The Little Princess is a 1939 drama film directed by Walter Lang and starring Shirley Temple, loosely adapted from the novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Temple's first Technicolor film, and her last box-office hit as a child star, it is now in the Public Domain due to Fox failing to renew its copyright.
This film provides examples of:
- Adapted Out: Along with many minor characters, Ermengarde and Lottie are missing, despite their importance to Sara in the original.
- Aside Glance: Shirley Temple looks right at the camera as the film ends.
- Deus ex Machina: Or rather, extremely powerful convenient visitor. When Sara finds the hospital that may contain her wounded, amnesiac father, she is allowed to search it after asking a very old, important-looking woman for permission. Upon thanking her for this, Sara asks the woman's name, and then blushes and curtsies when she responds: "Victoria." It's a heartwarming moment, and kind of stops anyone this side of God from keeping father and daughter apart one second longer.
- Disney Death: Sara's father is reported dead, then turns out to still be alive.
- Dream Sequence: Sara has an elaborate dream in which she actually is a princess, and Miss Minchin is an evil witch.
- Gender Flip: Miss Amelia, the sister of Miss Minchin, become her brother Hubert. Justified as Hubert decided to enroll in the army and serve as a contact for Sara in the military hospital, given this adaptation has added a war context.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Captain Crewe requests that Sara's room at the seminary be made "as gay as possible." We're talking about an all-girls school.
- Karma Houdini: Miss Minchin. All we see happen to her is a look of utter shock upon learning Sara's father is still alive.
- Missed Him by That Much: At one point Sara turns a corner and goes in one direction while her father is wheeled out of his room and sent down the hallway in the opposite direction.
- Pretty in Mink: Sara wears a blue coat with an ermine collar and ermine muff.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: One of the soldiers in the hospital is making paper dolls.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Sara's father is alive. He's horribly injured, but alive.
- Spoiled Sweet: Sara has clearly been ridiculously spoiled but is still as sweet as Shirley Temple always was.
- True Blue Femininity: Sara is first seen in a blue coat (with an ermine collar) and hat.
- Title Drop: "She's just like a little princess, isn't she?"
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Becky is last seen being captured by the police while Sara escapes.
