movie review of the 1939 "A Little princess"

Let me start by saying I adore and love the story "A Little Princess" it's charming,sweet and one of the best classics,that being said since it is one of my favorite books naturally if there's a movie about it,I have to see it and I have seen three different versions of this movie one made in 1986 which was excellent and I am trying to get a dvd (had a vhs tape,but let a family from my church borrow it,never saw it again) and the 1995 version which is also good. So when I saw there was a 1939 version,naturally I had to get it,boy was I disappointed. This movie is terrible Shirley Temple is no Sara Crewe,she does not embody Sara at all,there's no fierce toughness and imagination that Sara is known for and while I know Shirley was known for her singing and dancing ,I don't think she should have sang or danced in this movie. Lavinia is annoying not spiteful,there's no Lottie ,Ermengarde or Miss Amelia in fact she got replaced by a male teacher and Miss Minchin's brother nonetheless what! Actually since reading the sequal to "A Little Princess" "Wishing for tomorrow" I have found out that Miss Minchin did have two brothers,however that doesn't count because this was shown in the 1930's "A Little Princess" was written in 1881 and the sequel did not come out until 2009 so who cares he should have never been in the movie.

Becky was not as ill treated as she was in the book and one think that would be a good thing,but actually does nothing to make Sara's friendship with her stand out.

The part I hated was the "Hollywood happy ending" where it turned out the father was alive and Queen Victoria shows up to make everything better and while the 1995 one also had the "Hollywood ending" it was actually better because there was something about Liesel Matthew's(who played Sara) heart wrenching cry for her father as she's being dragged away by the police and the moment of realisation when her father finally remembers her and it doesn't hurt that scene is done in the rain which adds to the drama and I know I know I was supposed to talk about the 1939 version,but I just had to mention that bit there. In short out of all the "A Little Princess" movies I have seen the 1939was the worst