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Classic Movie Review: 'A Little Princess'

A classic mostly forgotten, Alfonso Cuaron's classic take on The Little Princess deserves a comeback.

By Sean PatrickPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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A Little Princess was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1905 as an expansion on a series of novellas Burnett had written for St. Nicholas Magazine. The movie industry found A Little Princess for the first time in 1917 as a silent picture starring Mary Pickford in the role of Sara Crewe and Zasu Pitts as her friend Becky. Most notably, the silent A Little Princess featured a screenplay by Frances Marion, one of the first women to write for the movies.

Then in 1939 A Little Princess received it’s most iconic film rendering with the legendary Shirley Temple in the role of Sara Crew the daughter of privilege whose life is upended by her father’s tragic death leaving her penniless and at the mercy of the cruel boarding school headmistress, Miss Minchin played by Mary Nash. The 1939 version of A Little Princess was produced in ‘glorious Technicolor’ by master showman Daryl F. Zanuck.

A director revives the classic

By far however, the best film adaptation of A Little Princess came in 1995 from a then little known director named Alfonso Cuaron. Today Alfonso Cuaron is known for his award winning Y Tu Mama Tambien, the Clive Owen thriller Children of Men and his only blockbuster Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, arguably the best of the multi-billion dollar ‘Potter’ franchise.

In 1995 however, Alfonso Cuaron was a little known director of Mexican TV shows. He came to America at the behest of the late Sidney Pollack who gave Cuaron a break directing a little remembered TV drama called Fallen Angels. The relationship with Pollack led to another, even bigger break, a meeting with Warner Brothers and a chance to direct A Little Princess.

Layers of joy and imagination

With his painter’s eye for imagery and his marvelous, childlike imagination Cuaron was the perfect choice to direct A Little Princess. As he has shown subsequently in Prisoner of Azkaban, Cuaron has a bond with children through imagination and that innate understanding brings layers of joy to the rather drab and often sad story A Little Princess.

Unknown actress Liesel Matthews plays Sara Crewe who was enjoying an idyllic life in India where her father was stationed by the British military. Unfortunately, World War 1 is raging and Captain Crew (Liam Cunningham) must head to the front. Sara is taken to New York, to the same boarding school where her late mother was raised. Captain Crewe is a very rich man and his daughter is to be well taken care of while he is gone.

Stories of India and her father

Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron) will see to it that she is looked after but as much as she likes money, she resents Sara and suspects she will be a stuck up little brat. Oh, how wrong she is. Through her compassion and wild imagination, Sara becomes a friend to nearly all the students regaling them with stories of India late into the night.

Then the bad news comes, Sara’s father is missing. The British government has temporarily seized his companies and the checks that were paying Sara’s way will stop. To stay at the school and off of the cruel streets, Sara will become a maid and live in the attic with a fellow maid, Becky (Vanessa Lee Chester).

Indomitable spirit

Even such hardships as hunger and exhaustion can only silence Sara’s vivid and wonderful imagination for so long and soon she is back to telling stories and reminding the other girls that no matter what ‘All girls are Princesses’ no matter their station in life. Even the cruel Miss Minchin was once a Princess, though she repeatedly punishes Sara for reminding her.

Alfonso Cuaron’s A Little Princess takes the bones of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s iconic story and adds to it levels of compassion and imagination that were mere plot points in earlier versions. Cuaron’s Sara is a heroine of indomitable spirit as well boundless benevolence and uncontrollable imagination which she and the movie value more than any riches.

Rescue a rarely seen classic

Each version of A Little Princess is infused with goodness and life but Cuaron’s A Little Princess mixes in a hearty reverence for compassion and caring that was only touched on in other versions. Cuaron is also an artist of the first order and his production design, with the aid of Academy Award nominated cinematographer Emanuel Lubezki, production designer Bo Welch and art director Tom Duffield, is immaculate in the simple yet grand interiors of the boarding school as well as in the lush, colorful world of India and Sara’s stories of India.

It’s truly shameful that Cuaron’s A Little Princess is seen today as a failure. The film was released May 10th 1995 and made just over 2 million dollars against its 17 million dollar budget. The film would gross only 10 million dollars in its entire theatrical run. My hope is that this review of A Little Princess, will, at the very least, inspire dear reader to seek out 1995’s A Little Princess for your own Little Princess.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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  • Carol Townend2 years ago

    Thank you for telling me about this film. Your article has given me enough excellent information, and I will be watching it.

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