Five Little Peppers in Trouble (1940) 4th of 4 'Pepper' Films

Drama | Comedy | Family | USA | B&W | 64min Cast: Edith Fellows, Dorothy Anne Seese, Dorothy Peterson, Pierre Watkin, Ronald Sinclair, Charles Peck, Tommy Bond, Bobby Larson, Rex Evans, Kathleen Howard, Mary Currier, Shirley Jean Rickert The last of four 'Five Little Pepper' movies made in 1939 and 1940. The Peppers--widowed Mrs. Pepper and her five children Ben, Polly, Joey, Davie, and Phronsie--have returned to live in their small house in Gusty Corners with J.H. "Grandpa" King, his grandson Jasper, and their faithful butler Martin, while J.H. is having another mansion in Gusty Corners built in which they can all live more comfortably. But Jasper's Aunt Martha Wilcox still wants to go to court to get custody of him. Jasper knows nothing about this and would rather live with his grandfather and the Peppers. J.H. believes she has a case, considering that they all live in the Peppers' cramped cottage. So with Mrs. Pepper's approval, J.J. decides to spend Jasper and all five Pepper children to boarding school so Martha can't get a hold on Jasper, but they only tell Polly the reason. At this new school, the other children treat the Peppers like lepers just because of their poor background; Polly gets the worst treatment, as the other teenage girls try everything to get rid of her and her siblings, but Polly endures the mistreatment rather than risk losing Jasper to his aunt. The four 'Pepper' films were vehicles for Columbia's juvenile star Edith Fellows, who played Polly. The rest of the kids were Charles Peck as Ben, Tommy Bond as Joey, Bobby Larson as Davie, and Dorothy Ann Seese as Phronsie. The first film was devoted mostly to Fellows as the senior member of the Pepper brood, and was not an exact reflection of the book. The other three films were homespun family stories with elements of comedy and drama. Edith Fellows carried the series, although by the fourth film, five-year-old Dorothy Ann Seese had become an audience favourite and was billed at the head of the cast, second only to Fellows. The Pepper screenplays had little to do with the original book Margaret Sidney, but the films were popular with moviegoers.