Heidi (1937 film)
| Heidi | |
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Promotional Poster
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| Directed by | Allan Dwan |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Written by |
Julien Josephson Walter Ferris |
| Based on | Heidi by Johanna Spyri |
| Starring |
Shirley Temple Jean Hersholt Arthur Treacher Mary Nash Marcia Mae Jones Sidney Blackmer |
| Music by |
David Buttolph Charles Maxwell |
| Cinematography | Arthur Charles Miller |
| Edited by | Allen McNeil |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Heidi is a 1937 American musical drama film directed by Allan Dwan. The screenplay by Julien Josephson and Walter Ferris was based on the 1880 children's story of the same name by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. The film is about an orphan named Heidi (Temple) who is taken from her grandfather (Hersholt) to live as a companion to Klara, a spoiled, crippled girl (Jones). The film was a success and Temple enjoyed her third year in a row as number one box office draw.
The film is currently available on DVD, which features the original black and white, and newly colorized, versions of it.
Adelheid, called Heidi (Shirley Temple), is an eight-year-old Swiss orphan who is given by her aunt to her mountain-dwelling grandfather (Jean Hersholt). She is then stolen back by her aunt from her grandfather to live in the wealthy Sesemann household in Frankfurt, Germany as a companion to Klara (Marcia Mae Jones), a sheltered, disabled girl in a wheelchair. Heidi is unhappy but makes the best of the situation, always longing for her grandfather. When Klara's body and spirits mend under Heidi's cheerful companionship, the housekeeper (who has tried to keep Klara dependent upon her) tries to get rid of Heidi by selling her to the gypsies but she is stopped by the police. Heidi is rescued and reunited with her grandfather.
The Alpine scenes were filmed at Lake Arrowhead, California with cast and crew staying in the Lake Arrowhead Hotel or in private chalets. Temple lived in a trailer parked on a hillside and only left it at the very last moment to do her scenes – after her stand-in had finished with lights and sound. Temple had at least eight bodyguards who escorted her to and from the trailer and about the area when necessary.
Midway through the shooting of the movie, the dream sequence was added into the script. There were reports that Temple was behind the dream sequence and that she was enthusiastically pushing for it but in her autobiography she vehemently denied this. Her contract gave neither her or her parents any creative control over the movies she was in. While she enjoyed the opportunity to wear braids and to be lifted on high wire, she saw this as the collapse of any serious attempt by the studio to build upon the dramatic role from the previous movie Wee Willie Winkie.
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