Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Five LIttle Peppers and How They Grew (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

As this film opened it became clear within minutes that this here was Columbia's answer to the Andy Hardy series from MGM. The story focuses on a widowed mother and her five children who are growing up poor. It turns out that the dead husband had control of a mine, which is now worth a lot of money but the family doesn't realize it. Soon a rich man (Clarence Kolb) who knows the value wants to steal it from them but he begins to have a change of heart after getting to know the children. FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND HOW THEY GREW tries so painfully hard to be sweet and cute that at times you can't help but roll your eyes. However, just like the bitter old man in the movie, the kids and story eventually win you over and in the end this here really turned out to be a cute little movie. Yes, the story is predictable and there's some questionable acting and story lines but there's still no question that this movie was made to be sweet and not win awards. I was really surprised at how much I began to like this family and want to see them overcome all the odds that were stacked up against them. The oldest daughter Polly (Edith Fellows) was certainly a charmer and manages to really bring you into this family. I thought the other children were cute enough as well but I also really enjoyed the performance of Kolb and especially how he changed throughout the film. At just 58-minutes the film runs by super fast and I think fans of these family "B" movies should enjoy it.

Back in the 1930s, you'd hardly know that they were in the midst of the Depression when you watched movies. Hardly any seemed to acknowledge that the country's outlook was bleak and that so many were out of work....and films generally featured rich and happy folks. "Five Little Peppers and How They Grew" is unusual because it features a very poor family that struggles to make ends meet.

When the film begins, you learn that some rich industrialist if looking for the heirs of John Pepper, a mining engineer who owns 50% of a mine. The problem is they have no idea who the heirs are and the Pepper family is poor and completely oblivious to their good fortune.

Much of the film has to do with the Pepper children all working to make a cake for their mother's birthday. In the process of getting money and supplies for the cake, they meet a nice rich boy who is desperately lonely for friends. Naturally, the writers were trying to say to the audience that financial wealth is NOT the same as true wealth...such as the way the Peppers loved each other. Not surprisingly, the boy's family just happens to be the ones looking for the Pepper heirs. So what's next? See the film.

"Five Little Peppers" is a very nice film...sweet and the sort of thing some might think is a bit too schmaltzy. But its message was perfect for the Depression era and folks needed some hope. Overall, a nice little story that you can't help but enjoy...schmaltziness and all.



By the way, if you watch the film look for Tommy Bond playing one of the Pepper kids. In the Little Rascals films, he played Butch--the bully. Here, however, he's a nicer kid...and gave Bond a chance to do something different.

You don't watch a film like this for the plot. It projects a world of morality, common decency and a naïve but infectious positivity in "defiance" of the cynical desire for narratives that almost glorify endless tragedy and suffering. There are plenty of classics that handle tragedy masterfully well but every story doesn't have to be about tragedy. "Feel good" narratives exist, and I'd rather see them in this form than 99% of the drivel we get today.

The craft of fiction is a matter of physically stacking the cards. The art of fiction is doing so in a manner that no one notices that the cards have been stacked. The problem with this movie is that it is easy to see just how the writers went about working the deck. It lacks all spontaneity.

There is a nice gauzy late-depression (1939) feel to it. "Grapes of Wrath" it isn't. There's a poor family of five children and a mother (no father even though one reviewer remembered one) who works hard to keep it all together. The stove smokes in their humble but clean kitchen. There's little food in the pantry. Not far away lives a hideously wealthy old man with his grandson. By contrivance, they are put together, and after a series of near disasters (I never believed there was real jeopardy), things are put aright in a warm and fuzzy way. You sort of knew that this wasn't going to be a tragedy when you saw all those cute kids.

The acting is of the present day sitcom variety, i.e. not very good, litotes for bad. But there is one exception. The little girl, youngest of the children, is marvelous. Too often very young actors sing-song their recited lines. Not so here. What ever became of her? This is a rather nice movie to watch when you're not feeling well. It passes the time while not requiring a thing from you.

Very mild family comedy about the Pepper family, run by mother DOROTHY PETERSON, the father having died in the collapse of a copper mine in which he was part owner.

EDITH FELLOWS is the oldest member of the family including two girls and three boys. They befriend a wealthy rich boy, Jasper King (RONALD SINCLAIR) and the story is a series of misadventures with the poor family getting much needed help from their wealthier acquaintance.

What strikes me is how youthful RONALD SINCLAIR is in this film, as compared to one made just a few years later--DESPERATE JOURNEY with Errol Flynn. Sinclair had a grown-up role as a sergeant in that wartime film. He was an excellent child actor who reminds me somewhat of Freddie Bartholomew in appearance and acting.

Pretty bland stuff, with children actually having good manners and respectful of authority--1939 was a completely different era. The plot line contains nothing more serious than a case of the measles that quarantines everyone in the household, including the wealthy guests.

An easily forgotten programmer of a bygone era.