Too Many Parents

Parents with children they can't or won't take care of. Back then, if they had money, they sent them to military school. That's what happens to several of the children who wind up at Colman Military Academy. The movie concentrates on George Ernest. His mother died in childbirth, and his father is an engineer who works around the world, and never even so much as writes him a letter.

If you wanted someone who could direct children, you couldn't do better than Robert F. McGowan, who ran the Our Gang unit for Hal Roach for the first eight or so years of its existence. He gets good performances out of the children here, including Billy Lee and Sherwood Bailey -- he gets a fine comic opening scene wrangling with a board of directors and Porter Hall -- and he's blessed with some fine adult performers in this Paramount programmer: Sylvia Breamer in her last movie, Frances Farmer in her first, Henry Travers, Howard Hickman, and a loving turn by Doris Lloyd, who takes home all the children stuck at school for Christmas.

Not every parent who sends children to boarding school is negligent. But you'd have to be a hard-hearted Hannah not to weep for the children here.

A typical B-film from Paramount of interest today mostly for the debut performance of Frances Farmer in a sympathetic role as the niece of a military school commander. Farmer is surrounded by scores of child actors (including Billy Lee and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer in a hilarious cameo) and interacts with them beautifully. In fact all of the children are amazingly natural and unforced in their performances. There are of course the requisite heartstring-tugging moments, and a needlessly melodramatic climax featuring a child going over a waterfall in a boat, but the film holds together surprisingly well for its age. Paramount was surprised by the rave reviews this programmer got, especially for Farmer, but they shouldn't have been. This is heads and shoulders above most of the B films which studios routinely churned out on a virtual weekly basis.

In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made quite a few films about the horrors of awful parenting. Most of the films were about young people turning to crime or drugs or liquor...and they were, generally, terrible movies. The scripts were pretty bad and the films seemed more salacious than educational. I thought "Too Many Parents" would be yet another one of these schlocky films. Boy, was I surprised!

The story is set at a military boarding school for kids. Many of the children there were dumped in the institution by parents who simply had better things to do than parent their children. The story centers on young Phillip (George Ernest)....a really sweet boy but a very sad one as well. Although his father paid him almost no attention and didn't even bother visiting, Phillip kept up the appearance that his father cared. He even went so far as to write letters to himself which were supposedly from his father in order to try to fool everyone about his painful relationship (or lack of a relationship) with his dad. Unfortunately, the school Superintendent eventually finds out and intends to punish the boy for lying. What's next for the poor kid?

This film is unabashedly schmaltzy and will definitely tug at your heart. Yet, despite being a bit obvious, I loved the film because it was so well written and because it really packs an emotional wallop. Well made...well worth seeing.

A couple things to note. First, late in the film you see a cameo by Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer of the Our Gang/Little Rascals fame. Second, if you get a chance, read the IMDB bio on George Ernest....he grew into an incredibly brave guy and his WWII exploits are incredible!

TOO MANY PARENTS (Paramount, 1936), directed by Robert McGowan, is a "B" grade feature with a misleading title. Misleading as the title may be, there's nothing misleading about how its screen treatment (by Virginia Van Upp and Doris Malloy) centers around boys, four boys in fact, attending Colman Military Academy where parents seldom take part of their lives. A pity TOO MANY PARENTS wasn't a major "A" production considering the truth on how some parents can place their children in a school and the only connection is mailing in tuition money with no letter attached. Yet, TOO MANY PARENTS is a prime example of how a minor 73 minute programmer can be just as good as any 90 minute all-star production. One can even imagine how 1936 theater goers attending TOO MANY PARENTS might have felt watching familiar yet not quite famous screen personalities recognized from some of their previous film performances. One can also imagine how they must have felt coming to see a movie starring someone named Frances Farmer who never appeared in a motion picture before. TOO MANY PARENTS in general doesn't belong to Farmer nor to the parents, but to the boy actors.

