Penrod and Sam

inhabit this gem of a film. Leon Janney, Junior Coghlin, and Billie Lord are the perfect Penrod, Sam, and Goergie in this gentle but funny Booth Tarkington story. Slim storyline, but the kids are so good, you forget all that. The adults aren't bad either, especially the always funny Zasu Pitts, but also good are Charles Sellon, Dorothy Peterson, Matt Moore and a hilarious scene with Elizabeth Patterson as the school marm. This is the kind of story that MGM and Mickey Rooney would have destroyed a few years later if Rooney hadn't been stuck in Andy Hardy gunk. The characters would reappear in the 50s in 2 Doris Day comedies with Billy Gray as the Penrod character.