Peck's Bad Boy
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Edward F. Cline
Jackie Cooper
Thomas Meighan
Jackie Searl
Dorothy Peterson
O. P. Heggie
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Bill and his father, Henry Peck, enjoy a day of fishing and then attend the annual fathers and sons banquet, at which Bill wins the first prize for the best composition entitled "My Father." Later that night, they get a telegram stating that Bill's aunt, Lily Clay, who is the sister of Henry's late wife, is coming with her son Horace to live with them. The visitors soon arrive, and the boys immediately dislike one another, as Bill thinks that Horace is a sissy while Horace covets Bill's room. Meanwhile, Lily and Henry discuss the fact that Bill is adopted, which Bill does not know. That afternoon, snooty Horace refuses to play with Bill's friends or join his club, then tells Lily that Bill deliberately excluded him. In response, the overprotective Lily uses insinuations to gradually drive a wedge between Henry and Bill, and their relationship begins to deteriorate. One morning, Bill lets loose a vial of ants into Horace's church clothes, and in retaliation, Horace puts the ants in Henry's clothes, and Bill receives the blame. As further revenge, Horace tells Bill that he came from an orphanage. The same day, Lily fires Duffy, the Pecks' handyman and Bill's buddy. She then throws Bill's things out of his room and installs Horace in it. Meanwhile, Horace hits Bill when the infuriated Bill threatens to sock him for continuing to call him an orphan. Henry refuses to listen to Bill's explanation and punishes him for fighting and for being insolent to Lily. Bill can take no more when he discovers that he has been displaced from his room and runs away to Duffy's shack. Duffy coaxes the boy into going home the next morning to settle things, and upon his return, Bill trounces Horace in a fight. After Henry sees Lily slap Bill, he finally becomes aware of his son's difficulties and sends the unwanted relatives away. Henry then tells Bill the truth about his being adopted, and Bill, realizing how much Henry loves him, happily reconciles with his father.
Director
Edward F. Cline
Cast
Jackie Cooper
Thomas Meighan
Jackie Searl
Dorothy Peterson
O. P. Heggie
Charles Evans
Gertrude Howard
Larry Wheat
Harvey Clark
Crew
Ed Borschell
Bill Carr
Harry Chandlee
L. E. Clark
H. M Corl
Bill Crosby
Frank B. Good
Donn Hayes
Leo Hughes
Sol Lesser
Frank Melford
Stanley Murphy
Joe Novak
Harry Oliver
Ferol Redd
Hugo Riesenfeld
Hugo Riesenfeld
Marguerite Roberts
Bernard Schubert
Herbert Stahlberg
A. T. Zwebell
Nina Louise Zwebell
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
George W. Peck wrote a series of short stories and novels featuring "Peck's Bad Boy." The stories first appeared in the La Crosse, Wisconsin Sun, circa 1874. The film's onscreen credits note that Jackie Cooper appeared by arrangement with M-G-M. Contemporary sources reported that producer Sol Lesser began planning this production as early as 1931, after he left Universal, and that he considered giving the lead role to Mickey McGuire, who later changed his name to Mickey Rooney. Hollywood Reporter news items noted that the role of "Horace Clay" had to be revised after actor Jackie Searl initially turned it down because his manager had found that it was to "the boy's disadvantage to enact nasty characters." The picture was partially filmed on location in Santa Ana and Sunland, CA. Author George W. Peck's series of stories and novels have been the basis for four other films, the first of which was a 1908 Essanay short entitled Peck's Bad Boy. In 1918, Charles Giblyn directed Mable Normand and Earle Foxe in the Goldwyn Pictures Corp. release Peck's Bad Girl, and in 1921, Sam Wood directed Jackie Coogan and Wheeler Oakman in the Irving M. Lesser production of Peck's Bad Boy (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.2298 and AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30: F2.4192). In 1938, Lesser produced Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus, which was also directed by Edward F. Cline (see below).
