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Boy Trouble

Boy Trouble

  • Status: Released
  • 27-01-1939
  • Runtime: 75 min
  • Score: 5
  • Vote count: 4

A fussy shopkeeper's life drastically changes when his wife takes in two homeless boys.

Charles Ruggles

Homer C. Fitch

Mary Boland

Sybil Fitch

Donald O'Connor

Butch

Billy Lee

Joe

Joyce Matthews

Patricia Fitch

John Hartley

Wyndham Wilson

Andrew Tombes

Mr. Svively

Dick Elliott

Dr. Benshlager

Zeffie Tilbury

Mrs. Jepson

Sarah Edwards

Mrs. Moots

Sonny Bupp

Chester Platt

Harlan Briggs

Mr. Pike

Josephine Whittell

Mother

Georgia Caine

Mrs. Ungerleider

Russell Hicks

Magistrate

Charles Trowbridge

Mr. Tatum

Grace Hayle

Hefty Mother

Spencer Charters

Bradley

Doodles Weaver

Ralph

Barry Downing

Wally Albright

Boy

Kathryn Bates

Small Town Woman

Georgie Billings

Boy

Ethel Clayton

Nell Craig

Small Town Woman

Sheila Darcy

(uncredited)

Paula DeCardo

Fern Emmett

Receptionist

Edward Gargan

Cop

Helaine Moler

Ruth Rogers

Charlotte Treadway

Beulah

Tommy Tucker

Boy

Pat West

First Bystander

Dorothy White

Gloria Williams

Mother

Sonny Boy Williams

Boy

CinemaSerf

I kept imagining Clifton Webb in the role of "Fitch" (Charles Ruggles) here! He is the salesman husband of "Sybil" (Mary Boland) and they are going through the rather staid routine of their middle-class lives. One day, she has a bit of a brainstorm and decides to adopt a young boy. "Joe" (Billy Lee) greets his new and unsuspecting father when he gets home from work one evening and immediately the old man's hackles go up. This only gets worse when an altercation next morning saddles them with the now injured "Butch" (Donald O'Connor) and we are now off on a rather predictable, but actually quite enjoyable series of larks that sees the two boys ally quickly and cause their fair share of mayhem, upset the rather puritanical and gossipy neigbhotes and, of course, put a degree of martial strain on their "parents". The kids deliver well here, especially the younger Lee who has that butter-wouldn't-melt look down to a T. Turn on the tears and the grown-ups are putty in their hands! It starts to wear a bit thin towards the slightly too sentimental conclusion which is actually quite rushed, but there's a decent on-screen dynamic going on for most of this and with the gentlest of digs at small-town attitudes is worth an hour or so of your time.