As the credits fill the screen with the same underscoring to "Something About Romance" lifted from the Claudette Colbert comedy, THE GILDED LILY (1935), the plot development gets underway with the introduction to the boys, briefly depicting their history and family background. 1) Clarence Talbot Jr., (Sherwood Bailey), is an orphaned rich kid and heir to the Talbot Trust Company who insists on being called "Butch." An unruly child in desperate need of discipline, Mr. Saunders (Porter Hall), the family lawyer, talks him into going to military school; 2) Billy Miller (Billy Lee), lives in the theater with his acting parents. (The "Sweet Marijuana" production number lifted from Paramount's 1934 musical-mystery, MURDER AT THE VANITIES in briefly inserted here). Rather than becoming an actor like his dad, he's rather be a normal everyday kid playing with the other boys. While taking a walk outside the theater, Billy meets up with; 3) Clinton Meadows (Buster Phelps) sitting outside the court of domestic relations while his divorced parents and their new spouses go through a custody settlement, thus having Clinton to be the boy with "too many parents." Because of these complications, the judge (Jonathan Hale) sides with Clinton's decision to go to military school; and 4) Philip Stewart (George Ernest), age 11, already a military school cadet promoted in rank, is the son of a prosperous New York City businessman (Lester Matthews) whose mother died in childbirth. As much as Mark Stewart has nothing in common with his own son, the boy would love nothing more than be with him or at least have his father come up and visit with him once in a while. To impress the other guys, Philip writes lengthy letters to himself signing his father's name to them.

Also at the academy are Sally Colman (Frances Farmer), a young woman who takes special interest in the boys; her uncle "Ned," Colonel Coleman (Howard C. Hickman), a by-the-book superintendent strict on anyone committing the worst crime for military school - lying; and Mr. Wilkins (Henry Travers), a kind-hearted janitor who plays Santa Claus for the boys unable to go home during the Christmas season. Of the four boys depicted, it's George Ernest who's the centerpiece of attention once his character is introduced. His most earnest scene comes when his Philip meets public humiliation by being losing his rank of honor. This particular scene was used in brief film clip from Arts & Entertainment cable channel's "Biography" segment in the life and career of Frances Farmer.

Though its director (Robert McGowen), is as unknown as many of the actors, his resume, interestingly consists mostly on short subjects, mainly those highly popular "Our Gang" comedies. As much as McGowen keeps the dramatic scenes moving at a pleasant pace, he briefly returns to familiar territory of a western stage show segment (staged by Ethel Meglin) featuring an assortment of kids, ranging from Billy Lee's spectacular tap dance to Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer from the "Our Gang" comedies, as Texas Bill, singing "White Gardenia" very badly, intentionally of course, to hilarious results.

Unseen on broadcast television since the 1960s, it seems unlikely that TOO MANY PARENTS will ever be shown on television again, cable or otherwise. The acting by all, especially newcomer, Frances Farmer, is natural and believable. TOO MANY PARENTS, quite impressive, and at times, genuine, may not solve the problems presented, but surely does indicate how some of these problems need to be resolved. It should be of some interest to those very much into the film career of Frances Farmer, and even of further interest for anyone hoping to ever get a chance to watch this very rare find. Its availability on DVD from an independent company might assure TOO MANY PARENTS some well-deserved rediscovery. (**)

After Robert F. McGowan left the Our Gang shorts series, he also left the Hal Roach Studios and went to Paramount where he did both shorts and features of which this was one of them. Too Many Parents concerns some military school boys, many of whom were once in Our Gang. Among them who worked under McGowan were Sherwood Bailey and George Ernest. Another kid-a tap dancer named Billy Lee-had also appeared in an OG short called Mike Fright which was directed by the then-current series helmer, Gus Meins. Two then-current members of the group who appeared in this were Jerry Tucker as a bartender in a sketch and Carl "Alfafla" Switzer who, yes, sings off-key here to hilarious effect and who McGowan had previously directed in his last OG short, Divot Diggers. This was mostly a drama with comedy elements. So on that note, Too Many Parents was pretty entertaining for its time. P.S. Since I always like to cite players from my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life, in other films, here it's not only Switzer but also Henry Travers who appears as the kindly janitor and mentor to the boys.