The Devil Is a Sissy

They sure don't make movies like this anymore and I wish they did. I just watched The Devil Is A Sissy and although it was made 80 years ago the films message of friends for life still resonates today. This is a story about three young boys of which two are from struggling backgrounds financially who in the 1930's lived in lower Manhattan before it was home to more wealthier New Yorkers as it is today.

Mickey Rooney (age 14) played Gig Stevens and Jackie Cooper (age 16) played Buck Murphy who had their own little gang which included boys nicknamed Bugs and Six Toes and they all met in their makeshift clubhouse hidden behind a junkyard. In comes the third young lad Claud Pierce played by Freddie Bartholomew (age 12) who really wants to fit in at almost any cost so he is most gleeful when he decides to challenge the much bigger Buck to give him back his football even if it means being on the receiving end of a shiner.

The younger Limey Claude persists on getting on the good side of the alpha dog Gig and his right hand man Buck even if it means getting involved in a bit of thievery. Gig's father was convicted of some serious crimes so serious in fact that he receives the electric chair and young Gig and his mother have to find a way to get on with their lives. Now Limey Claude's dad and mom are divorced and his father moved to lower Manahattan due to economic constraints. Claude and his dad have a close relationship whereas Gig just lost his father to the electric chair and Buck's dad being a war veteran believes he can whip the truth out of his son when the boys get in trouble.

The films main story is how these three young lads cope growing up in a financially struggling neighborhood with the help of a caring judge, Claude's understanding father Jay Pierce and Gig's empathetic Aunt Rose and how they not only survive some very serious predicaments but their friendship thrives based on their loyalty to one another and their families. Even though this 1936 film is in black and white and there may not be any sex, blood or CGI (computer generated imagery), it does contain great emotion and it made my eyes start to swell up in a couple of scenes.

I really enjoy these old black and white films and it certainly makes for great screen presence with Mickey Rooney (14), Jackie Cooper (16) and Freddie Bartholomew (12) generating so many great scenes throughout this fine dramatic film.

Ahhhhh, the good old days of simpler times when the movie director was more important than the special effects were. Sadly, all three main stars are now deceased but their film legacy will live on in film classics such as The Devil Is A Sissy. Watch it and see if you don't agree. It deserves an 8/10 rating.

This movie is rather entertaining although some parts seem a little off-the-wall. For instance, there is one scene in the film where the three friends go to visit one of the boys hip, young aunt living in a pent house and she does cartwheels over to the piano and the four start singing. Other than odd instances, this movie is very good for any era.

Claude Pierce (Freddie Bartholomew) is a rich boy with a poor father. Unlike most Bartholomew movies, he goes to live with his father in the slums gladly; it is his mother that hates the idea. However, Claude is excited to meet new friends, and he tries his hardest to win over classmates Buck Murphy (Jackie Cooper) and Gig Stevens (Mickey Rooney). These are the direct opposite of society children; Gig's father has just been sent to the electric chair for murder, and Gig idolizes him. However, the trouble they get into is typical of boys their age, and at heart, they're good people. Claude's father is banking on this and knows that his son's association with these types of boys will help him build character. It certainly does.

I have been dying to see this movie for years because of the excellent cast. Each boy lives up to my expectations. Bartholomew is charming as always. Rooney is a powerhouse, which was also expected. In Cooper's autobiography, he complains that Rooney stole the show from him, but Cooper's fans will not be disappointed. His part did not allow for a super-memorable performance. I believed the plot was going to be more impactful, similar to Boys Town. This isn't a movie you're going to learn any lessons from that you haven't learned before, and no scene stands out over another as more memorable. It is simply an enjoyable movie with a great cast, nothing more and nothing less.

I taped this based on its title alone. It's the kind of classic Hollywood film I really love because, while it's definitely a quality picture, it's also goofy in a lot amusing ways. The Devil Is a Sissy stars three child stars of the time, Freddie Bartholomew, Jackie Cooper, and Mickey Rooney. Bartholomew is a young British chap who is staying with his humble father (Ian Hunter) for six months in the middle of New York City. At his local public school he meets up with Cooper and Rooney, two little toughs. It takes a while, but soon Bartholomew has learned the customs of the people around him, like how to play American football (the ball has points, unlike British football) and what people do to squealers. Near the beginning, Rooney's father is executed for murder. I wouldn't call it anti-death penalty by any means, but it's nice to see a movie from this time deal with the way it effects the family of the person who is executed. Over the course of the film, Cooper and Rooney learn what comes from being bad. The title of the film comes from a speech given to them by a judge, who tells them that it is easier to be good than bad. The angels were good, and the devil was the real sissy. The lessons to be learned remind me a lot of Michael Curtiz's Angels with Dirty Faces, but The Devil Is a Sissy is a much better film. The three kids here are professionals. They are the heart of the film, where the titular angels were merely plot devices. That was just a James Cagney vehicle. The script here is much better, as well. In addition to the actors I mentioned, Peggy Conklin gives a great performance as Mickey Rooney's rich aunt. She and the kids (and also her black maid) sing a nice little number, "The 'Ah' Song." The script kind of tiptoes around why the aunt has money. At first I assumed it was because she was a singer, but it seemed to hint later on that she may have been a kept woman. I'm not sure. Conklin's career seems to have sputtered and died, which is far too bad.

Bartholomew and Rooney teamed for five films at MGM. Usually either Bart would be sent to an American school where he would get beat up for being British, or Rooney would be sent to a British school where he would get beat up for being an American. Or some combination thereof. This is one where Bart gets sent to America...and gets beat up, but fights back. All in all it is the best of the bunch because Rooney and Bart and Jackie Cooper make a terrific trio. Much of this film reminded me of "The Outsiders" except for its syrupy last three minutes. The movie opens by telling us that Rooney's father is about to be executed. We are showed the effects this has upon Rooney and Rooney's mother. We never see Rooney's dad in the film, nor the execution, but we witness Rooney's face as he hears his mother scream when the clock strikes midnight at the minute of execution. Rooney still loves his father and his only goal is to buy his father a tombstone. This is contrasted with the leader of the trio, Jackie Cooper who is physically abused by his father, and Freddie Bartholomew who has a poor loving caring father divorced to his rich distant mother. The three try to survive for the moment on the streets of New York.