"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.

Shirley Temple is only a supporting character in this ensemble role. Dora runs a Doughnut shop in town and is smitten with the teacher who rides his bicycle every day on his way to school. This film was only done when Shirley was 5 years old. While she is small, she certainly steals the spotlight. Anyway, the teacher and Dora the Doughnut lady flirt with each other. Then one day, she sends a note to come in a hurry. She has found a way to make her Doughnuts better. The teacher and the class find a way to get her more customers via the radio commercial since this short was before television's time. Anyway, the story is cute an all. Shirley is fine and adorable. The other actors do their job. It's not classic cinema but a relatively easy short to watch.

This enjoyable short feature has a little bit of almost everything, from slapstick to romance, from light comedy to musical variety acts, and more. Although Shirley Temple's winning presence is probably the main reason why it is now remembered, Andy Clyde is really the star, in a well-chosen role as a good-natured but rather disorientated schoolteacher.The simple but amusing story has Clyde's character organizing his musically talented students to make a radio commercial, on behalf of his friend Dora and her delicious donuts. It features the kinds of pleasantly illogical plot turns that are fun to watch when they are handled properly. The wide variety of material does not always fit together seamlessly, but overall it works pretty well.Although Temple is the best-known of the cast members now, she really only appears for occasional moments, though when she does, of course, she usually steals the scene. Clyde gives a consistent performance that helps to hold everything together, and Bud Jamison and the rest of the supporting cast help out as well. There's nothing fancy here, just good light entertainment that is easy to watch.

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.