Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Gloria Jean | ... | Pip-Emma Binns | |
Robert Cummings | ... | Dennis King | |
Nan Grey | ... | Priscilla Adams | |
C. Aubrey Smith | ... | Grandpa | |
Beulah Bondi | ... | Miss Thornton | |
Virginia Weidler | ... | Janet Cooper | |
Margaret Lindsay | ... | Mrs. Cooper | |
Raymond Walburn | ... | Mr. Layton | |
Ann Gillis | ... | Letty Lou | |
Paul Cavanagh | ... | Mr. Franklin Cooper | |
Billy Gilbert | ... | Tolio | |
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Kenneth Brown | ... | Tolio's Son |
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Billy Lenhart | ... | Tolio's Son |
Frank Jenks | ... | Uncle Dan | |
Shirley Mills | ... | Cecilia Layton |
A young city girl from a poor family is invited to spend the summer at a camp for girls from wealthy families. At first made fun of and ridiculed because of her background, she determines to show the snooty rich girls she's just as good as they are. Written by frankfob2@yahoo.com
I'm thinking that Deanna Durbin was busy on something else and also that Universal Pictures decided it needed a backup Durbin is the reason that Gloria Jean made her film debut in The Under-Pup. As good a reason as any for the film to be made and enjoyed. Not too much variation for Gloria Jean in the traditional Durbin little miss fix-it part.
Gloria gets a scholarship to go to a girl's summer camp that's reserved for the rich and snooty. Ann Gillis is the richest and snootiest there, a sort of greatest generation version of a Mean Girl, but Gloria overcomes and even gains a friend in the person of Virginia Weidler.
The place is run by Beulah Bondi with counselors Bob Cummings and Nan Grey to assist. The girls for dress wear these military outfits and the place has a marching theme which is John Philip Sousa's High School Cadets with some lyrics added.
Others in the cast are C. Aubrey Smith as Gloria's grandfather and Raymond Walburn as Gillis's father who has spoiled her rotten. Billy Gilbert is there as the cook for the camp with two bratty sons and Gilbert does his usual shtick.
The Under-Pup holds up pretty well with its two main assets, Gloria Jean's singing and the great cast Universal surrounded her with.