Jackass Mail

After Wallace Beery did The Champ with Jackie Cooper and after he did Min And Bill with Marie Dressler, MGM made a concerted effort to team him with old women and kids. In Jackass Mail he gets to work with both.

Beery is cast as his usual reprobate character an outlaw in this case with J. Carrol Naish as a sidekick. In trying to rob a mule freight line that's ramrodded by Marjorie Main he gets fooled when another pair of outlaws, Dick Curtis and William Haade pull the job. Beery keeps trying to return to his crooked ways, but circumstances and Main keep him on the straight and narrow

Substituting for Jackie Cooper is young Darryl Hickman and Beery has to live a lie the way John Wayne did with Lee Aaker in Hondo after he kills Haade who is Hickman's father.

After Marie Dressler died, Beery was teamed with a succession of character women like Marjorie Main. Jackass Mail is a great example of the chemistry the two had with each other. And his scenes with Darryl Hickman are poignant as well, probably the best in the film.