From Slums To High Society.

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 34, 3 February 1939, Page 14

From Slums To High Society.

["Little Tough Guys in Society." Universal. Directed by Erle Kenton. With Mischa Auer, Mary Boland, Helen Parrish. Release date indefinite.] E have, you may be sorry to hear, not yet finished with the subject of bad boys and what to do with them. Yet another suggestion for reforming them is advanced-but hardly seriouslyin "Little Tough Guys in Society." The title practically explains the Great Idea, and it is all pretty good fun. Rich Mary Boland has an annoying son, so bored with life that he won’t get out of bed. She calls in Dr: Mischa Auer, who prescribes a treatment of little tough guys from the New York slums, the theory being that the rich boy will benefit from contact with the lower classes, and vice versa. So Mary Boland’s country home is invaded by six very hardboiled young eggs who grab at the chance because they’re wanted by the police. And these boys are plenty tough! On arrival, they turn a garden-party into a bear-garden, hurl the obnoxious son into the lake, and reduce Ed. ward Everett Horton (the butler) to the verge of a nervous breakdown,’

After that follows their discovery of the bathroom and all its gadgets, their lesson in etiquette, and their debut in the ballroomand once again, it is all very good fun, provided you haven’t grown beyond the stage when you tan ap preciate honest-to-goodness slap stick. There’s some bright dialogue, too, and efficiently comical performances by Auer and Horton. Slaps In The Face JACKIN SEARL plays the nasty little rich boy very competently. He manages to take his unwashed guests down a peg or twa, but is no match for them in the Jong run. Thanks very largely to the refining influence of little rich girl Helen Parrish, the treatment prescribed by. Dr. Auer is eventually acclaimed a success, on both sides of the social register. The "Dead Erd" kids must have been otherwise engaged when Universal made this picture, so they employed six unknown juveniles who look just about as incorrigible, but are not in the same street when it comes to acting. How: ever, this is not important, since their roles principally demand that they shall be able to knock each other about continuously and with gusto. This face-slapping becomes slightly ‘wearying after the first few rounds; but it’s apparently infectious, because in the end even staid old Edward Everett Horton is doing it, too. As a piece of hearty burlesque, "Little Tough Guys in Society" is quite worth seeing.