Come Back, Miss Pipps (1941)

On Mickey's birthday, Miss Pipps, the school teacher, serves cake and ice cream during school hours. Sour old Mr. Pratt, head of the school board, stumbles on the festivities and has Miss ... See full summary »

Director:

Edward L. Cahn

Writers:

Hal Law, Robert A. McGowan

Stars:

Barbara Bedford, Joan Blake, Robert Blake

Cast

Credited cast:
Barbara Bedford	...	Angry parent
Joan Blake	...	Student Mr. Pratt Is Mean
Robert Blake	...	Mickey (as Mickey Gubitosi)
Billy Bletcher	...	Froggy's father
Byron Foulger	...	Attorney Arthur Prince
Teresa Mae Glass
James Gubitosi
Sara Haden	...	Miss Pipps, the teacher
Darla Hood	...	Darla
Billy 'Froggy' Laughlin	...	Froggy
George 'Spanky' McFarland	...	Spanky
Tommy McFarland	...	Audience
Christian Rub	...	Mr. Swenson, the caretaker
Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas	...	Buckwheat
Leon Tyler	...	Mr. Smith

Storyline

On Mickey's birthday, Miss Pipps, the school teacher, serves cake and ice cream during school hours. Sour old Mr. Pratt, head of the school board, stumbles on the festivities and has Miss Pipps fired. The Our Gang conspire to save her job by inviting all the parents to a special meeting. There the gang stage a melodrama, with Mr. Pratt portrayed as Simon Legree. The parents react by demoting Mr. Pratt to janitor. They appoint kindly Mr. Swanson, the current janitor, to head the school board. And of course they reinstate Miss Pipps as school teacher. Sometime later, in an act of forgiveness, Miss Pipps and the gang hold a birthday party for Pratt who is then humbled by the experience.

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Plot Keywords:

school | birthday party | our gang | forgiveness | schoolteacher | 

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Genres:

Family | Comedy | Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 1941 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

10 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Spoofs Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

User Reviews

Character Actors Sara Haden & Charles Wilson Shine in the Spotlight

COME BACK MISS PIPPS is a unique Our Gang entry in that adult actors dominate the story rather than the kids. Sara Haden stars as the beloved schoolteacher Miss Pipps whose "softness" with her students is despised by mean old school board head Mr. Pratt (Charles Wilson) who has her fired. The children are outraged and decide to perform a play showing how unfair Miss Pipps' dismissal was and what a nasty character old Mr. Pratt is.

This film is really Haden and Wilson's show and they are terrific. Sara Haden, best known for playing "Aunt Milly" in the Andy Hardy film series, charms as the gentle youngish spinster whose whole life is her students. Charles Wilson was in almost 200 films from 1920-1941, though usually in small and often unbilled roles. He is perhaps best known for playing another evil man named Pratt as the crooked lawyer in W. C. Fields' TILLIE AND GUS (1933). This was sadly Mr. Wilson's final film; he died about three weeks before this film was released in October 1941. His role is a fitting swan song to his career and his stock persona as a crabby and sinister old man, his character fleshed here out to add a touch of vulnerability and pathos. There's an extra touch of melancholy here in knowing 1941 audiences watching this film obviously had know idea that this unheralded but familiar player had passed away just days before the film's release.