Little Miss Dimples

SOUND MOVIE MAIN is the spot to discuss non-comedy SOUND films. Go figure.
Gary Johnson
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Little Miss Dimples

Postby Gary Johnson » Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:25 pm

Today's news on the passing of Shirley Temple got me thinking about how my early love of film comedy had the trickle down effect of broadening me out to other Hollywood genres.

I was a young tadpole when I began discovering the twin tandems of Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy appearing on the local late show. At first I was busy trying to discover who exactly these derby wearing gentlemen were. Once that mystery was solved I began looking for other films similar to theirs.
And so L&H beget Our Gang, who beget Temple movies. I had to see if her films were as funny as Our Gang. They weren't but they carried the same amount of charm. plus the musical elements were a new novelty to me. So her films set me off watching other Hollywood musicals and soon I was following Astaire and Crosby as ardently as the Marxes and W.C.

Over on the other side of the coin, my fast fascination with Chaplin automatically made me curious about all silent films. Were they as clever as his? In this case genres didn't matter - comedy, melodrama, swashbuckler.......I watched them all. But since so much of the silent product was remade in the first decade of sound, certain titles tended to jump out at me and peak my interest even more.
"So Mary Pickford had made a version of REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM? I wonder if it is similar to Shirley's version?"

It wasn't. They never were. The only thing that ever seemed to be used in the talkie remakes were the titles. I could never get over wondering why Mary forgot to perform a tap dance while playing the drums in DADDY LONGLEGS. It was definitely the highlight for me from the sound version.

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