Les petites pestes

It's understandable why this movie, Gloria Jean's first, is also her personal favorite.

That Gloria Jean Schoonover even made it to motion pictures is a tribute to her abilities as an actress and singer. When longtime Universal producer Joe Pasternak announced a talent hunt audition to be held in New York for the purpose of finding a female child singer, Gloria Jean's teacher, Leah Russel, decided to take her young charge to it. At the audition were hundreds of talented young girls in pretty dresses, looking much like Shirley Temple replicas. It wouldn't seem that a short, cutesy girl in blue jeans with slightly crooked teeth would have much of a chance, nor would it help when she refused to audition until the piano was tuned. But Gloria was ultimately the one selected, and a career was born.

In the Under-Pup, Gloria is introduced to the movie-going world a few seconds into the opening credits in a head-and-shoulders closeup, wearing a white satin dress and looking very cherubic, singing a short sequence of coloratura runs and arpeggios, and landing solidly on high C. One could argue Universal was showing off a bit, but as it turned out, they had a lot to show off in Gloria.

The story is one that was used often: a tomboyish city girl from a poor family is invited to a camp for rich and mostly snobbish girls. She's initially shunned and ridiculed, but she eventually wins the girls over and manages to play Little Miss Fixit for various situations. While the idea is well-traveled, it's played out in a refreshing manner. There's actually a well-constructed plot, an intelligent storyline, and realistic dialog. A few viewings reveal many niceties in continuity that are usually lacking in "B" pictures. As is the case in most Grover Jones screenplays, there are no gaping holes in "The Under-Pup", no inexplicable characters or situations that pop up out of nowhere. New elements show hints of their existence at earlier points in the story. The characters in the story are very believable; the viewer is spared the plastic types who normally frequent such movies. The main character of Pip-Emma is far from a Miss Perfect; she's surprisingly vulnerable and real, with an upside and downside. Like most kids, she succumbs to temptation, gets into her share of mischief, and wrestles with the choices of good and bad. At each moment of truth, she ends up doing the right thing, but most of the time, an adult needs to steer her along the right path.

The acting is superb. The idea, as was customary in those days, was to surround the new and/or inexperienced star (re: Sonja Henie, Jascha Heifetz, and even her studio mate Deanna Durbin) with veteran talent. And Universal did so with established players such as C. Aubrey Smith, Nan Grey, Bob Cummings, Beulah Bondi, Ray Walburn, and the wonderfully wacky Billy Gilbert, plus child stars Virginia Weidler (in one of her few non-bratty roles), Shirley Mills, Dickie Moore, and Butch and Buddy (Billy Lenhart and Kenny Brown). Ginny Weidler's character is as well-acted as that of any of the adults.

There was no need to cover for Gloria Jean, though. She did slightly overdo some of her scenes, understandable for a (then) novice, but she showed that she could run the range of emotions when needed, and she did so with a maturity that belied her thirteen years (Universal listed her age as eleven, feeling it would sell more tickets).

Of course, her main reason for being in the movie was to sing---and sing she did. Her voice, while not projecting in the dynamic way that her idol Deanna Durbin's did, is (in my opinion) purer and more lilting. In layman's terms: Durbin's voice is richer, and Gloria Jean's is sweeter. Gloria sings all or part of five songs, including a lyrical version of Mozart's "Shepherd Lullabye", the first two verses of Lady John Scott's well-known "Annie Laurie", and some scales to accompany a sort of fight song for the girls' Penguin Club in the movie, the music of which comes from John Phillip Sousa's "High School Cadet" march. Interestingly, Gloria repeats the "Penguin" song in what was essentially a sequel to this movie: "A Little Bit of Heaven", which is a must-see if you like "The Under-Pup".

All in all, this is an excellent movie. Unfortunately, it's also a movie that hasn't been aired often in the last three decades. Perhaps one of the classic movie cable channels can be convinced to show it. The movie may also be bought directly from Gloria Jean on her website. While IMDb policies forbid the posting of URL's, you can find the site name by using your favorite search engine and her full name of "Gloria Jean Schoonover".

Gloria Jean comes from a poor family, but with the help of grandfather C. Aubrey Smith, she writes an essay that gets her a month at an exclusive girl's summer camp. There she makes a friend but is confronted with the snobbery of the other girls. She also meets Billy Gilbert and his two sons, helps camp chief counselor Beulah Bondi and fitness instructor Bob Cummings.

With superstar Deanna Durban about to graduate into older roles, Universal had Joe Pasternak produce this effort to push her successor as Little Miss Fix-It into the spotlight. Gloria Jean has a fine singing voice, and is surrounded with a top cast, including Raymond Walburn, Margaret Lindsay, and Samuel S. Hinds. The result is a highly amusing movie that has Miss Jean dealing with the cliquish behavior of pre-teens. Billy Gilbert is his usual delightful nonsensical self, Walburn is comically pompous, and Smith is a pleasure as always, even though his accent roams between Scots, Mancunian and West Country.

