Penrod and His Twin Brother

The character Penrod was created by the writer Booth Tarkington and was not just a literary character but movie character as well. A variety of sound and silent films were made with the character and in 1937-38, Warner Brothers made three films starring the Mauch twins...Billy and Robert. That same year, the two appeared in "The Prince and the Pauper" but their careers in films were rather brief.

Penrod and his doggy keep getting in trouble throughout this film. What no one realizes is that it's NOT Penrod nor his dog who are causing problems...it's an identical stranger and his nasty dog. In addition to this problem, there is a robbery and one of Penrod's friends is kidnapped. Can Penrod and his gang manage to get to the bottom of both problems?

This film probably played very well for kids in 1938...though I think time has not been kind to this one. Kids today probably won't like it and adults might find it all a bit schmatzy. I thought it was passable entertainment but basing an entire film on these kids was probably not a great idea...and this might explain why the Mauch twins only made three of these films. This one, incidentally, was the second.