Shirley Temple was near the end of her reign as Hollywood’s top child star when she starred in Darryl F. Zanuck’s production of The Little Princess. She plays Sara Crewe, the privileged daughter of Captain Reginald Crewe.
When the Captain leaves to fight in Africa’s Boer War, Sara is enrolled into an upper-crust school for girls in London. All is well until Sara’s father is reported dead. When Sara’s intuition tells her the Captain is still alive, she begins hunting London military hospitals, culminating in what Times’s critic Janet Maslin called “…a happy ending sure to make even grown-up viewers cry.”
