Line #11 Film/Dimples


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fd52989a34e0d54c0be6be52d2ca2651.png]]
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3	A 1936 period {{musical}} film directed by William A. Seiter, starring Creator/ShirleyTemple and Frank Morgan.
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5	The place is New York City. The time is the years leading up to UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. Sylvia "Dimples" Appleby (Temple) lives with her eccentric grandfather, "The Professor" (Morgan). Supposedly a music teacher, the Professor's actual discipline appears to be thievery. Mrs. Caroline Drew (Helen Westley), a GrandeDame, takes a liking to Dimples and wants to adopt her, but Dimples and the Professor refuse to be separated. Meanwhile, Mrs. Drew has disowned her nephew Allen (Robert Kent) for becoming a Broadway producer, this being back when [[TheWickedStage the theatre wasn't considered reputable]]. Allen plans to adapt the country's latest bestseller, ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'', as a play, and wouldn't you know it, he needs someone to play Little Eva.
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8	!!This film provides examples of:
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10	* AdaptationDecay: The ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' play, from what little is shown of it. Apparently it makes Little Eva the protagonist, turning the title into a SecondaryCharacterTitle, and ending with Eva's death and with the [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] assumption that her father will give Uncle Tom his freedom (just like Dimples' grandfather is freed from arrest in the film's "real" world), as per her LastRequest. Never mind that Eva's death happens in the ''middle'' of the novel, and that soon afterward her father also dies before he can free Tom, who instead is sold to [[{{Sadist}} Simon Legree...]]
11	* UsefulNotes/AntebellumAmerica: The movie is set in New York during this era. An opening title card defines the setting as the time when theatre was becoming more acceptable and slavery was becoming more controversial. That is, it's the DawnOfAnEra for Broadway theatre (and, by extension, the American entertainment industry) while also being near the EndOfAnAge with regards to U.S. slavery. Both these trends come together with the ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' play.
12	* BadLiar: At one point, the Professor is fishing next to a sign reading "no fishing allowed". Dimples, evidently not able to read, asks what the sign says. The Professor, thinking not-so-quickly, replies that it says "no smoking allowed"... forgetting that he's ''also'' smoking.
13	* BanisterSlide: Dimples tries this while in Mrs. Drew's fancy home
14	* {{Blackface}}: The black characters in ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' are played by white actors in blackface. While trying to escape from the police, the Professor puts on blackface makeup and tries to pretend he's an actor in the play.
15	* TheCon: The Professor himself falls for a con with two men acting as shills, causing him to lose the eight hundred dollars needed for the play
16	* EverybodyCries: The effect of Eva's death scene in the ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' play. Mrs. Drew is so moved by it that she changes her mind about the respectability of the theatre.
17	* TheFagin: The Professor's "pupils", i.e. a gang of street urchins including Dimples
18	* MinstrelShows: The final scene of the movie is an in-universe minstrel show. The movie claims, as part of its DawnOfAnEra theme, that this is the first minstrel show to come to New York. Actually, the Virginia Minstrels performed on the New York stage in 1843, about a decade before the film's early 1850s setting. Incidentally, a clip of this scene is featured in the Creator/SpikeLee film ''{{Film/Bamboozled}}''.
19	* JukeboxMusical: The ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' production is apparently this, using popular spirituals. At one point Dimples-as-Eva sings a rousing rendition of "The Gospel Train," and Uncle Tom sings "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" at Eva's deathbed.
20	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Dimples is the only girl amongst the Professor's "pupils"
21	* StreetMusician: The Professor's "pupils", led by Dimples, perform music in the streets, providing a distraction for him to pick pockets. Being innocent, Dimples knows nothing about it, although the other children suspect. When confronted about it, she insists "the Professor is one of the honestest men in the world - and besides, he's reformed!"
22	* ShowWithinAShow: The production of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''
23	* StickyFingers: The Professor

Context Film / Dimples