Dora's Dunking Doughnuts (1933)

"Dora's Dunking Doughnuts" is an American black-and-white film from almost 85 years ago and it is actually an early sound movie already. Director and writers are not familiar to me, but the cast includes a couple known names, such as the highly prolific Andy Clyde and of course Shirley Temple. No surprise that these two are also listed with their real first names while actress Ethel Sykes plays Dora, the title character and she is not that well-known really. Okay, I personally wonder if the guys who created the famous food chain have watched that film before. I must say the donuts in here looked delicious and yeah have you seen that scene where the filling splashes out of the donut, first on him, then on her. This looks so sexual by today's standards, even if obviously it wasn't intended that way. Unfortunately, apart from that scene, it is not a particularly good video and not on par with the "Our Gang" films from that era. Don't watch it. Maybe eat a donut instead.

Early in her film career, Shirley Temple appeared in quite a few shorts. So, although she was HUGELY famous in the 1930s, you can see her in supporting roles in small films up through 1934. Most of them are pretty dreadful and "Dora's Dunking Doughnuts" is certainly pretty much the norm for these early films when it comes to quality.This film stars Andy Clyde as an incredibly irresponsible school teacher. The film begins with him making eyes at Dora at her doughnut stand--even though school should have started already. But, the kids are an odd lot and they come get him instead of just running amok! And, once school begins, you see they are REALLY odd--breaking into song and dance numbers in the classroom!! When Dora creates the ultimate doughnut(?), Clyde decides to help her by having his kids go on the radio and sing its praises. Really. And how does it all end? Well, you probably won't care but I'll say no more in case you want to see it and be surprised. Overall, the film is pretty limp--with lots of singing, a dumb plot and very real little comedy. Not good by any standard.

Although this film has come down to us as a Shirley Temple short, the stars are really Andy Clyde playing a school teacher and his fiancé who runs a place called Dora's Dunkin' Donuts. I wonder if some famous company might not have stolen part of that name.Andy's kids in the local school have been formed into a musical orchestra including Shirley Temple who's there just because she's cute and adorable. Andy's fiancé Ethel Sykes get the bright idea to use the kids on a local radio station to advertise her place and the great donuts she makes.Andy Clyde comes off as a kind of poor man's Mr. Chips as the kids range in age from the teens to barely school age as is Shirley. The orchestra isn't exactly the Philharmonic and could even give competition to Harold Hill and his 'think' system from the music man. But it's all kind of nice fun and definitely one of Shirley Temple's better short subjects.

The thing that really struck me about this short comedy is that it is all about a guy who makes a radio commercial for a local donut shop because he actually cares about the well-being of its owner, a woman named Dora with whom he is clearly romantically interested (and who is clearly romantically interested in him as well). In a time when we are bombarded with obnoxious advertisements and endless streams of commercials, it is indeed interesting to look back to a time when it would be acceptable to make a movie about making a commercial.Today, commercials have become so widespread that they're like a cancer on society, you can't go anywhere anymore without being advertised at, they even show commercials before the previews start at the movie theaters now. And I thought I spent $10 to get in so I could get AWAY from the commercials.Shirley Temple is not the star of this short film, although it's easy to see why she is so good at coming to the forefront, because as is to be expected, she steals every scene that she's in, even though she is the only person who doesn't fit in at all. The film concerns a school band taught by a charming teacher named Andy, although all of the students appear to be about junior high school age, except for 5 year old Shirley.Unfortunately, the movie loses its way completely in the second half, with the thin script being abandoned completely at about the time that people start fighting. An improvised one-man performance of Little Red Riding Hood is thrown in out of nowhere, and then we are treated to a couple of pie throwing sight gags (which are not entirely without effect) before the movie makes short work of solving the crisis that it introduced about Dora's struggling bakery, as well as the budding romance between her and Andy. It wastes a lot of time in the last act and is hardly up to par with the short comedies of the time, but is still a charming little film.