Heidi
(1937) black and white 88 minutes
With: Shirley Temple (Heidi), Jean Hersholt (Grandfather/Adolph Kramer), Arthur Treacher (Andrews), Helen Westley (Blind Anna), Pauline Moore (Elsa), Thomas Beck (Pastor Schulz), Mary Nash (Fraulein Rottenmeier), Sidney Blackmer (Herr Sesemann), Mady Christians (Aunt Dete), Marcia Mae Jones (Clara), Delmar Watson (Peter)
Plot Outline: Heidi, a young girl, is sent to live with her grandfather, Adolph Kramer, a bitter old man who lives in the mountains. Kramer eventually warms up to the precocious child, and the two get along famously. However, Heidi's Aunt Dete returns one day, and kidnaps the child back, to work as a companion to a
crippled child, Clara. Clara lives in Frankfurt with her father and evil caretaker, Fraulein Rottenmeier. Rottenmeier takes an immediate dislike to the happy child, and Heidi wants to return to the mountains and her grandfather. But making the best of a bad situation, Heidi teaches Clara to walk again, and Clara's father is delighted. He wants Heidi to stay with them forever, but Heidi dearly wants to see her grandfather again. Meanwhile, Kramer has come to Frankfurt looking for his dear granddaughter. He is placed in prison for eccentric behavior, but escapes, and continues the search. Elsewhere, Fraulein Rottenmeier kidnaps Heidi in the night, attempting to sell her to the Gypsies.
Kramer intervenes just in time, and he and Heidi escape in a horse-drawn sleigh. Reunited, Heidi and her grandfather return to their beloved mountains, with Clara and her father in tow.
***
Johanna Sypri's classic children's book gets the lavish Hollywood treatment in this excellent rendition, the first live-action sound version of the tale. The big-budget, large-cast production features gorgeous location shooting, sweeping landscapes (thanks to some effective matte paintings), and elsewhere, quaint backlot village sets. The drama fluctuates nicely between heart-warming drama and broad comic farce.
The delightful Shirley Temple makes an adorable Heidi, affable and ultra-modern, with her dimples and curly hair and absurd Easter bonnet.
Jean Hersholt makes an engaging Grandfather. He is at first depicted as a creepy monster, sharpening a knife while Heidi clutches her throat, in a morbid bit of comic relief. He soon melts, however, under Heidi's irresistible charms, proving himself to be a real softie under the gruff exterior.
There are many breathtaking winter scenes (including a fun scene of Heidi and Gramps tobogganing to a rear-projection mountain).
Thanks to a music box, we are treated to a refreshing story-within-a-story as Heidi imagines herself to be a little Dutch girl named Gretel. This (day)-dream sequence evolves into an all-out musical dance number. Within this scene there emerges yet another vision, that of Gretel pretending to be a Marie Antoinette
character, dancing the minuet in a stately ballroom. This exquisite sequence stands out as a bit of welcome musical fantasy.
As in the book, Dete is the main villain of the piece (with Rottenmeier coming in a close second). And as in most film renditions of the Spyri story, Dete is depicted as much older than she is supposed to be, which is in her mid-20's!
In Clara's impossibly uptight household, Heidi meets a comrade in a wise-cracking butler called Andrews (dance impresario Arthur Treacher in fine form).
Many scenes at Clara's function as comic relief, involving Heidi's primitive social graces, and Andrew's borderline insubordination. When an organ grinder's trained monkey hops through the window, the film surrenders briefly to all-out farce, as the cute little savage causes all sorts of havoc. (One especially gratuitous scene features the rotten Frau Rottenmeier skidding across a newly-waxed floor, limbs akimbo.)
Later, we suffer a specious Christmas ceremony, including a treacly performance of "Silent Night" as we pan the snowy streets of the city, a gratuitous and hurried attempt by the studio to create a faux-Dickensian atmosphere.
Grandfather's arrival in Frankfurt, and his somewhat daunting attempts to locate Heidi, give the last reel quite a thrilling punch. There are several near-misses, including an excruciating one at the local marionette theatre. Even worse, the distraught patriarch becomes a public nuisance, grabbing stray children off the street, so he is nabbed by the cops, and forced to spend Xmas Eve in the local drunk tank!
Confirming every child's worst nightmare, the evil Frau Rottenmeier kidnaps Heidi in the middle of the night, in order to sell her to the gypsies! Luckily, Gramps escapes jail, and he and Heidi have a tear-filled reunion.
We top all of this high drama off with a thrilling high-speed sleigh chase through the streets of the big city.
All ends well of course, with a lavish family picnic on the mountain.
The main themes remain intact from the book: the wisdom of home schooling vs. public education; love-as-healer; the profits of isolation vs. socialization; the complex problem of granting beneficent child custody; the importance of regaining a lost religious faith.
Notwithstanding the fact that this is where we first fell in love with the incredible Ms. Temple, we submit that the 1937 HEIDI is a winner, and overall the best filming of the timeless children's classic.
Video/DVD availability: VHS, DVD (Fox Video)
Enchanting original lobby card from HEIDI.
Heidi and Peter share a moment of sublime beauty at the mountaintop.
"I'm very sorry but you can't have any more roll. The man said I'd need it."
Grandfather watches as Heidi learns her alphabet.
The grandfather motioned Peter away and shouted: "Get off with you!"
One evening Heidi brought the water from the spring.
But the grandmother had heard footsteps, and asked: "Is that the grandfather?"
"Father will never guess what his present is, will he, Heidi?"
20th Century Fox
Music: David Buttolph, Charles Maxwell, Sidney D. Mitchell, Lew Pollack, Ernst Toch
Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller
Screenplay: Walter Ferris, Julien Josephson
Produced by Raymond Griffith, Darry F. Zanuck
Directed by Allan Dwan
