Gallant Sons

Byron 'By' Newbold (Jackie Cooper) and Johnny Davis are best of friends despite their fathers. By's newspaper editor father claims that Johnny's father, 'Natural' Davis, is a criminal. The police raids Natural's gambling house. They later find him with a dead body and send him to prison. Johnny gets angry at By. The group of young friends set off to investigate.

It's a little funny that Bonita Granville is doing another 'Nancy Drew' type character. The movie is sold on the young cast forming an investigative gang. They get a Dead End kid, child star Jackie Cooper, and another child actor. Obviously, they hoped that this young cast would gel together into a Scooby gang to solve a murder mystery. They probably need to lose a couple of the kids. They don't have enough time for each character. It's not the best, but it is fascinating for fans of these young actors.

Jackie Cooper leads a cast of young actors in "Gallant Sons," from 1940.

A group of friends (Cooper, Leo Gorcey, Gene Reynolds, Bonita Granville, William Tracy, Tommy Kelly) set out to prove that Johnny's (Reynolds) father (Ian Hunter), who runs a gambling house, did not murder a woman. He was caught by the police standing over the body holding the murder weapon and was convicted.

Byron's (Cooper) dad (Minor Watson) is a newspaper man and naturally covers it in the paper. Johnny and Byron are then on the outs.

Byron asks Johnny, if they can find out what really happened the night of the murder, can they just shake hands and forget it, no matter the outcome? Johnny agrees.

The kids soon become involved in what turns out to be a case with some interesting clues that also expose a long-held secret that Kate's (Granville) mother (Gail Patrick) knows, which concerns Johnny.

Ultimately they take a page out of Hamlet's book in order to solve the case.

It's a good story, given energy by the young talent. Jackie Cooper, who was a beautiful little boy and effective actor, made the transition to adult actor, as well as directing and producing and continued until retirement in 1990.

In his grown-up years, he played likable men who did not seem to have a lot of angst,as opposed to the roles he played in childhood, and he was always very natural.

Leo Gorcey gives the film his "Dead End Kids" performance, and Bonita Granville is her usual pretty and vivacious self. Gail Patrick, with her beautiful speaking voice, is elegant and lovely.

Both Granville and Patrick are known for off-camera work -- Granville being the owner of TV's Lassie, and Gail Patrick as the producer of TV's Perry Mason.

Enjoyable. I admit to loving Jackie Cooper - my mother used to talk about seeing him in the movies when she was a child, and I watched him faithfully on "The People's Choice" and "Hennessy."

... says the villain, figuratively if not literally, in true Scooby Doo tradition in this entertaining and amusing entry from MGM and director George Seitz.

Local newspaper editor Barton Newbold is always talking about the exploits of local gambling house owner "Natural" Davis (Ian Hunter), who always manages to avoid getting raided. But Davis can't avoid being arrested, charged, and convicted for murder when he visits a woman who has been blackmailing him and finds her already dead from a gunshot wound. The police had been following him and catch him standing over the body, gun in hand. He is given a life sentence.

Davis' son, Johnny (Gene Reynolds) and the newspaper editor's son, Byron (Jackie Cooper) decide to team up along with their friends and solve the murder. Whether Johnny's dad is proven to be the killer or not they say they will shake hands and stay friends. Causing a bit of discord is the fact that they are both sweet on a local girl, Kate (Bonita Granville), who is also helping with this investigation.

This turned out to be a pretty interesting film, from the kids following the clues that help them find the murderer, to the camaraderie depicted among this diverse group of teens, to the interesting way in which they bring said murderer down. After all, the murderer is not going to be stressed out by what a bunch of kids happen to think with no proof - or will he?

Being a pre-war production code MGM family film of the period, don't expect much gritty reality. Take professional gambler Natural Davis. To begin with, wholesome looking Ian Hunter just doesn't give off the vibe of a professional gambler. Plus note his lecture to son Johnny about how he should not try to be like him and to keep his nose clean and in books. And I have to wonder about where the character name "Natural Davis" came from. It's odd because in 1930 William Powell played a professional gambler with the exact same name, although being a pre-code he was not cast from the same wholesome mold as Ian Hunter's interpretation. I can't find a real person who was a gambler who had this name.

