The Little Princess

The Little Princess (1939) is a family drama starring Shirley Temple, available to watch online on iFILM. In late-Victorian London, Captain Crewe leaves for the Second Boer War and places his daughter Sara in an expensive boarding school so she can grow up surrounded by books and good manners.

At first Sara is pampered — her father pays for the finest room, and the stern headmistress Miss Minchin parades her as the little princess of the school. A telegram from the front tears it all down: the captain is reported killed, the money stops, and the school's favorite is banished to a freezing attic as a servant. Sara refuses to believe he's gone and slips into a military hospital, hoping to find her father among the wounded.

A loose adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel directed by Walter Lang, it remains one of Temple's best-loved pictures — her first major role shot in full, glowing Technicolor. César Romero and Arthur Treacher turn up in smaller parts. An old-fashioned, warm-hearted story about a child's stubborn faith, it's worth showing to kids and revisiting as an adult. Stream The Little Princess (1939) online on iFILM.