Gangster's Boy

In this film Jackie Cooper plays this incredibly straight arrow high school kid who is a star athlete, star academician, plays drums in the local band and dreams of going to West Point with his good friend Tommy Wonder. They're friends even though Cooper lives on the wrong side of the tracks and his father is something of a traveling man. But he's come home to stay now and he's loaded with dough. Who would suspect that Cooper, son of Robert Warwick, is really a Gangster's Boy.

Comes as much of a shock to Jackie as the rest of the town when a nosy reporter breaks the scoop. Overnight he becomes a pariah, the only one who knew was Jackie's mother Louise Lorimer and she's been keeping the secret all these years. It's Wonder's father Selmer Jackson who is leading the shunning of Warwick and his family in the town, though his own kids don't think it's fair.

But Cooper proves more than his worth when he rather stupidly takes the blame for an automobile accident where a kid on bicycle is hit. It was an accident, but there was liquor found in the car. Cooper's ambition maybe West Point, but his code seems to come from the underworld, about not ratting. And of course everyone assumes he's to blame.

No gangland shootouts here, no gangster dialog, instead this is a maudlin story from Monogram with little production values and characters quite unbelievable. The players however are sincere and do give it their best shot. It's one terribly dated film and not very believable.