In her later Fox films, Shirley was often cast in stories set in various foreign lands. In "The Stowaway", she was lost in China. In "Wee Willie Winkie", she was in British India. In "Heidi", in Switzerland, and in "Susannah of the Mounties", in Canada. Here, she is the daughter of a British army officer, recently arrived in London from India, immediately sent to fight in the Boer War. It almost seems to begin as a sequel to "Wee Willie Winkie", with British soldiers again marching by, accompanied by bagpipe music. Cesar Romero is back, again as a turbaned East Indian. His character, with the strange name of Rarn Dass, mysteriously pops into her life periodically, as the servant of crusty old Lord Wickham, whose residence happens to be next to that of the exclusive girl's school where Shirley(as Sarah) is deposited while her father is in South Africa.The ingredients of the screenplay pretty much follow the standard formula for most of Shirley's Fox films. As usual, she's cast as an only child, a virtual orphan for much of the film. As usual, she lacks a living mother, but has or develops an unusually close romantic relationship with her father or a father substitute. As in most of her films, she has no significant interaction with boys of her own age, or occasionally a mostly negative interaction with one. As often, she becomes friendly with a young unmarried woman(Rose, in this case), who becomes her mother substitute, and with a young man(Geoffrey, in this case)this woman is developing a romantic relationship with. As usual, there is a grouchy elderly person or two she has to answer to for much of the film. Reprising her antagonistic role in "Heidi", stern -looking and acting Mary Nash plays the headmistress of the school: Amanda. Eily May plays the equally grouchy cook. Actually, I don't find either of these women as unreasonably mean as most children do. They are simply dealing with the problems relating to Sarah in a pragmatic way, for the times. Much worse is Lavinia: the tallest girl in the school, who had been Amanda's favorite before Sarah arrived, and delighted in taunting Sarah with demands, after she was demoted to chargirl. Sarah finally gets her revenge when she dumps a bucket of fireplace ashes on her. Marcia Jones, who played Lavinia, had played a girl with a friendly relationship with Shirley, in the previous "Heidi". Her acting was quite good. As usual, there is a happy ending of sorts. In this case, her presence seems to help her father regain a bit of awareness, after a head wound, in a very teary scene. We aren't allowed to discover how much mental capacity he actually regains, with time.When Sarah arrives at the school, she is soon sarcastically dubbed 'the princess', by the other girls, because her wealthy father seems to treat her as such, and expects others to do likewise. At first, headmistress Amanda reluctantly tries to do so, given her father's clout and wealth. However, when news arrives of her father's apparent death and his funds stop arriving, Sarah's status quickly drops to that of her chargirl friend Becky. It's interesting that, even while she was being treating like a princess by Amanda, she found big-eyed Becky the one girl she felt comfortable confiding in. Rose: her main teacher, becomes her mother-like friend. Geoffrey, her riding instructor and Rose's boyfriend, is also friendly, but soon departs for the Boer War. This leaves Bertie(Arthur Treacher): Amanda's hen-pecked brother, and the mysterious Rarn, as her main male friends. Tall, thin, mop-headed Treacher and Shirley make an odd-looking, if amusing, song and dance couple, in an informal eccentric romp to "Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road". Later , they do a repeat performance for the benefit of the hospital patients, while Sarah is looking for her father. Treacher is also a delight when he finally gets the nerve to tell off sister Amanda.The inclusion of Queen Victoria, as approving Sarah's seemingly hopeless search for her father among the wounded recent arrivals, is yet another aspect of the general British flag-waving tone of the film. released shortly before hostilities began with a the Nazis. I have to wonder if the screenwriters could foresee what would soon happen. Beryl Mercer makes quite a convincing Victoria, the film ending with Shirley and others saluting her as she leaves the hospital, reminiscent of the ending of "Wee Willie Winkie".The dream fantasy sequence serves to reinstate Sarah, in her mind, as a princess, during a time when she is depressed about her life. She actually functions like a queen, rather than a princess, sitting on a throne, deciding cases brought before her. Later, she sees herself as part of a dance troupe. When she awakes, she finds her formerly drab bedroom filled with pretty objects and clothes, having no idea how they got there. Of course, Amanda quite reasonably assumes she must have stolen them, and goes to the police...In the middle of the film, we have another high, followed by a low, when news arrives that the Boers have been defeated, followed by a lavish birthday party for Sarah, followed by news that her father is probably dead, thus her demotion to chargirl and her move from the best room in the school to the attic. Overall, an entertaining, if occasionally overly corny, S.T. film, in which great pains were taken to recreate an authentic 1899 London. The most expensive of S.T's Fox films to make, and the only one shot in color. Of course, with colorized versions of most of her Fox films now available, this is no longer an important distinction.

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.

When her widower father is called to military service, cutely-curled Shirley Temple (as Sara Crewe), her pony, and her doll "Emily" are deposited at an expensive boarding school. The other girls call Ms. Temple "The Little Princess" due to her daddy's extensive wealth. Then, sad news arrives - Temple's father is reported dead; moreover, he's left her penniless. Go figure. As Temple can no longer pay her tuition, wicked headmistress Mary Nash (as Amanda Minchin) puts the golden-locked lass to work as an attic-dwelling house slave. Next, Temple startles ruffian friend Sybil Jason (as Becky) and others by insisting that her father is still alive.Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Fox went all-out for their little money-maker with this one. And, as it turned out, the effort was made in the nick of time. After four years as American exhibitors' #1 box office star, 1939 found Temple slipping. There are times, in this film, where she seems overwhelmed, awkward, or self-conscious. All kids are natural actors, but with adolescence, you need to re-learn acting; due to super-stardom, this began earlier for Temple. Still, she retains enough of that cuteness and charm, herein, to make it work. The Fox regulars, Technicolor, and material (bastardized Frances Hodgson Burnett) are top-notch.****** The Little Princess (3/10/39) Walter Lang ~ Shirley Temple, Mary Nash, Arthur Treacher, Cesar Romero

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.