Out West with the Peppers

The first two films of the series, "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew" as well as "Five Little Peppers at Home" were very enjoyable and well made B-movies. "Out West with the Peppers", the third of four films, is unfortunately a huge disappointment...and misses what made the first two films so charming.

The episode begins with the Pepper family returning home early from a trip to Europe. It's because the world's most cursed family has yet another problem...Mother is ill and needs to go out west to recuperate. What exactly she has is vague...and she certainly didn't act as if she had TB...which was the common reason for people to head west back in the day. So they head out to a boarding house run by Mother's sister...and it turns out to be a pretty craptastic place. Why? Because the uncle is a nasty drunk who hates kids! But you cannot completely blame him, as the Pepper kids are amazingly bad in this film!!

The first two films in the series were delightful and charming...mostly because you liked the Pepper kids so much. Inexplicably, however, in "Out West with the Peppers" the kids are much more like little Dennis the Menaces...always causing trouble. For instance, they shred some feather pillows during a pillow fight and the mess is amazing. Later, they go to the store and practically destroy the place (such as pouring gallons of molasses on the floor). So, while the uncle was a jerk...the kids were also little jerks. This jerkiness really made the film anything but charming. What's worse, the delightful Mr. King and Martin the Butler were barely in the film...if at all.

Overall, watchable but a film that is a huge disappointment over the previous films. Hopefully, the final movie was a lot better.

Out West with the Peppers (1940)

** (out of 4)

Pretty weak third entry in the Columbia series has Mrs. Pepper (Dorothy Peterson) suffering from poor health so she and her five kids move out West to stay with a relative. The kid's uncle is a bitter and mean old man who doesn't want any of them there but will the kids be able to work on him? OUT WEST WITH THE PEPPERS is pretty much another version of the first film, although the only difference here is that this takes place in the West. This here is a pretty disappointing entry on a number of levels but the biggest is the fact that the kids here are just so downright annoying and constantly doing bad things that I agreed with the uncle in that they should leave the house at once. I'm sure the stuff the kids do was meant to be funny but they just come across as a bunch of trouble makers without anyone to keep them in order. I've always questioned some of the mother's parental skills in the first two movies but just overlooked it. Here I have to wonder why on Earth she let the kids do so much and not ever put her foot down. There's annoying sequence inside a grocery store where the kids wreck it. There's another sequence where they bring a skunk into the house. So many things that they do were either annoying or something these kids should have known better about. Sure, perhaps I'm being too serious but the first two films aimed for charm and got it. This one here aims for charm but fails so the stuff comes off annoying. The performances aren't all that memorable and there's really not any funny scenes.

This is the third film in the series about the Pepper family. Unlike the first Pepper film, this plot of one is not based on any of the Five Little Peppers books.

In this film, the Peppers have run into financial problems and so they move out west, in order to start a new life. Of course, they run into excitement and a life threatening situation, but it all works out in the end.

A pleasant interlude. Wonderful scenery of the mountains, woods and rivers.

I particularly enjoyed the logging camp scenes, as I used to work for a pulp and paper company and always enjoyed the log drives.

This is the third in the Five Little Peppers series. This one seems to have more of an Our Gang vibe as most of the scenes go to the three youngest siblings with one of them being Tommy Bond who had just done his last stint as Butch in OG not long before making this. He even does some of Butch's snarls in this one when he gets into a fight with his other brothers on the who-gets-the middle-of-the-bed scene. As the title implies, this one has the Pepper family going west in order to have the mom get better weather conditions as she's not well here. They also are living with an uncle who drinks quite a bit. How he redeems himself may not be completely believable but since this is supposed to be a family picture, maybe it's just as well it doesn't delve too much into his alcoholism. Anyway, because of the many funny scenes, I give this one a higher rating of 8 compared to the 7 I gave the previous two...

