Dimples
By Lisa WoodworthAverage User Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Shirley Temple, as Dimples, stars in the play Uncle Tom's Cabin, a story that wrestles with the issues of slavery.
This movie gets mixed reviews from me.
I loved it because it has more singing and dancing then other Shirley Temple movies we have seen. My daughter just started tap dance lessons so she loves watching a pro like Shirley do a number. That said I had a really hard time watching it for its portrayal of black people -- where all the black actors were either servants, or slow, or both. In fact, the black people in the play weren't even black, rather white people wearing gaudy make-up. I realize that at the time this was made, this was just the way things were, and that the play Dimples starred in, in this movie, is all about trying to change those times. Digressing... I am sure that this was more of an issue for me, than it was for my three-year-old daughter, who has a pure and genuine love for everybody.
This sadness of history aside; Shirley Temple, as adorable as ever, plays Dimples, an orphaned girl who lives with her thieving grandfather. She loves her grandfather and doesn't want people to believe he's as dishonest as he is. She defends him and even takes the blame for him after he steals a clock from a rich lady who Shirley later goes to live with in order to keep her grandfather from going to jail.
Determined to become worthy of his granddaughter's love, Dimple's grandfather tries to change his sinful ways.
Shirley is asked to be the child star in a play. Shirley agrees, under the condition that grandpa can be a part of the play as well. He is then entrusted with ALL of the cash for the play, as assistant to the play's producer. He promises to treat the money as his own.
Can he be relied upon for such an important job, and more importantly, can he be trusted with such a big temptation?
