Good movie but grossly overrated

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Can you imagine Shirley Temple as one of the Bowery Boys? Well, here in 1852, she plays a ragamuffin street entertainer being raised by a pickpocket grandfather (lovable Frank Morgan). Dimples gets the attention of an aging society matron (equally lovable Helen Westley) who, for some reason, has a hatred of the theater and everything that it stands for. Her nephew (Robert Kent) wants to put on a Broadway production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and use Dimples for the role of Little Eva. Desperate for money after being cheated into buying a fake watch for $800 of the show's money, Morgan agrees to let Westley take Temple in for $5000.00. Eventually, he sells HER the fake watch for $1000 and stays on with her to be with Shirley. The show goes on but when Westley finds out that the watch was fake, she tries to have Morgan arrested. But then she sees Temple on stage dying as Little Eva and has to face both her hatred towards the theater and her decision to imprison Temple's grandfather.It's a predictable story with a few musical moments, including a minstrel show at the end that might raise a few eyebrows. But that was life in Hollywood in the 30's, and producers didn't think about who they might offend then, let alone the future. Add Stepin Fetchit as Westley's servant, and you have double the offense for some audiences.Minus this socially unaware concept fortunately gone (but available to be seen to show how wrong it was), "Dimples" is a cute little film that was made during Temple's heyday as Box Office gold. She's always been a little too cutesy pie for my tastes, but I can understand how late depression audiences could take her into their hearts as a sign of hope for the future. I much prefer the talents of the veterans here, Frank Morgan and Helen Westley, who manage to avoid being background furniture when sharing scenes with her. They are adorable. Here, they are the type of grandparents many audiences could relate to or desire for their own. Morgan, rascally yet undeniably charming, and Westley, somewhat cranky, but oh, that heart of gold, are well paired here. Both had very long careers in films, and Westley seems to have been overlooked as a major character player. She could play gruff characters like Parthy in 1936's "Show Boat" or be lovable like the blind grandmother opposite Temple in "Heidi". Try not to fall in love with her here or in the 1937 Loretta Young screwball comedy "Cafe Metropole". She's also wonderful in the 1934 version of "Anne of Green Gables".While not outstanding, "Dimples" is still quite likable in spite of its shortcomings. Overlook the bad taste of black-face and stereotypes and a cute little film emerges.

Minstrel Shows, Stepin Fetchit, Blackface........kind of makes you long for the good old days when the colored knew their place. Negroes far and wide will once more call for their mammies when they take a gander at this 79 minute romp in the antebellum South. Shirley Temple couldn't have poisoned the well more if she came out and tap danced in a Klan hood. Once more playing the adorable waif (cast with the kind-hearted but sketchy grandfatherly type), Dimples shuffles her way into your big ol' racist heart with a big helping of maudlin sentimentality. Zanuck proved that with a commodity like Temple, no script was too hokey. Spike Lee could learn a thing or two about directing from this one. Who says the Hollywood musical is dead?

This was not one of Shirley Temple's better films and the cast didn't help much. There are several actors and actresses in the film that I like but they couldn't bring the film through to a good movie. The acting was so-so and the script didn't help much at all.Stepin Fetchit did well in a non-credited role but didn't save the movie.In addition Frank Morgan seemed to me to be sleepwalking his way through his role.Some of the cast did what they could but the vehicle didn't allow them to do what they could.All that said, little Miss Temple did what she did so well and almost managed to make it a good movie. She was, however, cast in a mediocre film but was still entertaining. Watch it for her performance.I did winced at the blackface ... 70 years DOES make difference.

