Peck's Bad Boy With The Circus

1938 - RKO
Directed By Edward F. Kline

SYNOPSIS

A gang of young friends led by Bill Peck (Tommy Kelly) is heading to summer camp, but get sidetracked when a circus comes to town. With his parents out of town, Bill spends all his money at the circus and is stranded. He hopes to hitch a ride with the circus to the next town, close to the camp... but he gets wrapped up in a battle between two competing circus acts and may miss the chance to defend his championship at the big race at camp.

MY THOUGHTS

A mildly amusing film that picks up steam and builds to a fun and hilarious conclusion.

The character of Bill Peck was the creation of author George W. Peck. His book Peck's Bad Boy had been previously filmed twice, in 1921 starring Jackie Coogan and in 1934 starring Jackie Cooper. 'Circus' is not based on any book and works as a sequel to the 1934 version, though the entire cast is different.

Tommy Kelly does a decent job holding the whole film together. He and his gang are no more as rough or tough as those in the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedies and their portion of plot could have been a rejected plot from those shorts. Apart from Kelly and the youngest gang member Pee Wee ('Spanky' McFarland,) the rest of the boys lack any individual personalities. Though, with the film's short b-movie length, there really isn't time to develop them.

The film is padded out to its 65 minute running time by introducing the rivalry between a lion taming act and a young girl doing tricks on horseback. The audience is immediately dropped into this feud and it takes a while to get our footing and find out who we're supposed to be rooting for.... even though we still aren't made to care. It's certainly made clear who's side we're on when the woman lion tamer causes the young girl to injure her ankle in a nasty spill.

This whole lame plot element does play out to perfection as Bill Peck must perform in the young girl's place... wearing her dress and a wig! The whole sequence is hilarious as the boy may have never even been on a horse before. He's attached to wires so he doesn't get injured... and spends most of the time floating in the air. Peck is then rushed to his camp to compete in the big race while still wearing the dress.
These ending sequences pick up the lackadaisical pace of the film and deliver laughs and excitement that the rest of the film does not.
It's a chore to sit through the first half of the film, but once it gets going, it's almost dynamite.