Product Details

• Actors: Shirley Temple, Frank Morgan, Robert Kent, Helen Westley, Stepin Fetchit
• Directors: William A. Seiter
• Writers: Nunnally Johnson, Arthur Sheekman, Nat Perrin
• Producers: Nunnally Johnson
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301802608
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #326,765 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The pathologically adorable Shirley Temple provides a neat escape hatch from modern movies' irony and cynicism in Dimples, a 1936 classic about a down-and-out 6-year-old busker sharing a squalid Bowery flat with her scoundrel of a grandfather, the Professor. When Dimples and her posse of ragamuffin performers score a gig at a rich old lady's party, the thieving Professor pulls the plug on everyone's good time by five-fingering the guests' furs. Dimples is nabbed but negotiates her freedom from fat-cat hostess Caroline with nothing more than her cuteness. Indeed, the lonely widow is so smitten by Dimples that soon she's offering the money-grubbing but goodhearted Professor five grand for the girl. No amount of money, of course, could buy the precocious Dimples from her grandpa, whom she considers "a gentleman and a scholar," but when he winds up in a heap of trouble for letting $800 slip through his fingers--money that was supposed to go toward costumes for a play in which Dimples stars--his only hope is to cash in on Caroline's desire for Dimples. The great Bill Robinson directs all Temple's dance numbers, none of which dashes nostalgic viewers' notions that a dose of sugar and spice and everything nice needn't be nothing special. Even those overly susceptible to sneering will succumb to this film's sweetness. The black and white film is also available in a colorized version. --Tammy La Gorce

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dimples,a lovely and charming film, April 25, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Heilbronn,Deutschland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dimples [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Research Needed on Cover Material, October 3, 2002

By 

CJS (Hagerstown, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dimples (DVD)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pure vintage Temple fluff, April 10, 2005

By 

Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dimples (DVD)

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.