One of Temple's biggest hits for 20th Century Fox, this version of Johanna Spyri's much-filmed children's classic might provide suitable entertainment for young children but will prove far too saccharine-sweet for any adult whose critical facilities aren't compromised by watching the film through rose-coloured spectacles
The little moppet plays the eponymous heroine, a spunky little madam with an infectious grin and an abundance of curls, who is foisted upon her grumpy Santa-look-alike Grandpa (Jean Hersholt) by her wicked Aunt Dete (Mady Christians) who has found work in Frankfurt. Of course, it's not long before Heidi has melted grumpy old Grandpa's heart, which is the cue for the wicked Aunt to snatch Heidi back and whisk her to Frankfurt to be companion to Klara (Marcia Mae Jones) the crippled daughter of her employer
Nine-year-old Temple is cute as a button in this one, and has enough screen presence to carry even mediocre material. The story is decent enough, and the production values are good, but the heavy doses of sentimentality injected into the plot at regular intervals really get too much to stomach after a while and are wholly unnecessary. If you can overcome that however, the story does offer a fair measure of suspense as it reaches its inevitably happy ending, and any film with not one but two wicked witches has to be awarded points for originality. Arthur Treacher is also worth catching as an outwardly stiff butler who is really a big softie on the inside. It was a role he would repeat with Temple in the inferior The Little Princess a couple years later.
Watch the black-and-white version if you get the chance, because the colourised version is an absolute horror (when are they anything else?). Everybody's lips and tongue are the same colour as their skin
The little moppet plays the eponymous heroine, a spunky little madam with an infectious grin and an abundance of curls, who is foisted upon her grumpy Santa-look-alike Grandpa (Jean Hersholt) by her wicked Aunt Dete (Mady Christians) who has found work in Frankfurt. Of course, it's not long before Heidi has melted grumpy old Grandpa's heart, which is the cue for the wicked Aunt to snatch Heidi back and whisk her to Frankfurt to be companion to Klara (Marcia Mae Jones) the crippled daughter of her employer
Nine-year-old Temple is cute as a button in this one, and has enough screen presence to carry even mediocre material. The story is decent enough, and the production values are good, but the heavy doses of sentimentality injected into the plot at regular intervals really get too much to stomach after a while and are wholly unnecessary. If you can overcome that however, the story does offer a fair measure of suspense as it reaches its inevitably happy ending, and any film with not one but two wicked witches has to be awarded points for originality. Arthur Treacher is also worth catching as an outwardly stiff butler who is really a big softie on the inside. It was a role he would repeat with Temple in the inferior The Little Princess a couple years later.
Watch the black-and-white version if you get the chance, because the colourised version is an absolute horror (when are they anything else?). Everybody's lips and tongue are the same colour as their skin