The Devil Is a Sissy (1936)

Directors:  W.S. Van Dyke, Rowland Brown

Writers:  John Lee Mahin, Richard Schayer, Rowland Brown

Composer:  Herbert Stothart

Starring:  Freddie Bartholomew, Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney, Ian Hunter, Peggy Conklin, Katharine Alexander, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Jonathan Hale

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Greatest Human Drama

Plot:  A well-bred young English lad living in lower Manhattan tries to gain acceptance from his not-so-well-bred peers at school.

My rating:   7.5/10

Will I watch it again?   Maybe.

Man, can these kids act!  All three of these guys (Bartholomew, Cooper and Rooney) were three of the top male child actors of the 30s and with good reason.  Check out Cooper's early work with the OUR GANG shorts and you'll see what I mean.  It's incredible seeing these three in the same picture together.  I'll admit it, I was bawling my eyes out at the end.  There's no shame in that, no sir-ee.  I also choked up a few times when some of the characters did nice things for other people.  I know, THAT was weird.  My emotions were running pretty high for some reason.  The acting skills of these kids fucking sold it.  What these kids were going through is akin to something I experienced way back when so maybe there was that connection.  Claude's (Bartholomew) home life seemed like a fantasy world that most kids would never be able to relate to but you take that kind of storytelling in stride.  You don't find out how much of an asshole his mother is until the end and it plays heavily on the plot.  

The story moves pretty quickly but somehow it felt like it was longer than the 92 minutes it was.  Watch out for that last act because it's a doozy and an emotional one at that.  That's in stark contrast to the overly happy and upbeat note the picture starts on.  The ending is earned.  Enough can't be said about the three lead kid actors.  They are magnificent and a stark contrast to what we see today.  I couldn't help but feel that I'd seen Bartholomew in something before until it hit me.  The very next year after this picture he starred alongside Spencer Tracy with another wonderful performance in CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937).  If I remember right, that's another one that had me crying at the end.  They made some great shit back then.