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| Chaney, Jackson, Cooper, DeBorba |
In this Little Rascals short produced by Hal Roach, the children are worried at the idea that their pretty teacher, Miss Crabtree (Dorothy DeBorba), might get married and leave the school. Therefore when a man that they assume is her beau shows up at the classroom, they tell him all sorts of awful things about Miss Crabtree, and then steal his clothing when he goes to take a swim in the watering hole nearby! This is a cute time capsule of a movie, rather unreal even when it was made, but the little actors are adorable and adept. Allen "Farina" Hoskins has as much to do as Jackie Cooper, and is very funny and likable. It would be all too easy to harp on the dated, stereotypical aspects of the film and others in the series, but it all seems good-natured for the time, and the young black actors in this are quite talented, especially Farina.
Verdict: Amiable nonsense with a spirited cast of very young players. ***.
2 comments:
Jackie Cooper - what a cutie, and a good little actor. He grew up to be quite handsome, too - if Mickey Rooney hadn't shown up at MGM to steal his thunder, he would have continued on as a solid leading man instead of fading into the background. LOVED him in The Champ, and decades later as Clark Kent's boss in the 1970s-1980s Superman franchise.
-Chris
Cooper had a sitcom in the fifties, and kept appearing on TV and in movies fairly regularly. He was an especially good actor when he was a kid, but also was quite effective in his teen years, such as when he was Henry Aldrich before Jimmy Lydon took over in the role.
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