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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
Video Description
Ever cheerful, little dimples sings for money in the bowery while her thieving grandfather pickpockets the crowd she attracts. When a society lady adopts her, Dimples is discovered by the woman's nephew who needs someone to play Little Eva in his upcoming production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin".