Peck's Bad Boy

PECK'S BAD BOY (Fox Studios, 1934), a Sol Lesser production directed by Edward F. Cline, is more of a reworking of an old script brought up to date suggested on a series of magazine articles by George W. Peck rather than the film and stage play that preceded it. For the 1921 First National Pictures silent screen adaptation directed by Sam Wood, the cute and funny story, dealt mostly with the misadventures of the troublesome youngster named Henry Peck (wonderfully played by seven-year-old Jackie Coogan), and his best friend, Buddy (Charles Hatton) as they get into one jam after another, much to the displeasure of his stern father, George W. (James Corrigan), understanding mother (Lillian Leighton), and caring older sister, Letty (Doris May). Anyone expecting this sound version to be a frame by frame remake would be surprised to see how much this one differs from the original. First off, Jackie Cooper's advanced age of 13 would be unlikely to match the hilarious antics of little Coogan's. Secondly, this Peck's bad boy is renamed William while his father, a widower, is called Henry (could this be Henry Peck now an adult raising his very own "bad boy" many years later?). Overall, William, called Bill mostly, isn't as mischievous as the earlier Henry Peck, only a problem child unable to cope and resolve whatever's bothering him. What are Bill Peck's problems? Let's summarize the situation leading to his troubles at hand.

Set in the town of Pleasonton, the starts off happily with Henry Peck (Thomas Meighan) fishing by the lake with his boy, Bill (Jackie Cooper). Next scene encounters the Pecks at a father and son banquet as the neighboring participants are singing, "Father and Sons Together." Bill Peck is then awarded a plaque for his well-written composition titled "My Father," with each ending the evening with a speech. A big change occurs for the Pecks as Mr. Peck receives a telegram from his late wife's sister, Lily (Dorothy Peterson), a recent widow, that she and her son, Horace (Jackie Searle), are accepting his invitation to stay with them. After their arrival by train, things look promising for them until Aunt Lily and Horace prove meddlesome by taking over the household. Not only does Aunt Lily switch bedrooms on the boys, giving Horace the better and larger room, but takes it upon herself by having the family friend/ storytelling handyman, Duffy (O.P. Heggie), who takes up residence in a shack in the woods, fired; and their feisty maid, Martha (Gertrude Howard) to nearly quit. To please his cigar smoking father, Bill makes every effort on becoming friends with his cousin by renaming Horace "Butch" in order to win acceptance with his friends and initiated member of their Excelcier Boys Club. When all else fails, the boys begin fighting, causing Bill's school grades to suffer. Tension builds as Horace spitefully tells Bill he's adopted, causing the boy to act bitter towards his father.

A fine blend of comedy and sentiment in the tradition of Cooper's earlier 1931 successes of both Paramount's SKIPPY and its sequel, SOOKY, each bearing the theme of son hoping to win back father's affection when feeling he's lost it, PECK'S BAD BOY is acceptable story obviously geared towards the matinée crowd. Aside from Bobby Coogan (Jackie's younger brother) enacting the role of Skippy's pal, Sooky, in the aforementioned films, one guess who plays Skippy's the instigating neighbor, none other than Jackie Searle, typecast as the boy worthy of a black eye and sock in the nose. As traditionally found in his MGM features, a crying scene performed by Cooper is thrown in for good measure. The only thing the 1921 and 1934 PECK'S BAD BOY have in common is one where young Peck's ant collection, he keeps in a test tube, turns up in his father's shirt (compliments of Horace), causing Mr. Peck to jerk about before leaving church service a little earlier than anticipated.

Rarely shown on television, PECK'S BAD BOY was presented in both VHS and DVD formats, the latter compliments of Alpha Video, a reissue 66 minute print with Ace Pictures listed as its presenter during the opening credits, with some missing material shorting its original length of 70 minutes, noticeable during its near conclusion, which appears rushed and choppy. As much as this PECK'S BAD BOY presentation might have been the introduction to a new film series featuring its principal leads of Cooper and former silent screen actor Thomas Meighan (whose last film this was), the only other edition to the "Peck's Bad Boy" stories presented by Sol Lesser was PECK'S BAD BOY WITH THE CIRCUS (RKO Radio, 1938) starring Tommy Kelly as the teenage Billy Peck, with Grant Mitchell and Nana Bryant as his parents, thus concluding the adventures of Peck's Bad Boy on screen. While this particular Peck may not be so bad after all, neither is the film itself. And yes, the capital of Oregon is Salem. (***)

A young boy repeatedly finds himself in trouble when his aunt and cousin come to stay. At 12-years-old, Jackie Cooper was growing a little too long in the tooth to play the cute little kid, but he's still pretty good in this comedy from Fox. Former silent star Thomas Meaghan plays his father in his final role before succumbing to cancer a couple of years later. His character handles things pretty badly, which kind of dilutes the inevitable feel-good ending. It works best when Cooper's interacting with his rough-and-tumble gang of friends, but there's not enough of that.

After leaving Our Gang in 1931, Jackie Cooper became a success in features, mainly at M-G-M-the studio that distributed the OG shorts during that time. This one was made outside of that lot-and it shows since the length is much shorter. Jackie is the title character though he's not bad initially since the movie begins with him and his pop enjoying fishing together, then segues to them at a father-and-son banquet with Jackie winning a plaque for his essay on why his dad's the greatest. Then things change when the father's late wife's sister and her son move in and they start running things. Things don't come to a boil until the end. There are plenty of heartwarming scenes in the beginning and also some nice comedy concerning some ants and nice suits and going to church. That's all I'll mention so on that note, I liked Peck's Bad Boy.

Peck's Bad Boy, a Sol Lesser production released through Fox, is a picture whose outcome can be guessed at without too much effort and whose characters are more of the stock variety than genuine portraits, but it is an unpretentious effort and worth the required 68 minute investment.

Jackie Cooper does an acceptable job as the bad boy of the title, although he is never particularly naughty. Cooper has a habit over-reading his lines so that all the emotion is wrung out of them and the audience has no room to interpret what is left, and this makes him a somewhat obvious performer. Still, he brings a proper amount of energy and charm to the part without adopting the overbearing style of-well, certain other child actors of the time.

Thomas Meighan is the reason I watched the picture in the first place, and his performance is very good indeed. He and Cooper have a nice rapport, and in spite of having no children of his own he takes to the role of a father very kindly and memorably. His voice is perhaps 95% like I imagined it to be, neither too soft nor too gruff, a low tenor that complements his looks and personality quite well. Other latter-day reviews have commented on how tired he looks in the film, and while he does look somewhat older than in The Racket his energy is not much different than it ever was. Getting ants in his clothes is one of the worse indignities one of his screen characters ever suffered, and his reaction as he feels something odd while sitting in church is hilarious. This scene probably should have went on a bit longer to build up the comic effects.

Jackie Searl turns in a better performance than Cooper, whether because his was the superior talent or simply because nasty kids are always more fun to watch than the wholesome ones (cf. Bright Eyes and These Three). Searl gradually turns the character from a harmless nerd into a vicious usurper, and such a transformation is an impressive achievement for a 12 or 13-year-old. It's a pity that Searl never became a bigger star. The rest of the cast is generally good as well, particularly Howard and Heggie. Dorothy Peterson struck me as rather annoying, but I haven't seen enough of her work to know whether it was the performer or the character.

As to the quality of the picture overall, Peck's Bad Boy is one of many instances of a wicked step-family appearing to take over the rightful place of another relative, although since Bill is adopted Lily and Horace have no compunction about claiming what they feel is their place in the Peck home. It's odd that Henry doesn't see through their manipulation; he doesn't start to get it until his son runs away and he notices that Lily has swapped their bedrooms (Bill's was the larger and Horace had been eyeing it since he moved in). The plot is wrapped up rather quickly, and we might wonder how Lily and Horace are actually confronted. But even if this picture does not break outstandingly new ground, it does allow a great screen actor one last memorable role and a younger actor the chance to show what he could do--and should have done more of--as well.

Peculiarly ill-tempered version of much-made story. Seems to be a part tailor-made for Jackie Cooper, but long-time stalwart Meighan seems tired -- he died two years after this movie was made of cancer, and might not have been up to the part. Perhaps it would have been better done four years earlier when Cooper was doing Our Gang comedies at Roach....