Shirley Temple in THE BLUE BIRD – A Look Back at 1940

Review by Sam Moffitt

I never was a fan of Shirley Temple, far from it. I do recall seeing most of her movies years ago. Back in the Sixties Channel 11, in St. Louis, used to have a Shirley Temple Theater on weekend afternoons. My sister Judy, for some reason, had to watch those Shirley Temple films. So I can recall seeing Bright Eyes, the Little Colonel, Heidi, Little Miss Marker and what have you.

To say I was not impressed would be a major understatement. Even as a young kid I realized there was a strict formula to Shirley’s movies, namely her sunny disposition and optimistic outlook would win over cranky old adults and straighten out bratty little kids, who were usually the villains, in her films, and that was about all.

I do recognize and respect Shirley Temple’s place in film history. She was the biggest star in the movies during the Great Depression. In ticket sales she was way ahead of even Clark Gable. And by the way, she was NOT the first child star. Check out a great documentary (I’ll review it in the future) called The Elephant in the Room, the Baby Peggy Story. The silent era had several child stars. I do respect that Shirley’s unflagging optimism helped movie audiences get through the Depression and offered hope to people who really needed it.

But when it comes to 1930s escapism I’ll take Karloff and Lugosi in the Universal horror Films, or the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers series of films or the early screwball classics like Bringing Up Baby and The Front Page, and certainly the Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges. And as for 1930s child stars I’ll take the Little Rascals/Our Gang over Shirley Temple movies anytime.

But, I have to say there is at least one film Shirley made before she started to grow up that I absolutely adore, for several reasons, and that is The Blue Bird. Made as a rather obvious attempt to copy MGM’s Wizard of Oz from the year before (although why 20th Century Fox would want to copy Oz is a bit puzzling, The Wizard of Oz was not a success at the box office and ironically neither was The Blue Bird!) here is a film that lets our little Shirley play an obnoxious brat, self absorbed and more than willing to lie and cheat to get what she wants, a regular kid in other words.

Yes, Shirley is Mytyl in her first box office flop, living in a Ruratanian sort of Bavaria in black and white, just like Dorothy’s Kansas in Wizard of Oz. She seems to care for her young brother Tyltyl played by Johnny Russell and not much else. What brings her out of her selfishness is the very real possibility of her Father having to go to war and be killed.

The Blue Bird is based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck and differs quite a bit from its stage origins. The framing device and the concept of Father going to war are not in the original play.

In the night while they are sleeping, brother and sister are visited by Fairy Berylune played by Jessie Ralph who sets them on the task of finding the Blue Bird of Happiness. And here the movie goes to bright, brilliant Technicolor and it is a joy to behold. For protection and companionship the family dog Tylo (played by Eddie Collins) and cat Tylette (played by Gale Sondergaard) are changed into humans, who continue to act as their animal selves. Also the family lantern is changed into a sort of Tinkerbell character, Light, played by Helen Erickson.

Collins is good as the family dog, (a bull dog by the way) loyal, obedient, eager to please, as you would expect. But it is Gale Sondergaard’s house cat that really puts this project over, she is wonderful acting exactly as a house cat does. Wherever the five of them go all she wants to do is eat, sleep on a couch and groom herself.

Sondergaard is so good by rights she should have had an Oscar nomination, her take on a house cat is funny, exasperating, more than a little sexy and just slightly ominous and threatening, pretty much like a real cat in other words! In fact the story makes Tylette into a nominal villain but not for long and not in any really threatening way. This is not a movie that is going to scare little kids, not even as much as Wizard of Oz is capable of.

In the course of their adventures they get to visit their deceased Grandparents, a kingdom where everything is luxurious, and a sort of reverse heaven where children waiting to be born are gathered and they learn they will have a baby sister soon.

Of course it ends with an “all just a dream” moment, putting it even more into Wizard of Oz territory. The Blue Bird is not quite a neglected masterpiece but it does deserve to be better known and could easily be a holiday favorite, perfect for Christmas.

I actually found Shirley Temple more interesting when she grew up. I’m thinking especially of That Hagen Girl with future president Ronald Reagan, a look at small town gossip ruining people’s lives. Shirley also worked in television hosting a wonderful show called Story Book Theater. These are great shows by the way and available on dvd. She also did good work in John Ford’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon with future short lived husband John Agar. As an aside, I never heard if John Agar ever said a word about what it was like to go to bed with Shirley Temple, which makes him a class act in my book.

So I respect the fact that Shirley Temple’s films offered hope and escape to millions of people all over the world, that she went on with her life and never complained that her parents squandered the money she earned as a child star (where was the Jackie Coogan law by the way?) and that she found a calling that she was apparently good at, namely in diplomatic service. And most importantly she never had any sort of public meltdown or suffered any ill effects from her child stardom.

So I’ll say good bye now to a true Hollywood legend, please check out the Blue Bird, Shirley proved she had real acting chops by playing a child much different from any she had done previously. Or pick your own Shirley Temple film, oh my goodness, there sure a lot of them!