Heidi is a 1937 family film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Shirley Temple and Jean Hersholt. The film is based on Johanna Spyri’s 1881 children’s book Heidi.
Director: Allan Dwan
Production Company: 20th Century Fox
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Cast: Shirley Temple, Jean Hersholt, Marcia Mae Jones, Mary Nash
US Box Office: $2,500,000 ($99,700,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Family Drama
Release Date: October 15, 1937
Plot Summary: Young orphan girl Heidi (Shirley Temple) is sent to live with her grandfather Adolph Kramer (Jean Hersholt). Heidi’s grandfather is gruff and distant at first, but he eventually grows close to his granddaughter. However Heidi is soon kidnapped by her wicked aunt (Mady Christians) to be the companion to wealthy, disabled girl Klara Sesemann (Marcia Mae Jones) in Frankfurt. While Heidi gets along well with everyone in Sesemann houshold, except the nasty Fraulein Rottenmeier (Mary Nash), she longs to return home to her grandfather.
Production: In September of 1936, 20th Century Fox producer Darryl F. Zanuck bought the film rights to the children’s book Heidi from producer Sol Lesser. Otto Brower was originally scheduled to direct Heidi, but he was later replaced by Allan Dwan. Shirley Temple, a very popular child star for Fox at the time, was chosen to be play the title role in the film. Danish-American actor Jean Hersholt was cast as Heidi’s grandfather.
Filming on Heidi took place from May to June of 1937. The scenes set in the Alpine Mountains were shot at Lake Arrowhead, California. While shooting there, Temple lived in a trailer on the hillside and only left last minute to shoot her scenes, and was accompanied by bodyguards. This was for her safety and privacy, to protect her from being potentially swarmed by fans. It has been speculated that Temple herself convinced the producers to add the musical dream sequence to the film, however this is not true. Temple stated in her autobiography that she and her parents didn’t have any creative control over her films. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Heidi was originally going to feature a three-tone tinting process that Fox had been developing; using sepia, amber and copper tones for day scenes; and blue, orange and copper tones for night scenes. However, this was not used in the final film.
Fun Facts and Trivia: In the scene where Heidi is butted by a goat and falls over, Shirley Temple was originally going to shoot the scene herself, but her mother insisted that a stunt double be used. A male child extra is Shirley’s stand-in in this scene. When the boy’s father found out that he was a double for a girl, he forbade his son from ever acting again. Director Allan Dwan only gave Delmar Watson (Peter) his lines one day in advance to deliberately make the character seem slow. The scene where Heidi lets a capuchin monkey in the Sesemann house is not in the original book. In the book she originally snuck kittens into the house, this was changed to give the film more action.
Reception: Heidi received generally positive reviews from critics on its initial release. For example, Film Daily thought that Heidi was funny and one of Shirley Temple’s best films. Harrison’s Reports thought that Heidi was a very charming film, and Variety thought that Jean Hersholt was “excellent” in the film.
Fox was initially worried that Temple’s “cute” film roles might be losing appeal with audiences, but Heidi and Temple’s Wee Willie Winkie (1937) were both successful for Fox that year. Marcia Mae Jones stated that she received a lot of fan mail from disabled children for her role as Klara in Heidi.
Why You Should See It: Heidi is a funny, sweet, and entertaining family film. It features the right mix of humor and drama. Jean Hersholt is quite good, and adds a great deal of depth and emotion to the film. I would defiantly recommend Heidi to parents who want to introduce young children to Classic Hollywood cinema. The film is entertaining and doesn’t contain anything inappropriate.