I'd recommend this for the ensemble acting as well as for seeing Gail Patrick play a likeable person for a change, although I have to wonder how she felt about, at age 29, having 17-year-old Bonita Granville call her "mommy" throughout the film.

Gallant Sons (1940)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent teen drama has Johnny (Gene Reynolds) having a fall out with his best friend By (Jackie Cooper) after his father is sent to prison for murder. Johnny believes that By's father, a newspaper man, mistook some evidence and was the main reason his father was sent up. By, wanting to save their friendship, comes up with an idea to try and see if his father really was guilty or not. GALLANT SONS isn't a great movie and there are countless plot holes in it but I think fans of the cast members are going to have a good time. It seems like MGM wanted to get just about every kid star on their lot with the exception of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney who were off doing bigger projects at the time. Not only do we get Reynolds and Cooper but there's also Bonita Granville from Warner's Nancy Drew series, William Tracy and Leo Gorcey who was doing time before the East Side Kids. I've always enjoyed watching these actors in their own films so it was another treat seeing them all together even if the screenplay doesn't hold up too well. The direction is also a tad bit off the mark because it's never quite clear if they're wanting this to be a dark drama or some light comedy with a few dramatic elements. There are moments where we get all sorts of silly slapstick including a scene where the boys are trailing the possible real killer and one of them falls down a flight of steps after seeing a black cat. These comedy bits really don't work too well but the drama is pretty good because the actors sell that. I thought Cooper and Reynolds were both quite good in their roles and the best moments of the film happen early on after the father is in jail and the two have a falling out. I've always enjoyed Granville's performances and it always shocked me she was never able to get out of these "B" roles because she was a fine little actress and she also had the looks. Gorcey offers up the type of performance that you'd expect from him but I'm guessing this is because he really couldn't give any other type. His "Dead End" type performance goes against what the other kids are acting but his fans will still get a kick out of him. GALLANT SONS ends in a rather silly manor but fans of the stars will at least be entertained throughout, which is a lot more than most movies can say.

For fans of mystery films, this is not the stuff of great whodunits, but if you like Saturday Matinee fare with an "A-Film" look (though not budget), then don't pass this up.

It stars some of the cream of the period's juvenile actors, in their teenage prime. The only one who is older than his "star-kid" days is Jackie Cooper. (but he went on to a successful adult acting career, anyway-- mostly on TV).

Bonita Granville, who received 2nd billing to Cooper, did her best (which is not much different than her 'Nancy Drew' roles at Warners). I've always been fond of Granville in supporting roles (or B-film leads), but a little bit of Bonita can go a long way. She wisely gave up acting before outgrowing her youthful charms.

Gene Reynolds, who was billed 3rd, was easily the best of all of this film's young actors. As the central character, who's innocent father is imprisoned for a murder that all the teens set out to solve, he pretty much steals the show.

Reynolds, a good-looking and accomplished young actor, made many films as a teenager but none as an adult. He did, however, go on to become an extremely successful (and extremely rich) TV producer-director. Reynolds would become best known for winning numerous Emmys for his long-running hit television series, "M.A.S.H.".

Leo Gorcey, fresh out of the 'Dead End Kids', but before starting in Monogram's 'East Side Kids' series, isn't given much to say in this film, and is actually relegated to a role as one of the 'background' kids!

He probably never forgot this experience. -- When Gorcey was adult enough to have a hand in producing the 'Bowery Boys' films, he made sure that he had ALL the lines, and that the other guys (except Huntz Hall) had only enough lines to discern them from the backdrops.

Gail Patrick, the leading female adult in "Gallant Sons", has a pivotal role in this story playing Bonita Granville's mother. A much under-rated actress, Gail Patrick gives a lot to this supporting part. She received 4th billing, after Cooper, Granville and Reynolds.

The film has the usual MGM polish, though none of the excesses of the Rooney-Garland juvenile extravaganzas produced in the same period. (And, thank goodness, no singing & dancing...)

I thoroughly enjoyed "Gallant Sons", and I especially liked seeing Gene Reynolds handle the most complex role of any of the young characters. Certainly more endearing than Cooper or Gorcey, I can't help wondering why Reynolds didn't pursue acting as an adult. Could he have seen the coming bonanza that television producing would bring his way?