OUT WEST WITH THE PEPPERS (Columbia, 1940), directed by Charles Barton, the third installment of the short lived theatrical series based on Margaret Sidney's storybook characters, marks another change with the casting of one of its regulars. Clarence Kolb, who initiated the role of business tycoon, J.H. King, is now played by Pierre Watkin. While the King role was a major supporting one, he, along with his grandson, Jasper (Ronald Sinclair), are both reduced to limited performances. Dorothy Ann Seese retains her second billing status under Edith Fellows as the level headed older sister, while Dorothy Peterson resumes her part of the mother, who, this time around, is secondary, leaving the Five Little Peppers (who introduce themselves individually in the opening credits as they pop up from behind the pepper shakers) to carry the basic premise here on their own.

The story has its humble beginning on a ship as the Peppers, along with Mr. King (Pierre Watson) his grandson, Jasper (Ronald Sinclair), and King's servant, Martin, (Rex Moore), due to Mrs. Pepper's (Dorothy Peterson) sudden illness, returning home prematurely from their overall trip to Paris. Upon their venture back to Gusty Corners, Polly (Edith Fellows), advised by their doctor of her mother's need for rest and relaxation, writes a letter to her Aunt Alice (Helen Brown) in Drakefield, Oregon, asking if the family can come visit with her for a while. Alice, who runs a boarding house, is pleased with the news to be with her sister and siblings again, but her husband, Jim (Victor Kilian) is not. While there, Phronsie (Dorothy Ann Seese), the youngest, stirs up trouble for Uncle Jim by correcting his paying guests, consisting mostly of lumberjacks, about their manners at the dinner table. ("My goo'ness"). While the Pepper kids do their best not to annoy Uncle Jim, they do so unintentionally. As Mother Pepper gets her deserved rest, and Ben (Charles Peck) spending time away working at a local grocery store, the Pepper kids find time to acquire a true friend in Ole Johnson (Emory Parnell), who takes a liking to little Phronsie ("bless her little heart'). One day, the kindly Swedish lumberjack takes the four children out on a picnic, and builds a raft for David (Bobby Larson) and Joey (Tommy Bond) so that can play pirates. With the boys and Phronsie abroad, the raft unexpectedly floats down the river to unforeseen danger.

Unlike the title inspired OUT WEST WITH THE HARDYS (MGM, 1938), a popular family film series starring Mickey Rooney, this Pepper venture doesn't include horses or cowboys, mostly lumberjacks in a small working community. Still tightly edited at 62 minutes, and containing less sentiment than the earlier Pepper entries, screenwriter Harry Rebuas has wisely thrown in some "Our Gang" (Little Rascals) type antics in for good measure, some quite typical for its time. Notable scenes include the mischievous Joey and David stirring up a commotion when seen walking on the rail of the ship; the three Pepper brothers arguing who gets to sleep in the middle of the bed; the boys having some fun and games at the train station while Phronsie, the youngest, releases a flock of chickens from their cages; and later, while out in the country looking for Phronsie's missing bird, the boys trapping and taking back to Uncle Jim's inn a squirrel with a white streak on its back, turning out to be a smelly skunk. The one where the Pepper kids spreading out molasses from a barrel onto the floor in a grocery store is a clear reminder of better days provided by W.C. Fields and the troublesome Baby LeRoy from IT'S A GIFT (Paramount, 1934).

With these aforementioned sequences, it's a wonder why OUT WEST WITH THE PEPPERS didn't live to the expectations to Columbia's own Bumstead family from the "Blondie" series (1938-1950). Possibly having to sit through the unpleasantness of the unsympathetic character of Uncle Jim may have something to do with it. Presenting him as one who dislikes children immensely, coping with a previous drinking problem and controlling his temper throughout is indication of having the opposite of some kindly characters, and how crucial he can be to the story in this manner. Rex Evans, who gave a sincere performance as the gentleman's gentleman in FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AT HOME (1940), offers himself in a couple of brief scenes early on, plus a rehash of him trying to get a good night's sleep while lying between two restless Pepper boys on their bed, before disappearing from view.

OUT WEST WITH THE PEPPERS is definitely routine stuff as family films go. Virtually forgotten, and seldom revived in recent years, this, and other installments have turned up on cable television's Turner Classic Movies in 2007. Next in the series: FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS IN TROUBLE (1940), which should have served as its main title for this particular installment. (**)