Skippy

I couldn't quite give Skippy a 7. Close, but not quite. The film is like a Little Rascals episode only feature length, slightly more adult in atmosphere, and overall better written. One could look at Skippy as a glance back into what childhood looked like before the internet and really, before television. It isn't quite a perfect portrayal of those days, but it wouldn't be all that far off. Apparently, there is a companion piece, Sooky. If it should ever be shown on TCM, I'll make sure to see it. I say that as a nod to Skippy and its cast of kids, including Jackie Cooper, who 45 years later portrayed Clark Kent's boss, Perry White.

Paramount Pictures was one step from receivership until Mae West and Bing Crosby signed with them during the Depression. But this film I'm sure kept the wolf from the door for a little while. Skippy which is based on a popular comic strip of the day was the career role for little Jackie Cooper while he was a child star.

Cooper was one of the few child stars to have a real career in front of and behind the camera and it was a long one. He also played a wide range of characters. Yet when his name is mentioned today the first thing that comes to mind is the little kid with the knickers and somewhat pouty, but with a good heart and a set of values that he did not get from home completely.

Skippy is the child of town doctor Willard Robertson and Helen Bennett and he's a good kid at heart. But Robertson who's a fundamentally decent man doesn't want him playing with the kids on the other side of the railroad tracks. That's shantytown and there were plenty of them in America in 1931. Skippy is a film of its time although I'll bet that people who lived in those shantytowns did not part with the nickel needed to see Skippy, it was needed for important things like food.

Robertson as director of the board of health also wants to clean the place up. But with scant regard for the people who live there. So when Skippy makes friends with a slum kid who lives there played by Jackie Coogan's brother Robert and his mother Helen Jerome Eddy and their dog it turns out to be a turning point in everyone's lives.

With his decent, but thickheaded father and a mother oblivious to all except what's within the four walls of their home, Skippy grows up with an intuitive sense set of good values. It's what makes Jackie Cooper's character such an appealing one to this day.

Skippy brought home a Best Director Oscar for Norman Taurog and a few other nominations. Taurog gets it for some superb direction for a flock of kid players who are the ones carrying the film. It musn't have been easy, but the results are great.

Skippy is a film firmly within the Depression times it was made, but it has a universal family appeal to this day.

SKIPPY (1931) has nothing to do with the Childhood of a certain obnoxious and whining 'Sports Commentator' on ESPN, whose arm waving and mugging for the camera is reminiscent of Benito Mussolini. Nor is it directly related to a similarly named (but excellent) peanut butter. It is a heart warming film about Children and their simple but important life forming adventures.

The film centers around two (2) characters SKIPPY (Jackie Cooper) and his new found friend SOOKY (Robert Coogan). SKIPPY is from the right side of the tracks, SOOKY the wrong, Shanty Town, which SKIPPY finds far more interesting then his native haunts. Excellently directed by Norman Taurog, slighting neither the Child actors nor the Adult supporting cast, there is a fine morality lesson here showing the importance of friendship and loyalty, both in joyful times and in tragedy. It also shows the importance of parental understanding for Children's problems.

Norman Taurog won the Best Directing Oscar for his sensitive handling of what could have become maudlin. Sad to say this film is seldom seen today nor its sequel SOOKY (1931). The film is appropriate today for Parents to watch with their young Children ages four (4) to eight (8) for it still has lessons of value to teach. After those ages in the 21st Century they will be to bored or cynical to care and that's a shame.

Note for the Historical challenged, Mussolini (1883>1945) was a minor league Fascist dictator in the first half of the 20th Century. History has not been kind too his legacy. Nor will it be to his imitators, take note IL BAYLESS.

P.S. Rewatched today on TCM (02/22/2011) to see if our review holds up, IT DOES! So our only conclusion from the negative votes is that these must be from 'kiss-asses' to SKIPPY 'Peanut Butter For Brains' BAYLESS or sycophants of the ESPN (Eastern SeaBoard Propaganda Network)! Neither attributes flattering to those voters! As for the Peanut Butter SKIPPY. It is our favorite, low fat, extra crunchy.

"Skippy" is a very unusual film because young Jackie Cooper was only 8 years-old when he made the movie...and was nominated for Best Actor! In addition, the film was nominated for Best Picture and the director, Norman Taurog, received the Oscar for Best Direction*.

The story is similar to a full-length Little Rascals episode...minus the humor. Apparently folks in the early 30s ate up schmaltzy stories featuring kids....and the public ate this one up!

Skippy (Cooper) is a child who lives in a lovely home and his father is the head of the board of health. However, his dad is also rather snobby and doesn't want Skippy playing with the poor kids who live on the other side of the tracks (literally). However, Skippy likes the kids in Shantytown....and who can blame him since the kids living near him are annoying...with Jackie Searl playing the usual sort of annoying brat he played in most every film! However, Skippy's new friend, Sooky (Robert Coogan--Jackie Coogan's brother) is in a lot of trouble, as the nasty dog catcher got his dog and he can't afford to pay for the return of the mutt. So, Skippy tries to help out the best he can.

This is a modestly enjoyable film. My only complaint about it is the ending...it gives the audience everything they probably wanted but it wasn't logical at all. It's a shame, as the film was quite good until this 'out of nowhere' ending. Still, overall it's well worth seeing....particularly if you have a high tolerance for schmaltz.







*In his autobiography, Jackie Cooper recounted a story about the director (who was also his uncle). Apparently, the script called for Cooper to cry and the boy was having difficulty doing it. So, Taurog apparently told a crew member to 'take the dog out and shoot it'...and the crew member apparently shot a gun into the air to make it sound like they really DID do it! The boy cried...and never forgave his uncle for this! And, frankly, I can't blame the boy and think Taurog was a bit of a monster.

... and even though it was a Best Picture nominee, I figured a film about a comic strip character involving child stars would probably not be up my alley. But it was quite good.

Skippy (Jackie Cooper) is the only child of Dr. And Mrs. Skinner. Dr. Skinner is the head of the city board of health and has condemned the poor side of town - "shanty town" - to be destroyed because he considers it a breeding ground for disease and ordered all of the inhabitants to move. I guess he just can't figure why they haven't, without prompting, put a few cases of Perrier water in the back of the family Suburban and signed a lease for a more sanitary upscale condo, to put it in very modern and similarly elitist terms. So dad is overconcerned with work and a bit clueless.

Over in shanty town, which is a place Skippy's parents don't want him to play, Skippy has made friends with Sooky. Sooky has a problem because the dogcatcher, Nubbins, has caught Sooky's dog and it will take three dollars - a princely sum in 1931 for a child - to get the dog the needed license and rescue him from being killed, which is scheduled to happen in three days if the boys don't return with enough money for a dog license.

Perhaps I had a bad attitude going into this because of all of the saccharine movies involving child stars made over at MGM during the same time period, movies that are very available thanks to Ted Turner's largesse during the 1980s. Maybe it was because, besides Jackie Cooper, the only other child star's name that I recognized was that of Mitzi Green, the lone child star of the period contracted to Paramount and extremely annoying in every role I had seen her in. Fortunately, though, she is in small doses here and doing what she did best - being annoying.

At any rate, this really is good entertainment for child and adult alike that doesn't drag at any point. Some of the adults actually learn something and it also illustrates that poor people can really be complete jerks for no good reason just as easily as rich people can.