Gangster's Boy

Too old to play the cute MGM urchin any longer, 16-year-old Jackie Cooper signed with Monogram for a group of above-average programmers. Gangster's Boy was the second of this series, all of which followed a predestined pattern of shame and redemption. Young Cooper is a high-school honor student who is revealed to be the son of an ex-gangster (Robert Warwick). Shunned by former friends, Cooper nonetheless stands by his dad, defending him to a hostile community. Father and son eventually prevail over provincial bigotry, though Cooper seems happier about the whole thing than the ever-sullen Warwick (an actor better suited to the role of a business executive or Shakespearean ham). Sentimental to the nth degree, Gangster's Boy was a success, prompting a third Cooper Monogram "special" with a similar plotline, Streets of New York (39).