This time, we have to review our films in reverse order because they're the first two in a franchise, and we watched the first one two nights ago, so instead of saying "Last night we watched", as we usually do, we'll start with: The previous night, we found a Depression-era classic called "Five Little Peppers and How They Grew"(1939). How's that for a title? It's from a 1881 children's book by Margaret Sidney, a fact I learned on Wiki, so it was written long before the Depression (and the movie release was actually at the tail end), but the story - of a poor family's interaction with a wealthy man, and how it affects both parties - is apt for the era and is a slice of Americana we could use right now. When we talk about How They Don't Make 'Em Anymore But They Should, a film like this could be Exhibit A. As it opens, a lawyer for millionaire "Mr. King" (Clarence Kolb) informs him of the pending sale of a copper mine, owned by a family named Pepper. Being a wheeler-dealer, King instructs his lawyer to find the Peppers immediately, before a bidding war can start. "Make them the lowest possible offer," he says. "If they're selling, they must be broke. They'll take whatever we offer at the bottom."
Then we cut to the Peppers themselves. "Mrs Pepper" (Dorothy Peterson) is a widow. Her late husband, a mining engineer, was a half-owner in the mine but was killed in an underground collapse. Now she's trying to raise her five children on a seamstress's salary. Today is her birthday and her kids want to bake her a cake. 15 year old Polly, the eldest Pepper child, is a substitute mother to her siblings while momma is at work. She wants the cake to be special; she's going to bake it, but her brother "Joey" (Tommy Bond) has eaten all the raisins. In order to buy more, she and Joey try to collect $1.50 for a shirt Mom patched for a neighbor, but the woman isn't home. They track her to the mansion of Mr. King on the hill, but she's just left. Joey is crying on the steps, because it's his fault for eating all the raisins, when out of the house walks young "Jasper King" (Ronald Sinclair), the old man's grandson. Jasper, despite being brought up with butlers and boarding schools, is just a kid like the Peppers. He's Polly's age and tired of being cooped up in a stuffy mansion. It looks to him like the Pepper kids are having all the fun, with their homemade wooden "sailboat" on wheels. He wants to play with the Peppers, and he's been raised to be gracious, so - seeing Joey's distress, he offers to give him and Polly all the ingredients they need to make their mom a deluxe cake. "It's my birthday also", he mentions.
Jasper asks if he can ride on their sailboat, and ends up coming to their house, where all of them bake the cake together. Jasper stays for the birthday party, but after it's over, some of the Pepper kids come down with measels, and Mr. King, who has come looking for Jasper, is quarantined by his doctor in the Pepper's house, along with Jasper and the Peppers themselves. This is a dramatic device to get rich and poor together, in the poor folks' house, so Mr. King can see how the other half lives. It turns out that he enjoys their company - he's actually a kindly man - and he ends up informally adopting the Pepper family, for he sees that, in some ways, they live better than he does. Then there's also the matter of the copper mine. While living with the Peppers, he confesses to them that his initial plan was to purchase the mine for a fire-sale price. Realising how wrong it was to want to do that, he now decides to protect the Peppers from other unscrupulous buy-outs, so he becomes the business partner of Polly Pepper, who stands to inherit the mine when she turns 18. The mining plot will develop further in the second film. This one is mostly about the Peppers themselves, and how family togetherness overcomes poverty. Edith Fellows steals hearts as Polly Pepper, the daughter everyone wishes they had, and Ronald Sinclair is perfect as her genteel, English mannered boy-friend (not quite boyfriend but close). Little Dorothy Anne Seese is a gem as four-year old "Phronsie", the youngest Pepper. She makes it her cause to nurse Mr. King back to health with his measles, and they become pals for comic relief. If you like Americana movies, they don't come any better than this. Remember "The Fighting Sullivans" from a few weeks ago, about the real life brothers who went off to World War 2? This movie is in the same vein but without the war as a context. But every bit of the sentiment is in place. When I found out there were three more Pepper movies in the series I was happy. Two Huge Thumbs Up for this first one, the picture is razor sharp. ////
The second movie in the series, which we watched last night, was titled "Five Little Peppers at Home"(1940). Home is now Mr. King's mansion, where the family has gone to live after King and Polly become partners in her copper mine. Mr. King has taken the Pepper family under his wing, they're all living together, and the first ten minutes are taken up with hijinx when little Phronsie floods the bathroom while giving her doll a bath. Then it's on to serious business, as Mr. King learns that he's bankrupt! His lawyer informs him that, because the mine has yet to produce any copper, the bank is pulling their investment. As a result, he's going to lose his mansion, which he mortgaged to finance his half of the deal.
Polly Pepper offers to let Mr. King, Jasper and their butler "Martin" (Leonard Carey) all come to live with them back at their small house, down the hill in Gusty Corners. Turnabout is fair play, and Mr. King accepts. After moving into the Pepper house and living in much humbler surroundings, he decides he likes being poor. "The people are nicer and they have more fun," he says. Mr. King spends a lot of time with Phronsie, who sees him as the grandpa she never had. Phronsie gets most of the good lines in this film (Dorothy Anne Seese steals the show with her deadpan but earnest line readings), and teenage Jasper King, with his English good manners, spends more time with Polly, doing dishes and talking in the yard, while the middle boys argue and scheme. Eventually, Mr. King gets sick again. This time, it looks like he might die, but as in the first movie, Phronsie prays for him and he recovers. Then his mean sister "Martha" (Laura Treadwell) takes Jasper away to live with her. She's affronted that they're living in poverty. Meanwhile, it turns out that Martin the butler majored in mining engineering in college, and he knows a lot about copper. The kids take him down in the mine, at night, to try and discover a mother lode, but older brother "Ben Pepper" (Charles Peck) starts pounding away on the mine wall with his chisel, and the next thing you know there's a cave-in and everyone is trapped.
Just when it looks like they're all gonna suffocate, rescuers break through with an oxygen line. Everyone is saved, and Mr. King is informed that, during the rescue, it was discovered that the mine is indeed full of copper. He isn't bankrupt after all, and in fact is richer than he was before. But does he want his mansion back? No. "I'm gonna stay right here in Gusty Corners" he says, "and maybe build a bigger house because we've got a double family now, but I don't wanna live up on that hill with all of those phonies".
We're two movies in, with two more to go, and the verdict is this is one of the best film series we've ever seen. Two Huge Thumbs Up for The Five Little Peppers with the highest possible recommendation. The whole cast is fantastic, and all of America would like to revert to living in this simpler way, I think, which is why the nostalgia factor for times gone by is skyrocketing. Absolutely do not miss these movies, the picture on both is razor sharp, and we'll do the other two next week. ////
That's all for now. I'm listening to "Yesterday Meets Today", a new album by Eric Johnson, perhaps his best since "Venus Isle". I just got a Babe Ruth book from the Libe, so that's on deck while I continue to read Elvis. I'm also working on my Charles Ives book in the morning, but only one page at a time. The minutia of breaking down his Concord Sonata, measure by measure, over the course 360 pages, is not easy to sift through. The book is meant for a music theory scholar (which I am not), but I like Charles Ives and I sometimes like reading stuff I don't understand, if only to absorb it. The Elvis book on the other hand is a total kick. Things get really far out when he starts going to the Self-Realization Center in Pacific Palisades, then takes his one and only LSD trip. Elvis on acid! Who knew?
Late night is Wagner as usual. I hope your weekend is off to a good start, and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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