• Home
  • Archive

Screen Dreams

A deep dive into Hollywood's early years

Giornate del Cinema Muto: Penrod and Sam (1923)

October 6, 2020

A beautifully restored print from the Library of Congress, this heartwarming (and at times heartbreaking) film follows the misadventures of a boy named Penrod, accompanied by his best friend/second-in-command Sam, and his loyal dog Duke.

This was the second film in the Penrod series, based on the novels by Booth Tarkington; the first, directed by Marshall Neilan, had been released the previous year. Here we find Penrod as the leader of his neighbourhood gang, who have their clubhouse on the vacant lot next door owned by his father, on which the children have built a ramshackle wooden structure – styled as an army barracks – to serve as the base for their army games. Said games largely seem to involve seizing prisoners from their rival gang, led by Rodney Bitts, the son of the richest man in town, and Penrod’s nemesis.

Their antagonism of one another escalates alarmingly, although Rodney is provided with an opportunity to increase the level of cruelty in the conflict after he and his father strike and kill Penrod’s dog with their car, and the latter is forced to endure Rodney’s taunts. It seems as though things cannot get any worse for our plucky hero after the vacant lot is sold to Rodney’s father, and Penrod is banned from setting foot on it. His beloved dog is buried there, and in a tragic sequence he begs Rodney’s father to sell him just the tiny piece of land where Duke’s grave is, for all the money he has in the world – eighty six cents.

His request is refused, and he sinks into a state of utter dejection, sitting alone in his bedroom sobbing, as he looks at Duke’s grave from the window. Penrod’s father – alarmed by the change in his son, who has lost his former mischievous spark entirely – resolves to repurchase the lot (after his wife insists that he had not appreciated what it had meant to his son) using the family savings, paying $200 more than he sold it for. He puts the lot in Penrod’s name, presenting him with a deed that says it’s his to do whatever he wants with, forever.

The child cast are fantastically directed by William Beaudine, whose work here would inspire Mary Pickford to hire him for Little Annie Rooney (1925) and Sparrows (1926). As I was watching, I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to them next. It’s the strange thing about watching films from the first few decades of cinema – a quick online search for the actors, and their whole lives and careers unfurl before you. In case you were wondering too, here’s what came next for the cast of Penrod and Sam.

Penrod (Ben Alexander) and Sam (Joe Butterworth)

Penrod’s sidekick Sam, played by Joe Butterworth, was a highlight of the film for me. Though he couldn’t have been older than thirteen during production, he has all the world-weary cynicism of a 1930s gangster’s deputy, or a hardboiled Noir detective. He’s the shadow to Penrod’s sunshine, and it works so well. His father, Ernest Butterworth, had appeared in small roles in several Douglas Fairbanks films, including Arizona and Say! Young Fellow (both 1918). Unfortunately Joe’s career doesn’t seem to extend past child roles, though he does appear as Mickey in Little Annie Rooney in 1925. Joe’s brothers Ernest Jr. and Frank were also actors, though neither seems to have a film credit later than 1923.

Ben Alexander in 1959

As for Penrod himself, Ben Alexander had a long career, spanning film, television and radio. He was already something of a seasoned actor by the time he made Penrod and Sam, with more than 20 credits to his name, and made a successful transition to sound with All Quiet On The Western Front (1930). He worked continuously throughout the 1930s – although largely in low budget B-movies – before becoming a radio announcer in the 1940s, and a television host in the 1950s and 60s. However, he is perhaps best remembered for his role as Officer Frank Smith in 1950s American police procedural Dragnet. Alongside his career in show business, Alexander also ran a car dealership and a motel (Ben Alexander’s Dream House Motel) in Hollywood.

 

Rodney (Buddy Messinger) and Marjorie (Gertrude Messinger)

The actors who played Marjorie (“acclaimed by Penrod as the most beautiful girl in the world”) and Rodney – Penrod’s biggest love and biggest enemy, respectively – were in fact siblings. There’s definitely a family resemblance in that scowl! Their father was a carpenter at Universal, where the two appeared in front of the camera for the first time in The Hunted Man (1917), a short for IMP. They followed this with several Fox fairytale films, including Jack and the Beanstalk (1917) and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1918), and they worked steadily for the next several years, until the child roles began to dwindle. Buddy continued to appear in small, uncredited roles for much of the rest of his career – including a background part in Laurel and Hardy’s Our Relations (1936) alongside his sister – with a short stint as an assistant director in his later years.

