U | 1 h 33 min | Drama | 1939
Walter Lang’s family drama, bordering on a fairy tale, is set in 1899 England, when senior military officers were considered part of the aristocracy, just shy of royalty.
When widower Capt. Crewe (Ian Hunter) is called to duty in the Second Boer War, he is forced to leave his child, Sara (11-year-old Shirley Temple), and her pony in Miss Minchin’s School For Girls. For the first time living entire months on her own, Sara joyfully, if mischievously, copes with the ups and downs of life.
School mistress, Minchin (Mary Nash), is as steeped in pointless propriety as she is in snobbishness, unmoved by aristocrats unless they can make her even more affluent than she is. Her kind brother Bertie (Arthur Treacher), and teacher, Rose (Anita Louise), help in running the boarding school….