Greetings,
So is the book always better than the movie when it comes to adaptations? Well, I'd say usually yes. But what about Heidi? Is that book better than the movie? I have no idea. I've never read the book. Who cares, though? This is Shirley's time, and she did not write it. She was in the movie, however, and that is what we're talking about today. Again, a few spoilers.
The story of Heidi is all about a little girl named Adelheid. Relax, her nickname is Heidi, and that titular character is, of course, played by Shirley Temple. The film starts with her being brought by her Aunt Detie to the Alpine hut of her grandfather. See, Aunt Detie has been raising Heidi for years, because her parents are dead. Of course, they are. But Detie's tired of it now and decides to leave her with Adolph Kramer played by Jean Hersholt, the grandfather that Heidi doesn't really know. He takes the child in but says that Detie can never return to take her back. Gee, I hope she doesn't show up one day to try and take her back.
So Grandfather isn't exactly jovial, and it takes a while for him to warm up to Heidi. He eventually comes to love having her around , and she comes to love her life in the mountains, even making new friends like Peter, Blind Anna and Pastor Schultz. But, alas, Detie returns and full-on kidnaps Heidi in order to give her to a rich man in Frankfurt who needs a companion for his wheelchair-bound daughter. A companion? I'm sorry, is her wheelchair a TARDIS? Whatever, I guess, even back then, rich people bought friends.
Heidi, of course, does not want to be there as she wants to continue living with her grandfather, but she manages to start enjoying herself in this place as well. She becomes fast friends with Clara Sesseman, rich guy's daughter, and she gets to hang out with Arthur Treacher, who plays Andrews the butler. Who would't want to do that? However, she must also deal with Fraulein Rottenmeir (ROTTENmeir? Subtle!), who is, I don't know, the caretaker for the house and Clara, I guess, whilst her father is out of town. Yeah, she's a "B" alright, but there always has to be one person who is blind to the charms of Shirley Temple. Anyway, though she does enjoy herself, Heidi still longs to go home to her grandfather and Clara promises that she can, once her father, Herr Sesseman, returns. Still, Herr Sesseman had heard untrue things about the Grandfather and thinks Heidi would be better with them.
It's at this point where it really hits the fan. No lie! There's more kidnapping, cops, snow globes and porcelain dolls going kablooey! It's amazing, albeit, done very quickly. Like in the last five or ten minutes, a ton of things happen, and then it just ends. Because we got wrap this up and give everybody a happy ending where the last thing we see is Shirley smiling into the camera. Roll credits.
So Heidi came out at a time when Shirley's career was flagging a bit, because she was getting older. A whole nine-years-old. Still, she remained a box office success, and that's all that matters in Hollywood, am I right? For real, I do like Heidi. It's good for some laughs, especially when it comes to Arthur Treacher, and I like the "In Our Little Wooden Shoes" song. Though I have no idea why it was in there, other than Shirley wanted that dream sequence and we wanted to make Shirley happy. But it's well made and it has a good cast. It's one you should see.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
