Hollywood, April 11 (1931). - If Jackie Cooper ever learns to gesticulate and become screen conscious he will break our hearts. The Jackie Cooper who created "Skippy" and tramped on our emotions without regard to age or sex is the finest child actor the movies have yet produced.
Jackie becomes the character he plays. He is the misunderstood boy whose scientific father fails to know his child. He is really the "Skippy" who finds goats, garbage and dirt just 'grand' and wishes that he could live among the people in Shantytown.
I used to think that Jackie Coogan had the most appealing personality of any youngster in films. Then Jackie grew up. He became an actor and you missed the child-like simplicity and, moreover, the sincerity. You felt Jackie realized that he was a movie star.
That "Self-Conscious" Age
I don't believe it was the fault of young Coogan. It was largely his direction and the show-off attitude forced upon him. Jackie has passed that self-conscious age and he may return with all the charm that captivated the world when he made "The Kid" with Charlie Chaplin.
Mitzi Green, who mentally is as alert as any child in America, is losing some of her little girl appeal. Mitzi, too, is becoming an actress. I noticed it in "Skippy." I felt she was trying to act. Mitzi in her first picture was astonishingly real. Perhaps she thought the part of the smarty Eloise in "Skippy" called for a little extra acting. But let's hope she is herself in her next picture.
I made inquiries about Jackie Cooper, who never once stepped out of the character of "Skippy." I find he is the child of a widowed mother and that he is as much of a prodigy to those with whom he works as he is to the outside world.
Tears Had To Be Real
Richard Dix told me that Jackie Cooper has the mind of a 15-year-old. "He had to weep bitterly," said Richard, "in a scene in 'Big Brother.' His emotions were perfect. He had all of us on the verge of tears. I have never seen anyone play a scene with more genuine feeling."
"Then," said Richard, " we all stopped for lunch. Jackie was brought back to weep for a closeup. He couldn't cry."
"What's the matter, old man," Richard asked him, "Don't you feel weepy?"
"I shouldn't have eaten," he confided to Richard. "I cannot get back into the mood now."
Finally, Richard and Fred Niblo, the director, talked with him and pictured all sorts of trouble for Jackie's adored mother.
The tears came, Jackie wept and the closeups were made.
It will be interesting to watch Jackie Cooper's development, to see if he continues to be as natural.
Future Looks Bright
B. P. Schulberg has great hopes for little Robert Coogan, who played "Sooky." Bobby is just a baby with a thin, piping voice. He lacks the spontaneity of Jackie Cooper. But he is such an adorable child that Paramount is going to capitalize his personality.
"Skippy" probably brought more children into the theater than any picture in years. Paramount admitted it was an experiment. But it is good news to the mothers who have such difficulty in finding suitable entertainment for their little ones that it is a successful experiment. Grownups love it more than children.
The next children's picture will be "Sooky," featuring young Robert Coogan with Jackie Cooper playing his same role "Skippy."
One of the heads of the Paramount studio told me that no father and son went into the theater to see "Skippy" without the father unconsciously putting his arm about his boy, eager to understand him better than the screen father understood Skippy.