Whitby Free Prou, Wecknesday, May 17,1995, PIge 7 ýý Read the book Once upon a time a beautifily written but implausible novel enchanted boys and girls of al ages, but mainly girls. The heroine,'Sara Crewe, has about hber a sweet, syrupy thickness. Cymics would cal her the female Lord Fauntleroy, which ini a way she was. For Sara belongs'to A Little Princees, a book written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who also wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy. But despite the implausible plot and the sugary sweetness, or maybe rather because of it, A Little Princess drips with charm that only a book can hold in fairytale magical lands. Sara, at nine, says witb conviction that while you are out of the room doils jurnp out of buggies, or chairs, or beds, and run around the room and play and dance and laugh. The minute, pao, the very split second, you open the door _____________________________________ they r eturn te their places and pretend te be doils. _____________________ _____à _______32_M_____z There are on this planet literate people, snobbish people perhaps, who believe that this kind of magic can happen only in books. To prove them wrong, and in turn te make a great deal of money, a modern movie conipany has made a inovie entitled A Little Princess. It is a story înuch like the book, with most of the magic takenout and some needless adventure action put in. This proves that all those snobbish book people may be right. The story: Sara Crewe moves. from India with her father, Captain Crewe, to an exclusive girls' sohool in London (in the book) or New York (ini the movie). Take your pick. Ail this happens about 1880 (in the book) or 1917/18 during World War I (in the movie). Captain Crewe, a terribly rich man, spares ne expense te indulge sweet little Sara. He spoils ber rotten. She would be otten (in the book) except that despite al these material advantages Sara turns out te be kind, considerate, thoughtfuh, polite. Frances Ilodgson Bur- nett carrnes it off. The inovie, sadly, doesn't. In the movie it is the father who explains te Sara how dolîs corne alive. The idea of a quiet, sensitive, lonely child, TEO)KTHBUE A,17 brought up with books as companions, somehow This bouse at the corner of Byron and Dunlop Streets is now the Montessori Sehool eluded tbe scriptwritem and the directer. Oh, well. of Whitby. It was buit in 1874 as the residence of Sheriff Nelson Gilbert Reynolds after So te faherleavs bs dagbtr atthescbolie moved out of Trafalgair Castie. This picture was taken just before the stucco was put So te *fater eave hi daghtr atthescholon the brick walls and the building turned into a restaurant. alone, and goes about bis business. In the book, lie Whitby Archives photo returns te India, invests ail his huge fortune in diamond mines, loses it ail and <ies of despair and 10 YEARS AGO jungle fever and shame. Poor Sara, now destitute, From the Wednesday Ma 15, 1985 edition of the becoes aservnt grl i theexclsivescWol.TBe FsE PRESS becoes sevan gil i th exlusve ebol. be 5 *A Brooklin man has been charged with abducting an 18-year-old Whitbv womanh. treated barshly, te the point of abuse and beyond. She 0 The second annual Pete Rice Memorial Weekend will be held at Brooklin from May remans dndconideatethoghtfl, olie. Gt i? *17 to 19. remans indconideatethoghtfl, olie. Gt i? 0Total Whitby property taxes increased by 5.3 per cent for 1985. Whicb is more implausible, the book or the movie, * ire Chief 2d Croucb opened the 1985 basebail season by tbrowing the first pitch at may be a inatter of preference. Suffice te say that the Pe ak movie-makers made -needless changes in the implau- 35 YEARS AGO sible plot, none of which add te the charm. from the Tus!,, May 12, 1960 edition of the WfflTB WEKLY NEWS In the movie, Captain Crewe, temribly nicb you 0 Six inches of main hast weekend created worse flooding in Whitby than Hurricane know, goes off te wam without leaving specific and Hazel in 1954. chear directions for the support of bis daughter sbould 0 The Bank of Montreal will open its new building at the Four Corners on May 16. Colin Sutherland is manager. anything happen te him. (In the book he is a foolisb * Whitby citizens are being asked to, contribute to a 220-bed expansion of the Oshawa fop, is beievable, and isn't missed much when he General Hospital. dies.)% 0 Port Whitby iresidents say the Whitby Pirepartmen"nt desztroyed phasants' nats. I., -- -- -- -- --