Heidi
1937 · 88 min · Drama, Family, Music
Directed by Allan Dwan
“Shirley's A Little Swiss Miss In The Loveliest Story of Her Career !”
Heidi is orphaned and her uncaring maternal Aunt Dete takes her to the mountains to live with her reclusive, grumpy paternal grandfather, Adolph Kramer. Heidi brings her grandfather back into mountain society through her sweet ways and sheer love. When Dete later returns and steals Heidi away to become the companion of a rich man's wheelchair-bound daughter, the grandfather is heartsick to discover his little girl missing and immediately sets out to get her back.
Why it's worth watching
Heidi is a heartwarming tale that celebrates the power of love, kindness, and redemption. It offers a beautiful story that can inspire viewers to embrace virtue and compassion.
What it praises
The film praises virtues such as selflessness, forgiveness, and the transformative power of genuine human connection. It holds up the values of family, community, and the importance of looking beyond superficial differences.
For discernment
This 1937 Shirley Temple version of Heidi carries real spiritual weight for its era: it treats faith reverently, and its heart is a child's love thawing a bitter, reclusive grandfather and restoring a broken family — genuine pictures of forgiveness, redemption, and selfless kindness. Discerning viewers should be aware the plot turns on some genuinely dark adult cruelty: a governess kidnaps Heidi intending to sell her to Roma travelers, the grandfather is wrongly arrested as she screams and clings to him, and a spiteful woman shatters Heidi's treasured snow globe out of revenge. Note too that the film uses the slur 'Gypsy' and paints the Roma as menacing villains — a period stereotype worth naming and, with children, correcting. Minor background elements include the grandfather's pipe and a drunk man in a jail cell. The good here is substantial and the concerns are mild and datable; it rewards viewing with a little context. A wholesome family film embodying Christian virtues of compassion and redemptive love; no scriptural content, though it reflects Christian values.
- NoteThe film uses the ethnic slur 'Gypsy' and portrays Roma people as menacing kidnappers-for-hire, a dated stereotype worth flagging and correcting.
- ViolenceHeidi is kidnapped to be sold, her grandfather is wrongly arrested while she screams and clings to him, and a woman smashes her cherished snow globe in revenge.
- SubstancesThe grandfather smokes a pipe and a visibly drunk man is shown in a jail cell.
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Cast
Shirley Temple
Heïdi
Jean Hersholt
Adolph Kramer
Arthur Treacher
Andrews
Helen Westley
Blind Anna
Pauline Moore
Elsa
Thomas Beck
Pastor Schultz
Mary Nash
Fraulein Rottenmeier
Sidney Blackmer
Sesemann