DIMPLES (20th Century-Fox, 1936), directed by William A. Seiter, marks the third movie with a title depicting on Shirley Temple's trademark features, following BRIGHT EYES (1934) and CURLY TOP (1935). It also marked the return of the bright-eyed, curly-top, dimpled-child star to 19th Century America, having already won her own Civil War as THE LITTLEST REBEL, and taken charge in post Civil War as THE LITTLE COLONEL. While these 1935 classics featured the legendary dancer Bill Robinson, DIMPLES, which goes further back in time, New York City circa 1850, it credits him only as choreographer to Temple's dance numbers, which are in many ways, first rate.With the opening of a sign reading: "Vote for (Franklin) Pierce in 1850 so he can end the Depression by 1852," the story gets underway with the introduction of Dimples (Shirley Temple), a talented child helping her grandfather, Professor Eustace Appleby (Frank Morgan) to earn extra money by singing and dancing on the street corners of the Bowery along with other urchins of an all kids band. With her grandfather being an unemployed actor, Dimples, who looks up to him as a man of honesty, is unaware that he's a petty thief who picks pockets while she sings and dances to the crowd. The Professor arranges for the children to entertain uptown in the home of the wealthy Caroline Drew (Helen Westley) during an engagement party of her nephew, Allen (Robert Kent) and his fiancé, Betty Loring (Delma Byron). As Dimples performs, the Professor breaks away to steal some articles from Mrs. Drew. Realizing the other kids are right about her grandfather being a thief, Dimples saves him from disgrace by assuming the blame of a stolen cuckoo clock to Mrs. Drew. Because Mrs. Drew is lonely, especially after losing her nephew to the theater (with Allen wanting Dimples to play the lead in his upcoming production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"), and his association with an Cleo Marsh (Astrid Allwyn), an actress, she decides to bring some life into her empty mansion by offering the Professor $5,000 to have Dimples live with her. While this brings some joy and happiness to the dowager, it brings sadness and emptiness to the child who wants nothing more than to be with her grandfather again.In its own little way, DIMPLES resembles POPPY (Paramount, 1936), starring W.C. Fields (reprising his Broadway role as Eustace McGargle) and Rochelle Hudson. With both stories set in the 19th century, Frank Morgan, on loan from MGM, enacts his role almost in the Fields manner. Aside from being middle-aged and addressed as "Professor," they are both father and mother to a female orphan who truly loves them, in spite of their weakness of lying and stealing. Both men make the supreme sacrifice by leaving their loved one in the care of a rich widow who can better provide for them with a brighter future. Morgan's character at one point gets taken in by some thieves (one of them played by John Carradine) in Central Park by purchasing a valuable watch that "Josephine gave to Napoleon" with the $800 entrusted to him by Allen. Discovering the watch to be worthless, he sells the "family heirloom" to Mrs. Drew for $1,000. To avoid being arrested, the Professor hides in the theater by blackening his face where he is mistaken for the real actor (Jack Clifford) playing "Uncle Tom." While Morgan does a commendable job all around, how interesting DIMPLES might have been with W.C. Fields instead of Morgan opposite Temple. While POPPY and DIMPLES mix sentiment with comedy, DIMPLES provides more musical numbers than POPPY. Songs for this production composed by Jimmy McHugh and Ted Koehler include "What Did the Bluebird Say?" "He Was a Dandy," "Picture Me Without You" (all sung by Shirley Temple); "Get on Board" "Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot" (sung by the Hall Johnson Choir during the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" play); and "Dixie-Ana" (performed by Temple and minstrels).While DIMPLES recaptures the bygone era of minstrel shows and the re-enactment of noteworthy scenes taken from Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" during the theater segment with Dimples playing Little Eva, certain areas of the story suffer from slow pacing. The young romantic leads (Kent and Byron) are lifeless while the older players (Morgan and Westley) prove satisfactory. Without the presence of Temple and her ability to bring life to the story through her singing and dancing, DIMPLES might have been a total failure. Temple's singing of "Picture Me Without You" to Morgan comes across a little trite or corny, while "Dixie-Ana" is agreeable enough to rank this one of her finest dance numbers captured on film.Others members of the cast include Berton Churchill, Paul Stanton and Betty Jean Haines as "Topsy" in the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" segment. While it's been customary for resident 20th-Fox black comedian Stepin Fetchit to receive special billing in the cast, in DIMPLES his performance as Cicero, mysteriously goes without any screen credit in most prints, receives fifth billing in closing credits in others.Available on video cassette and DVD for any Temple fan to enjoy in both black and white and colorized formats, DIMPLES was presented over the years on several cable TV networks ranging from The Disney Channel (1980s-90s), American Movie Classics (1996-2000) and presently on the Fox Movie Channel. (**1/2)