made up for it in the scene where she finds her father - I got kind of teary-eyed. I thought Sybil Jason, who played Becky, the servant girl, was much more natural and believable - unlike Shirley, she didn't look like she was acting. Why does IMDb insist on ten lines of text? I said everything I wanted to say. That's one reason I enjoy short stories - unlike novels, they don't have to pad the story with unnecessary stuff to reach some arbitrary word count.

bkoganbing The Little Princess finds Shirley Temple put in an exclusive boarding school by her father Ian Hunter who is a soldier and about to be posted to the Boer War. He's also a person of some substance and the schoolmistress Mary Nash is just glad to have her seeing all those pound note signs in front of her eyes. However when Hunter is reported killed at Mafeking, Nash has not a whit of sympathy for her. She takes Shirley out of her really nice room and puts her to living in a small attic room with another girl, Sybil Jason in a similar financial predicament. Why doesn't she just throw her out altogether you may ask? Simply because it wouldn't do the school's reputation any good to throw out the child of a war hero and Nash is all about a respectable image. The woman is a true Grinch.But as it is in Shirley Temple's world, the good grownups way outnumber the bad ones and they include young lovers Richard Greene and Anita Louise, Nash's brother Arthur Treacher who is an old music hall performer though Nash doesn't like that getting out, not respectable you know. Miles Mander who is Greene's crusty, but deep down kindly grandfather and his Indian servant Cesar Romero. And finally she gets help from none other than Queen Victoria herself in the person of Beryl Mercer in setting things right.Treacher was a great deal looser in his performance than he normally is in those butler roles. As for Romero this is the second time he played an Indian in a Shirley Temple picture, the first being Wee Willie Winkie where he also befriends Shirley.But you really got to hand the film to Nash who is such a mean old thing with her exaggerated ideas about propriety and etiquette as long as you can pay for it.The Little Princess holds up very well and is still fine family entertainment for a young audience.

ccthemovieman-1 I wouldn't rank this in the top half of all the Shirley Temple movies of the 1930s. It's not the worst but it's far from her best, BUT it's definitely better than the insufferably-politically correct 1995 remake."Amanda Mirchin" as the owner of a school, is the villain in here and Mary Nash did her acting job well because you hate this woman as the film goes on. Temple, as "Sara Crewe," overacted a bit with the fake teary scenes. She was never too realistic with those parts of a movie, but convincing in every other way.Also, I prefer Temple's more light-hearted films, of which is not one, although Arthur Treacher was a good guy and fun to watch. He does two song-and-dance numbers with Shirley that help bring some brightness to the story.