The Devil Is A Sissy

The Devil Is A Sissy
1936 - MGM
Directed By W.S. Van Dyke



SYNOPSIS

Privileged British boy Claude (Freddie Bartholomew) moves in with his poor father in Manhattan's lower east side. He soon meets tough street kids Buck (Jackie Cooper) and Gig (Mickey Rooney) and wants to be friends. When Gig's father is sent to the electric chair, Gig wants to raise money for a tombstone. Claude knows a place full of toys that the trio can rob to pawn to get enough money. The three get caught... but do they have enough in them to give up crime and go straight?



MY THOUGHTS

MGM was used to and more known for producing lavish musicals and bringing classic works of literature to life.
Socially-conscious films were usually the domain of Warner Brothers, but that didn't stop other studios like MGM from attempting them as well.
The Devil Is A Sissy was an attempt at this, in the vein of Dead End. (please see my review of Crime School for more on this era.)

MGM was a little out of their element here and it does show.
The whole air of the film has a bit of phoniness to it.
The backlot of MGM is used to great effect as New York, but it seems too clean to be the slums.
The film even has a brief musical number (a singalong) that feels out of place with the more serious tone of much of the film.
The script also is fairly predictable. You can fairly easily guess who the trio robs, as well as how the film will end.


However, the film's trio of young lead actors do rescue the film from these weaknesses.

Freddie Bartholomew is just as endearing and earnest as he was in David Copperfield and Little Lord Fauntleroy and makes for a great contrast with his American buddies.

Jackie Cooper, 5 years removed from his Little Rascals days, is tough but likable.

Mickey Rooney is the real standout here. Gig's a nice guy buried under a pile of bad breaks. Rooney gains sympathy when his father is executed and plays the emotions very realistically, more so than most performances of the pre-method era.

This three are arguably the biggest male child actors of Hollywood's Golden Age and this was the only time all appeared in the same film together.

The film definitely benefits from their team-up, lifting this from a ho-hum production, to a memorable one.


THE DVD

The Devil Is A Sissy makes its home video debut as part of the new Warner Archive Collection.
(please see my review of Crime School for more info)

There are a few scratches and speckles that appear from time to time (usually at the starts and ends of the original reels of film) but they are not so bad they detract from the watching experience. Much of the film looks to be in excellent shape.

The disc also features the film's trailer.