Gertude (centre) with The Boy Friends co-stars Mary Kornman and Dorothy Granger, 1930

Gertrude, however, had slightly more luck. She seemed to take a break from films between 1923 and 1929, when she appeared in Douglas Fairbanks Jr.’s The Jazz Age (1929). She was then part of the The Boy Friends series, produced by Hal Roach for MGM. Designed as a kind of teen spin off of the popular Our Gang series, and featuring several of its stars, the shorts followed three girls (and the titular boyfriends) through various slapstick mishaps. The shorts were released between 1930 and 1932, with Gertrude’s last appearance in the 1931 instalment The Kick-Off.  She caused a minor scandal in April 1932, when she left her fiancé and eloped with David Sharpe, her co-star in The Boy Friends. The New York Times observed that “it seemed to be quite a surprise all around, since only three months ago the 20-year-old actress received a license here to wed James F. Gaither, movie sound technician”. Gertrude and David divorced in 1936, but in a strange twist of fate, after her brother Buddy passed away in 1965, his widow remarried – to David Sharpe.

Gertude in Madame Racketeer (1932)

She would go on to appear in several pre-codes and B-movies throughout the 1930s, including small roles in Madame Racketeer with George Raft in 1932, and The Woman Accused (1933), an early Cary Grant film. A handful of small uncredited roles appear in her filmography until 1952, but Gertrude largely retired from the screen after her role as Madge Allen in western Feud Of The Range in 1939.

 

Verman (Eugene Jackson)

Eugene Jackson was just five years old when he debuted in Penrod and Sam, and would go on to star in several of the Our Gang shorts in 1925, and in uncredited roles in Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and Mary Pickford’s Little Annie Rooney (1925).

In 1929 Jackson appeared in Fox musical Hearts in Dixie, one of the first all-sound productions by a big studio to feature a predominantly African-American cast, in which he became the first African-American child to speak on film. Jackson also had a thriving career in vaudeville, and he was clearly a talented dancer; film historian Steve Massa notes that “Eugene and his brother Freddie were rotoscoped by the Disney Studio, and their dancing was used for the crows in Dumbo”. He had an extraordinarily long career, with his final recorded screen credits being Mel Brook’s Life Stinks, and The Addams Family (both 1991).

Festival passes for the Giornate are available on their website. 

CATEGORIES: Pordenone, Silent Film, William Beaudine

SHARE THIS POST:
« Giornate del Cinema Muto: The Urge To Travel (1911 – 1939)
CMBA Hidden Classics Blogathon: The Mad Miss Manton (1938) »

RELATED POSTS

  • Giornate del Cinema Muto: The Urge To Travel (1911 – 1939)
  • It (1927)
  • Exit Smiling (1926)
  • Mantrap (1926)

Comments

  1. Le says

    October 12, 2020 at 8:21 pm

    I was exactly wondering what became of the child actors of the film when I reached your site, and you gave me all the answers I could expect. Thanks for your research in this post.
    Cheers!

Screen Dreams is a blog looking at the films of early Hollywood, the people who starred in them, and the world in which they lived.

