THE BLUE BIRD (1940)
Article #337 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-15-2002
Posting date: 7-2-2002

A little boy and girl go out in search of the bluebird of happiness.

This is the movie Shirley Temple got to do instead of THE WIZARD OF OZ; she definitely got the worst of the deal. Though it tries to emulate that movie to some extent, with a black-and-white beginning turning to color later on, it lacks the energy and inventiveness of that movie. It’s precious and charmless, overly manipulative and preachy, contrived and turgid. The best scene (a forest fire) is the only time the movie has some life; it also kills off the only interesting character, the cat as played by Gale Sondergaard. It might be a movie your your children would want to see, but you most likely wouldn’t want to sit through it with them.