It was a great premiere for Miss Jeans, but after a couple more leads, she wound up in her best remembered movie, supporting W.C. Fields in NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK. Adolescence called, and her movie career tailed off in the late 1940s. Her last movie appearance was in Jerry Lewis' THE LADIES' MAN and she had a few TV roles. The rest of her life was spent with family, and she died in 2018, 92 years of age.

This movie was Universal's debut of another young singer, while Deanna Durbin continued to rake in hits at the box office. Gloria Jean was just 13 when she made this film, and she had a fine voice and good personality to go along with it. But she wasn't Durbin, or quite on the level of other singers at other studios - i.e., Jane Powell, Jeanette MacDonald, etc.. And, because she was new, the studio tried to boost the film by packing it with a supporting cast of some well-known and liked actors.

Thus, C. Aubrey Smith is here as Grandpa, and Beulah Bond is the camp director, Miss Thornton. Raymond Walburn is Mr. Layton, the father of one of the wealthy girls. Paul Cavanagh is another, as Franklin Cooper. Billy Gilbert has a role as Tolio, which is more lame than comedy. And, Samuel Hinds plays Dr McKay. Another child star, Virginia Weidler plays Janet Cooper, a sort of outcast girl whom Gloria Jean's Pip-Emma Binns takes under her wing. Co-stars Robert Cummings and Nan Grey were known actors but not at the top. They are camp employees and supposed to provide a romance angle. Cummings had made more than 20 films but was still a supporting actor whose star would rise within a couple of years. Grey didn't have much of a career and would quit show business in 1941.

Well, with all of this and a screenplay that just isn't very good, this film doesn't have much. Gloria's singing is fine for the few tunes she has. But the bulk of the story is about feuding among girls at a girls summer camp, which quickly becomes tiring. Pip-Emma tells a couple of lies early on, and she pulls a shell game on girls going to camp. She supports an underdog girl - maybe that's were the film gets its title, and latter apologizes a couple times to an opponent when coaxed to do so by camp personnel. In the end, she is welcomed into the girls club, the Purple Order of Penguins.

The movie has a number of oddities in the plot. The opening shows Pip and opposing kids whistling and forming young kid gangs in the city that do battle. Another is Pip telling Janet to swim faster in her swimming race when Pip whistles. Gosh, Janet would get all that extra strength and stamina just from a whistle by Pip! It appears that the writers and producers couldn't decided what to do for a plot - to get their new young singer introduced to the public.

I suspect this was a B film by Universal. The Wikipedia article on the film says it was well received. But, while giving a budget of $465,000, it doesn't have box office receipts. It doesn't appear anywhere in the top 230 plus films for the year in box office receipts. And, 1939 being a year of some great and very good films, my guess is that this movie didn't gain anything for Universal - if indeed, it didn't bomb at the box office.

My five stars are for Jean's good singing and the mostly good supporting cast - for showing up. Especially Grandpa and Miss Thornton.

A prestigious girls camp is offering a scholarship to their camp for some underprivileged kid. Pip (Gloria Jean) wins this essay contest but almost as soon as she arrives, she is having second thoughts about this 'prize' as most of these girls are spoiled monsters. They force her to dress differently from everyone else (who sport nice uniforms) and constantly remind her that they are better than Pip. And, you really, really want to see these spoiled rich girls get their comeuppance. But again and again, the camp's director (Beulah Bondi) seems to take the rich kids' side. What is Pip to do...other than perhaps run away or go Rambo on their other kids'?! Additionally, the one kid who IS nice to Pip (Virginia Weidler) is going through trouble, as her hateful parents are divorcing.

While the basic story makes for a nice family sort of film, Universal Studios insisted on having a Deanna Durbin-like actress who could also sing operatic-style songs. Folks in the late 30s and into the 40s LOVED this sort of stuff, though today it comes off as pretty weird...with such a strong and adult-like voice coming out of little Gloria Jean. It certainly didn't age well. This and the general schmatziness do detract from the film, though it's still pleasant and undemanding entertainment.

I'm thinking that Deanna Durbin was busy on something else and also that Universal Pictures decided it needed a backup Durbin is the reason that Gloria Jean made her film debut in The Under-Pup. As good a reason as any for the film to be made and enjoyed. Not too much variation for Gloria Jean in the traditional Durbin little miss fix-it part.

Gloria gets a scholarship to go to a girl's summer camp that's reserved for the rich and snooty. Ann Gillis is the richest and snootiest there, a sort of greatest generation version of a Mean Girl, but Gloria overcomes and even gains a friend in the person of Virginia Weidler.

The place is run by Beulah Bondi with counselors Bob Cummings and Nan Grey to assist. The girls for dress wear these military outfits and the place has a marching theme which is John Philip Sousa's High School Cadets with some lyrics added.

Others in the cast are C. Aubrey Smith as Gloria's grandfather and Raymond Walburn as Gillis's father who has spoiled her rotten. Billy Gilbert is there as the cook for the camp with two bratty sons and Gilbert does his usual shtick.

The Under-Pup holds up pretty well with its two main assets, Gloria Jean's singing and the great cast Universal surrounded her with.