SHIRLEY TEMPLE WINS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22306, 21 January 1938, Page 16

SHIRLEY TEMPLE WINS

"Heidi of the Alps" Brings Famous Story to the Screen

Shirley Temple appears in her most notable role, as "Heidi," in the film which begins at the State to-day. Millions of people the world over have been enthralled by the warmth, the tenderness, and the charming beauty of Johanna Spyri's beloved story of Heidi and all the colourful folk who lived and laughed and loved high up in the Swiss Alps. Translated into all languages and read everywhere, it is a story that had to wait for its star before it could be brought to the screen.

tians. and Sig Rumann are also featured in the east. Written into the faithfully transcribed screen play by Walter Ferris and Julien Josephson are two dance sequences that present the first star of the screen at her greatest. "In Our Little Wooden Shoes." the specially composed song by Lew Pollack and Sidney D. Mitchell, gives Shirley a gay and charming interlude in the warmly dramatic storyIt was hi "Wee Willie Winkie" that she made her first attempt at a straight dramatic role, an attempt so successful that Darryl F. Zanuck, the Twentieth Century-Fox production chief, decided to make "Heidi" hi the big-pic-ture tradition set by the Kipling classic.

"Heidi" brings a Shirley Temple more glorious than has ever been known, in the picture she was asked to make by thousands of fans who wrote to the Twentieth Century-Fox studios. Bringing love to hearts tilled with hate, and a twinkle to eyes tilled with tears, "Heidi" tells of an embittered mountain-top exile, brilliantly portrayed by Jean Hersholt, reclaimed from his fierce hatred of the world, of a young girl who finds the strength and courage to walk again, and of the little heroine who brings everyone new zest for life. Arthur Treacher and Helen Westley play prominent "Toles in the story, and Pauline Moore, Thomas Beck. Mary Nash, Sidney Blackmer, Mady Chris-

Reinaining unspoiled in the midst of it all. Shirley was wide-eyed with elation when she was assigned the role, and wanted to be assured that all the things that made "Heidi of the Alps" so colourful to her would be retained in the picture. "Heidi of the Alps" has sold millions of copies and is on the prescribed reading lists of schools all over the world Ideally cast and gloriously played, it makes a picture that its many readers long have hoped to see. Raymond Griffith served as associate producer, and the special dance sequences were staged by Sammy Lee.