Tough Guy

Tough Guy is a film that has not aged well in the can. It was films like this that led to a gradual waning of Jackie Cooper's popularity as a kid star. It's one far cry from The Champ or Treasure Island.

Cooper's a rich kid whose dad Robert Warwick won't let him keep his dog, although why anyone would resist owning Rin Tin Tin of any generation is beyond me. Maybe Warwick's a cat person like me. Anyway Cooper runs away from home and dad calls in the cops as personified in this film by Harvey Stephens.

But Stephens gets another case that moves the Cooper runaway situation to the back-burner. A truck hijack which left the driver and a cop wounded has sparked a manhunt for a gang headed by Joseph Calleia.

But wouldn't you know it, Jackie Cooper and the dog hid in the back of the hijacked truck and naturally of course the gang's all for silencing Cooper. But Calleia just melts with all that pouting innocence that Jackie Cooper could bring to bear. Even after he shot Rin Tin Tin, does Calleia take it on the lam without boy and dog? No with the cops looking for him, he finds a veterinarian, Jean Hersholt, and takes the boy and dog to him.

I can't imagine that audiences in 1936 bought that one, let alone audiences seeing Tough Guy today. You can probably figure out how this one is going to end, but there are a few more eye openers left.

Joseph Calleia, God Bless him, kept a straight face throughout all this claptrap. I can't believe Jackie Cooper doesn't cringe watching this one.