DIMPLES (1936) *1/2 I understand why so many people enjoy Shirley Temple movies, I think I do. I can't stand the song and dance numbers, but she doesn't have the worst voice ever and she follows choreography directions (move your foot and smile) very well for a little girl. But that's not it, because I don't think she was the all-time greatest little girl follower of directions. No, there's something more. I've heard it described as charm and charisma and winsomeness and goodness and presence, and those aren't unreasonable or entirely inaccurate descriptions. But if you look closely-and don't if this ruins the magic-I believe that the foundation emotion that you'll see is determination. She was determined to do it right, she was determined to make everyone happy and.appropriately enough determination was also a characteristic of so many of her characters. So I took you on a tour all the way around the Merry-Go-Round just to point out that Shirley Temple was successful because she was typecast? Well, my goodness, that's what everyone says! Frank Morgan's gloriously Shakespearean fraudster is more interesting anyway, I think, and earned him multiple roles in The Wizard of Oz.
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