Dimples (1936) review: Cute, weird, and slightly uncomfortable

If you have a high tolerance for aggressive 1930s cuteness, Dimples is a weirdly fascinating watch today. Anyone looking for a cozy, slightly dusty old-school musical will probably enjoy it, but if you can't stand Shirley Temple doing her trademark dimple-cheeked pouting, stay far away.

The premise is pretty wild when you actually stop to think about it. Shirley plays a kid named Dimples Appleby who lives in 1850s New York with her grandfather, played by Frank Morgan.

Her grandpa is a total fraud and a petty thief who uses his granddaughter's street performances to distract crowds while he robs them blind. Yes, really.

You might know Frank Morgan as the bumbling Wizard from The Wizard of Oz. Here, he basically plays the same guy, but with a much worse moral compass and some seriously sticky fingers. 🤫

There is this one scene early on where he steals a expensive watch, and his face goes through about five different stages of panic. It's genuinely funny, mostly because Morgan is so good at looking guilty.

The movie doesn't really judge him for being a criminal, though. It just treats his pickpocketing like a quirky hobby, which is kind of hilarious in a dark way.

Shirley Temple is, well, Shirley Temple. She taps her feet, she beams at the camera, and she sings with that incredibly loud, clear voice that made her the biggest star in the world back then.

But the movie gets noticeably better once she stops performing and just trades insults with the adults. She has this weirdly mature energy that makes the rest of the cast look like they are the ones acting like kids.

The plot has that creaky, Victorian melodrama vibe you also get in something like The River of Romance. Everyone is either cartoonishly good or cartoonishly snobbish, with very little middle ground.

Eventually, a wealthy lady named Mrs. Drew decides she wants to rescue Dimples from her poverty. This leads to a lot of stuff about high society and theater that frankly, dragged a bit.

And then we get to the third act, which features a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

This is where things get... very uncomfortable for a modern viewer. Shirley performs in blackface for a portion of the show, playing the character of Topsy.

It is a massive, awkward jolt that reminds you exactly when this movie was made. There is no getting around how cringey it feels to watch now, even if you try to excuse it as a product of its time.

Aside from that big historical roadblock, the film has some neat little details. The street sets look incredibly fake, like they were built out of cardboard and painted in a rush, but that gives them a cozy, theatrical feel.

I also noticed how the extras in the crowd scenes sometimes look completely bored. In one scene where Dimples is singing, you can see a guy in the background who looks like he's trying to remember if he left his oven on.

Here are a few other things that stood out to me:

• The sheer amount of hairspray or whatever they used to keep Shirley's curls perfectly frozen in place.
• Frank Morgan trying to hide a stolen grandfather clock under his coat. (Okay, not a real clock, but it felt like it).
• The dog in the street scenes who clearly wanted to be anywhere else.

If you can get past the extremely dated elements, there is some genuine entertainment here. It's short, it's fast, and it has Frank Morgan being a lovable scoundrel.

Just don't expect a masterpiece. It's a shiny piece of 1930s fluff that accidentally reveals some pretty weird historical attitudes.