Gasoline Alley

Child star Scotty Beckett stars in this neat little film as a married college dropout who goes into business for himself in a diner. Based on the incredibly long-running comic strip, this is a family drama with comedy and a very good cast of familiar faces.

Beckett plays Corky, the younger brother, who comes home from college with a surprise: a wife (Susan Morrow). The father (Don Beddoe) and older brother (Jimmy Lydon) try to take Corky under their wing, but he's determined to make his own way. Rather than take a good job they've arranged for him, he finds work as a clothes model and then as a dishwasher in a diner. When he discovers a filthy, run-down diner for sale, he talks the brother, named Skeezix, into lending him the money to buy it.

He's only 20 and runs into all kinds of problems getting the diner cleaned up and operating. Luckily, the cook (Dick Wessel) from his first job goes with him since he's an army buddy of Skeezix. Simple story, well told, and very well acted.

Also in the cast are Madelon Baker as the mother, Patti Brady as the kid sister, Byron Foulger as the strange man, Virginia Toland as the vamp, Jimmy Lloyd as the creep, Charles Halton as the owner, Christine McIntyre as Myrtle, and in an especially good role, Gus Schilling as Joe.

Schilling's character is a real surprise for a 1951 family film, and he just about walks off with the picture except that Beckett is terrific. Followed by a sequel with pretty much the same cast and also released in 1951. These would proved to be Beckett's last starring roles in films.