Rating 2.5/4

Shirley Temple is not everyone’s cup of tea. Many people I know find her work entirely too saccharine and they wince when she appears on screen. They’ve become unused to innocence in movies.
I don’t personally have a problem with Shirley Temple, but I also am able to identify her for what she was and accept it. She’s a heartstring tugger. A patented guaranteed box office draw by simply being cute. She laughs, she cries, she sings, she dances. I think my sister had a toy like her once.

It’s all subjective, but her type of saccharine appeals to some people, myself included. I am a father to two girls of my own and I am not offended by cute.

The 1937 adaptation of Johanna Spyri’s novel – one of dozens – was a later entry in Temple’s child acting career when the studios began wondering if she would soon age out of the sort of roles she was making bank at. However, she continued to be a success with critics and audiences during this period nonetheless.

Heidi is a decent entry in the Shirley Temple canon; not as memorable as Curly Top or as funny as Bright Eyes, but decent.
Temple, playing the titular lead, is sent to live with her grandfather (Jean Hersholt) in the Swiss Alps by her greedy, ill-mannered aunt Dede (Mady Christians) who doesn’t want to care for her after Heidi’s parents pass away. The townsfolk fear the old man who is said to be ill-tempered and isolated himself from society. He is only grumpy for a few minutes of screentime before suddenly growing to love Heidi and show her affection. Many movies from the 30s were edited to favor double-billing in theaters and thus the film is simply too short to portray a change of heart well. Hersholt plays the role less like an angry hermit and more like an old man who has been alone too long and needed someone to give him joy and a reason to live. This he does well and his fear and desperation when he discovers she has been taken away is effectively heartbreaking. Custody battles are painful for everyone.
Heidi is kidnapped from her grandfather’s home by the same aunt from before who was offered cash to deliver a playmate to an invalid girl name Klara (Marcia Mae Jones) in Germany. It makes for a delightful second act in which Heidi is forced to acclimate to snooty high society and forms a friendship with Klara. Sadly these scenes begin to weaken toward the end resorting to tone deaf slapstick involving an escaped monkey which is ignorantly referred to as a gorilla by the butler.
The third act further bastardizes the plot with an over the top chase sequence via sleigh when the grandfather comes to Germany to rescue her from an evil servant (Mary Nash) who tries to sell Heidi to some gypsies. If that sounds stupid to you, that’s only because it is.

All in all Heidi doesn’t work in every aspect, but it is entertaining if you don’t need to be convinced too much by the characters and story.