Skippy

One thing was on my mind while I was watching 1931’s Skippy starring Jackie Cooper: The Little Rascals, also known as Our Gang. Those short films were produced from 1922-1944 and had a revival in the 1990s with a theatrical feature film that, for a short time, brought them back into popularity. Our Gang was still active in the 1930s. While Skippy is not based on Our Gang, it feels cut from the same cloth and would have fit right in with the antics of Spanky and Alfalfa. For a short period of time in the late 1920s into the 30s, Jackie Cooper even appeared in the Our Gang shorts, replacing Harry Spear who left after his contract ended. 

Skippy is based on a popular comic strip by Percy Crosby. This strip was adapted into a number of mediums including radio, movies, and even a novel. The comic was so popular that it inspired many cartoonists in their own works including Charles Shultz and Bill Watterson. The film version became an opportunity to propel Jackie Cooper, then only nine years old, into the spotlight where he would remain for the rest of his life. This would be his first major role and he would be honored with an Academy Award nomination for it, the youngest ever nominated for the lead actor Oscar. His natural charisma and plucky personality made him a big star that was in high demand for many years afterwards. 

We see that plucky personality immediately as we are introduced to that character in this film. The film opens with Skippy’s parents, Ellen (Enid Bennett) and Dr. Herbert Skinner (Willard Robertson), preparing to eat breakfast. Notably absent is Skippy. When Ellen calls for him, he responds as if he is already up and getting ready, all while still lying in bed, half asleep. It’s not until his father raises his voice does Skippy actually get up and get dressed, all the while grumbling like an old man forced into action. It’s a good way to introduce this character and show us his personality. 

Almost immediately, we are introduced to the central conflict of the film, too. Skippy and his father have a disagreement over him crossing the tracks and going into Shantytown, an area filled with run-down shacks and poor people. Dr. Skinner feels that Shantytown is full of disease and doesn’t approve of his son going there. He extracts a promise that Skippy will not cross over the tracks and go there, to which Skippy follows to the letter of his promise, using a tunnel under the tracks instead. There, Skippy discovers that his father is leading the charge to have Shantytown torn down and the residence evicted. Skippy makes a new friend there: Sidney (Jackie Searl), who has a pet mongrel dog that gets taken away by the local dogcatcher. This kicks off a tangent in the story where the two boys try to raise three dollars to pay the licensing fee to get him back. 

In a very atypical fashion, this plot point does not go the way you would expect it to. I have to go into a major spoiler to discuss this part of the film, so if you don’t want it spoiled, skip this paragraph. Skippy and Sidney only manage to raise $2.70, and they hope to plead with the dogcatcher to accept that as a downpayment and allow them to have the dog back. But this man is not the type to be swayed by a child’s tears, and he bluntly tells them that he has already put the dog down and had it buried, despite telling them earlier that they had a full three days to come up with the money. This scene is dark, and the boys’ tears are heart-wrenching. It’s even worse once you learn that to get Jackie Cooper to cry realistically, the director and Jackie’s grandmother pretended to take his real dog away and shoot him. This got the desired tears, but Jackie was so traumatized by this that he had to be sedated. 

Skippy may find loopholes to disobey his parents, but he is, at his core, a good-hearted boy. It is through his tenderness that he is finally able to get through to his father, who, quite literally, never seems to have time for his son. Through a brief scene when his father overhears his son’s pleas in prayer to God, his heart is softened, and he realizes just how much his son feels for these people. This simple emotional outpouring gets through when direct communication fails and kick-starts his father’s change of heart, resulting in a major shift in his priorities.

Suddenly, instead of pushing to condemn Shantytown and make the people move away, Dr. Herbert is using his medical training to treat the people and help them clean up their environments and eliminate any diseases. This is a sentimental ending that, while not all that realistic, plays on our emotions so that we can end on an overly happy note. It’s just the kind of sappy sentimentality that borders on saccharine, yet in the context of this film, it works. 

If you love the Our Gang shorts, this film delivers on that level. It’s filled with that level of juvenile humor and plucky characters that you only really find in the movies. It’s not particularly deep, but it’s not really trying to be. It exists to be cute and funny, provide a simple message and be an overall fun time to boot. It’s not the easiest film to find anymore, but it shows up on TCM from time to time and it does have a DVD release. It’s not streaming anywhere, though, which makes it a bit more obscure for modern audiences who have left physical media behind. That’s really too bad because this is the type of film that can help introduce younger audiences to older films. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Outstanding Production: Adolph Zukor

Best Director: Norman Taurog (won)

Best Actor: Jackie Cooper

Best Adaptation: Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Sam Mintz

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Release Date: April 5, 1931

Running Time: 85 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Jackie Cooper, Robert Coogan, Mitzi Green, Jackie Searl

Directed By: Norman Taurog