Unusual Fantasy Deserves Honorable Mention Among Temple's Films

Ambitious perhaps, but one watches not knowing what tone was intended

Big Bear Lake, Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Shirley Temple, Robert Young, and Alice Faye in Stowaway (1936)

Randolph Scott, Shirley Temple, Gloria Stuart, Phyllis Brooks, Jack Haley, Bill Robinson, and Slim Summerville in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)

Shirley Temple, James Dunn, and Judith Allen in Bright Eyes (1934)

Shirley Temple, Richard Greene, Ian Hunter, Anita Louise, Beryl Mercer, and Arthur Treacher in The Little Princess (1939)

Shirley Temple in The Littlest Rebel (1935)

Shirley Temple and Lionel Barrymore in The Little Colonel (1935)

Shirley Temple and John Boles in Curly Top (1935)

Shirley Temple and Victor McLaglen in Wee Willie Winkie (1937)

Shirley Temple, Jimmy Durante, Phyllis Brooks, George Murphy, and Edna May Oliver in Little Miss Broadway (1938)

Shirley Temple, Thomas Beck, Jean Hersholt, and Helen Westley in Heidi (1937)

Somebody must be thinking of us. I feel quite strong. I think we're going to have visitors. They seem to be coming near.

Maybe now I can finish my carving. I've been at this one for nearly a whole year.

It's the children! Give us a hug, dears, a big one this time.

It's been months and months since you last remembered us.

The last time was Easter morning. The church bells were ringing.

Easter? Oh, we didn't go out that day. We both had very bad colds.

Every time you think of us, we wake up and see you again.

Tommy Baker and Dorothy Joyce in The Blue Bird (1940)

Dena Penn and Rae-Nell Laskey in The Blue Bird (1940)

Jana Lund and Dickie Moore in The Blue Bird (1940)

Shirley Temple, Anne Bennett, Johnny Russell, and Loree Lee Foxx in The Blue Bird (1940)

Tommy Baker and Marianne Edwards in The Blue Bird (1940)

Shirley Temple

Spring Byington

Nigel Bruce

Maurice Maeterlinck

Ernest Pascal

Walter Bullock

Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, a woodchopper&apos;s children, are led by the Fairy Berylune on a magical trip through the past, present, and future to locate the Blue Bird of Happiness.

Walter Lang

The Blue Bird

Unusual Fantasy Deserves Honorable Mention Among Temple&apos;s Films

Although &apos;The Blue Bird&apos; was not a resounding financial success at time of release, and has always been cited as being a poor imitation of &apos;The Wizard of Oz&apos;, it is an unjustly neglected film. Individual scenes are striking, as for example those depicting the unborn waiting in a kind of heavenly limbo (with billowing clouds) before sailing off to their destination on earth. (You can spot Dickie Moore and Scotty Beckett among the unborn lads.) Shirley Temple and Johnny Russell are tremendously appealing as the young sister and brother searching for the elusive blue bird of happiness. A highlight is Shirley&apos;s excursion to the Land of the Past where she visits her dead grandparents and does a charming song-and-dance to a yodel song. The studio would have been wise to incorporate a few more such songs. With added numbers, this might have been a much more successful film. As it is, her role is not strong enough, as written, and yet we can appreciate her by the film&apos;s end. She is particularly affecting in the scenes with the unborn children, showing genuine charm and affection and looking radiant in technicolor. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (Special Effects and Color Cinematography), nominations which were well deserved. The spectacular forest fire is very effective, as are the special effects in general. In the supporting roles, Gale Sondergaard (as Tylette, the cat)has fun with a typical Sondergaard role, mistress of evil. Nigel Bruce and Spring Byington lend excellent support. Summing up, while the whole is not as great as its parts, this is a lavishly photographed film definitely worth viewing. Not a masterpiece, by any means, but there is much to appreciate and it should not be neglected.

Although 'The Blue Bird' was not a resounding financial success at time of release, and has always been cited as being a poor imitation of 'The Wizard of Oz', it is an unjustly neglected film. Individual scenes are striking, as for example those depicting the unborn waiting in a kind of heavenly limbo (with billowing clouds) before sailing off to their destination on earth. (You can spot Dickie Moore and Scotty Beckett among the unborn lads.) Shirley Temple and Johnny Russell are tremendously appealing as the young sister and brother searching for the elusive blue bird of happiness. A highlight is Shirley's excursion to the Land of the Past where she visits her dead grandparents and does a charming song-and-dance to a yodel song. The studio would have been wise to incorporate a few more such songs. With added numbers, this might have been a much more successful film. As it is, her role is not strong enough, as written, and yet we can appreciate her by the film's end. She is particularly affecting in the scenes with the unborn children, showing genuine charm and affection and looking radiant in technicolor. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (Special Effects and Color Cinematography), nominations which were well deserved. The spectacular forest fire is very effective, as are the special effects in general. In the supporting roles, Gale Sondergaard (as Tylette, the cat)has fun with a typical Sondergaard role, mistress of evil. Nigel Bruce and Spring Byington lend excellent support. Summing up, while the whole is not as great as its parts, this is a lavishly photographed film definitely worth viewing. Not a masterpiece, by any means, but there is much to appreciate and it should not be neglected.

Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, a woodchopper's children, are led by the Fairy Berylune on a magical trip through the past, present, and future to locate the Blue Bird of Happiness.

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