  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Search

Upcoming Blogathons

Archives

  • May 2021
  • October 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018

Categories

  • 1910s
  • 1920s
  • 1930s
  • 1940s
  • 1950s
  • 20th Century Fox
  • Adolphe Menjou
  • Alfred E. Green
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Antonio Moreno
  • Archie Mayo
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • Beatrice Lillie
  • Bette Davis
  • BFI
  • Billie Burke
  • Blogathon
  • Book Post
  • Buster Keaton
  • Carole Lombard
  • Cary Grant
  • Charlie Chaplin
  • Christmas
  • Clara Bow
  • Clarence G. Badger
  • Clark Gable
  • Columbia Pictures
  • D.W. Griffith
  • Douglas Fairbanks
  • Edmund Golding
  • Emil Jannings
  • Ernst Lubitsch
  • Errol Flynn
  • Fay Wray
  • Film History
  • Film Noir
  • Film Screenings
  • Fred Astaire
  • Fred MacMurray
  • Gene Tierney
  • George Cukor
  • George Stevens
  • Ginger Rogers
  • Grace Kelly
  • Greta Garbo
  • Henry Fonda
  • Howard Hawks
  • Irving Thalberg
  • Jack Pickford
  • James Dunn
  • James Stewart
  • James Tinling
  • Jean Harlow
  • Joan Bennett
  • Joan Crawford
  • Joan Fontaine
  • John Barrymore
  • John Gilbert
  • Josef von Sternberg
  • Judy Garland
  • Katharine Hepburn
  • Lauren Bacall
  • Laurence Olivier
  • Leslie Howard
  • Lionel Barrymore
  • Lists
  • Lon Chaney
  • Louise Lorraine
  • Mae West
  • Margaret Sullavan
  • Marlene Dietrich
  • Mary Pickford
  • MGM
  • Michael Curtiz
  • Myrna Loy
  • Olivia de Havilland
  • Otto Preminger
  • Paramount
  • Pordenone
  • Pre-Code
  • Priscilla Bonner
  • Priscilla Dean
  • Reginald Owen
  • RKO
  • Robert Riskin
  • Robert Z. Leonard
  • Rosalind Russell
  • Rouben Mamoulian
  • Screwball Comedy
  • Silent Comedy
  • Silent Film
  • Spencer Tracy
  • Tod Browning
  • United Artists
  • Universal
  • Van Johnson
  • Victor Fleming
  • W. S. Van Dyke
  • Wallace Beery
  • Warner Bros
  • Wheeler Oakman
  • William Austin
  • William Beaudine
  • William Holden
  • William Powell
  • William Wyler

Featured Posts

The Jean Harlow Blogathon: Bombshell (1933)

4th Golden Boy Blogathon: A William Holden Celebration

The Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn Blogathon: Woman of the Year (1942)

Clara Bow in a promo shot for Kid Boots (1926)⁣ Clara Bow in a promo shot for Kid Boots (1926)⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#clarabow #silentera #silentfilm #silentcinema #silentstars #precode #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #1920s #hollywood #20s #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood
Sophia Loren on the set of Scandal in Sorrento (19 Sophia Loren on the set of Scandal in Sorrento (1955)⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#sophialoren #onset #behindthescenes #filmmaking #italiancinema #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #1950s #hollywood #50s #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood
Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman on the set of Cat Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman on the set of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958)⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#elizabethtaylor #paulnewman #onset #filmmaking #behindthescenes #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #1950s #hollywood #50s #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood ⁣
Gene Tierney on the set of The Ghost and Mrs Muir Gene Tierney on the set of The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#GeneTierney #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #1940s #hollywood #40s #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood
Greta Garbo on the set of Anna Christie (1930) wit Greta Garbo on the set of Anna Christie (1930) with cinematographer William H Daniels and director Clarence Brown⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#gretagarbo #williamhdaniels #clarencebrown #precode #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #1930s #hollywood #30s #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood ⁣
Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall on the set of How Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall on the set of How To Marry A Millionaire (1953)⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#marilynmonroe #laurenbacall #onset #behindthescenes #filmmaking #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #1950s #hollywood #50s #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood
“I had to fight for everything at Warners. A kno “I had to fight for everything at Warners. A knock-down, drag-out fight. You didn’t always win, but it let them know you were alive.”⁣
⁣
Happy birthday to Ann Sheridan #botd in 1915⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#annsheridan #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #hollywood #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood ⁣
Marilyn Monroe in a publicity shot for Ladies of t Marilyn Monroe in a publicity shot for Ladies of the Chorus (1949)⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#marilynmonroe #filmmaking #behindthescenes #onset #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #1940s #hollywood #40s #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood ⁣
Marilyn Monroe during the filming of Ladies of the Marilyn Monroe during the filming of Ladies of the Chorus (1949)⁣, her first major film role
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#marilynmonroe #behindthescenes #filmmaking #onset #makeup #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #vintagehollywoodglamour #classicmovies #oldhollywood #oldhollywoodglamour #silverscreen #1940s #hollywood #40s #films #film #classicfilms #classicfilm #retrohollywood #goldenageofhollywood #cinema #vintagecinema #goldenage #goldenagehollywood

© Screen Dreams 2018

THEME BY ECLAIR DESIGNS