Skippy *** (1931, Jackie Cooper, Robert Coogan, Mitzi Green, Jackie Searl, Willard Robertson) – Classic Movie Review 12,126

Norman Taurog’s 1931 vintage kids’ movie Skippy stars Jackie Cooper and Robert Coogan. Taurog won an Oscar for Best Direction and Cooper, aged nine, became the youngest to gain a Best Actor Oscar nomination. 

Director Norman Taurog’s 1931 Paramount Pictures black and white vintage kids’ movie Skippy stars Jackie Cooper, Robert Coogan, Mitzi Green, Jackie Searl and Willard Robertson. Taurog won an Oscar for best direction. Cooper, aged nine, became the youngest to gain an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Good antique-style fun for youngsters and the young at heart, the children’s comedy-drama Skippy is based on Percy Crosby’s comic strip about chums Skippy and Sooky (Cooper and Coogan) wandering the slum streets of Shantytown hoping to put together enough cash to buy a dog licence to save Sooky’s pet from the cruel dogcatcher Mr Nubbins [Jack Rube Clifford].

Yes, the story is thin, and the film is incredibly old-fashioned and naïve, but it is so affectingly performed and compassionately directed that its charm can still even get under the skin of some modern-day cynical adults.

The film was popular and led to a quick sequel, Sooky (1931)

Also in the cast are Enid Bennett, Donald Haines, Helen Jerome Eddy, Jack Rube Clifford [Jack Clifford] and Guy Oliver.

The film was released on 5 April 1931.

Norman Taurog directed six Martin and Lewis films, and nine Elvis Presley films, more than any other director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the 1931 Skippy at the age of 32. He was later nominated for Best Director for Boys Town (1938). Taurog directed 180 films from 1920 to 1968.

Jackie Cooper and Robert Coogan in Skippy.

Skippy is directed by Norman Taurog, runs 86 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Joseph L Mankiewicz (screenplay), Norman Z McLeod (screenplay), Don Marquis (additional dialogue), Percy Crosby (story) and Sam Mintz (story), is shot by in black and white by Karl Struss, is produced by Louis D Lighton and scored by John Leipold.

Acting came at a price. Norman Taurog needed to get his nephew Jackie Cooper to cry when the dog dies, so he told him he was going to kill his own dog. Jackie did the scene and found out his dog would be unharmed. But Cooper then disliked his uncle and rarely spoke to him.

The cast are Jackie Cooper as Skippy Skinner, Robert Coogan as Sooky Wayne, Mitzi Green as Eloise, Jackie Searl as Sidney, Willard Robertson as Dr Herbert Skinner, Enid Bennett as Mrs. Ellen Skinner, Donald Haines as Harley Nubbins, Jack Rube Clifford as dogcatcher Mr Nubbins, Helen Jerome Eddy as Mrs. Wayne, and Guy Oliver as Dad Burkey.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,126

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com