Customer Reviews

Dimples (Shirley Temple)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Hello,I'm from Germany and an absolute Shirley Temple-worshipper. This movie is vintage -shirley, although I have to admit more on the sentimental side. If you love a good cry and lots of musicalnumbers,you will take this one.

While this is not one of the best of Temple's efforts, the film held your interest and had excellent acting by Frank Morgan and Helen Westley. However, the material on the dvd cover indicated "See the Famous Staircase Dance with Bill Robinson". Unfortunately, that is not in this film. Bill Robinson is not in this film, although he directed some of the dance sequences. I think the people producing these products need to check their research BEFORE they develop the cover materials. While I knew Bojangles was not in this film, there could be others misled by this material.

DIMPLES is pure vintage Shirley Temple, a fluffy musical confection about a little girl who busks on the streets while her grandfather 'The Professor' (Frank Morgan) picks the pockets of the audience.

Dimples gets taken in by the kindly - and rich - Mrs Caroline Drew (Helen Westley) before landing the plum role of Little Eva in a musical production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

Temple gets to sing "Hey! What Did the Bluejay Say?" among other numbers. Co-starring Robert Kent, Delma Byron, John Carradine, Astrid Allwyn and Stepin Fetchit. This is a colourised version of the original black and white film.

It's good Fox re-issued these Temple DVDs with much better quality (on those 3-pack Temple collections). You should have seen the first DVD attempt; it was a pitiful transfer. Now, they've done it right.

I liked all the songs and dances in "Dimples," especially the ones earlier in the film. There are a few more numbers here on than on most of her movies, which is fine with me. Temple is still cute and winsome as ever and there are no evil-nasty villains in here, for a change.

Yet, Frank Mogan can be a bit annoying and Stepin Fetchit is just plain aggravating. Fortunately, he has a minor role without much dialogue.

In summary, a decent Shirley Temple movie but she made at least a handful of others during this time period that were much better It's still a sad comment there are only 10 reviews of this, as I submit this in early 2009. Don't people appreciate this girl's talent? She is a legend.

There are two different versions of "Dimples".

The cover-picture of this older, version shows just Shirley's head, has a peach-color background, though you can't distinguish the color difference of the covers on Amazon; and has a release date of Jan. 29, 2002. This older version cuts out too soon at the end, missing Shirley's smile at the end, and wrecking the film. (some twit likely trying to save money on the colorizing work by shortening the film a few seconds at the end).

The cover-picture of the other, newer, version includes Shirley's arm, with the pink background, is the "Shirley Temple Collection" version, and has a release date of March 21, 2006. I have not seen the other, newer, version.

The movie story is very good. Charming children. Humor. Good singing. Frank Morgan, the wizard from the "Wizard of Oz". Shirley is poor, but honest, living with an elderly Professor, who is a thief. Shirley seeks to cure him of his stealing ways. All Shirley's movies are good.

As one of several films Shirley Temple made for Fox Studios in 1936,"Dimples" is also an underrated favorite of mine and it shows why.Temple plays Dimples,a young street corner singer whose beloved grandfather (played by Frank Morgan of "Wizard Of Oz" Fame) is a pick-pocket thief a la Oliver Twist's Artful Dodger.Meanwhile a stage production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is being performed with Dimples in a supporting role.The film ends with an exciting and memorable musical number with Temple and Stepin Fetchit around blackfaced actors which was directed by Bill Robinson.Director William A.Seiter (Laurel & Hardy's "Sons Of The Desert") does a great job with the well-done cast and storyline which may or may not appeal to today's political incorrect audiences but it's a fun and enjoyable film to watch with memorable songs and sequences.Recommended !

ABOUT THE DVD:
First released in a lousy DVD version in 2002 along with "Heidi" and "Bright Eyes",this brand-new restored DVD from Fox and Legend Films as part of the Volume Three Shirley Temple Collection of her classic films.The 2002 release was yet another poorly made DVD that had both an unrestored black & white version and a muddy colorized version from the late '80's.Here with the new release,Fox and Legend do the job right this time with both a restored black & white version of the film with very little speckles of dust and dirt.Also present is a brand-new digitally colorized version of the film,this time with more realistic colors and tones than it did for the original colorized version.Legend always has done very superb and very very good jobs with the colorization process of their films to DVD and also for giving us the restored B&W versions as well and also with the very seldom extras that come with it (hence the four-star rating).The extras include,as I've stated in some previous reviews for the Temple DVD's,the same unrestored trailers for both "Heidi" and "Little Miss Broadway" that've appeared on pretty much every Fox/Legend Shirley Temple release so far and also a nice little Fox Movietone clip of Shirley on the beach which runs only a very short 41-seconds.
Purists will definitely stick to the original black & white version,but this film has definitely gotten the best to its critics over the years and having both restored versions on the disc makes this an another nice purchase to classic family film fans or film buffs all over.Well recommended DVD !

Shirley is the most precious little girl I've ever seen and this movie did nothing for her ! I am like a huge Temple fan but I think this movie was a waste . I think this was one of her worst films.It hasn't even a good story line. Shirley was cute in it,but the movie was playing boring

Frank Morgan plays Shirley's thieving old grandfather who would cheat his own mother. Every time he is trusted, he betrays that trust and steals again.

How can you resist a movie that puts an American Icon (Shirley Temple) in a climactic sequence featuring a musical stage revue of "Uncle Tom's Cabin", complete with a full chorus of black-face minstrels? It's like the best and worst of two eras of American history meeting in one unholy, quease-inducing but undeniably compelling tableau. The journey to this jaw-dropping climax ain't bad, either, as Dimples features fine production values and performances all around, telling the story of a juvenile street performer in New York in the 1850s, (ab)used as a front for his theiving ways by her grandfather, a down-on-his-heels music teacher named Professor Appleby who is a Dickensian mix of Fagin and Mr Micawber, a role essayed by Frank Morgan (the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz) in an even more vivid portrayal of a born charlatan. This shabby genteel figure even keeps a "manservant" who, if all the minstrelsy isn't enough for you, is a mentally-deficient black man played by Stepin Fetchit in a performance that is maliciously funny. He had the last laugh.

I love little Shirley Temple singing and acting, but this movie is not the best. If you like Shirley and a collector of her movies than go for it.