Week Sixty-Eight
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"Babes in Toyland" 1934 Tommy, second from left |
MOVIE NAME: BABES IN TOYLAND
STUDIO: HAL ROACH STUDIOS
DIRECTOR: GUS MEINS and CHARLES ROGERS
DATE: 1934
TYPE: FANTASY, CHILDREN, COMEDY with Songs
CAST:
VIRGINIA KARNS as Mother Goose, CHARLOTTE HENRY as Bo-Peep , FELIX KNIGHT as Tom-Tom (Piper) , FLORENCE ROBERTS as Widow Peep , HENRY KLEINBACH as Silas Barnaby , STAN LAUREL as Stannie Dum, OLIVER HARDY as Ollie Dee , FERDINAND MUNIER AS Santa Clause , WILLIAM BURRESS as Toymaker , JOHNNY DOWNS AS Little Boy Blue , TOMMY BUPP, as a schoolboy, with Scotty Beckett, George Billings, Marianne Edwards, Jerry Tucker, Jackie Taylor and Dickie Jones
SOURCE: A F I, Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1940
AKA: The March of the Wooden Soldiers, Revenge is Sweet
SONGS: "Toyland," "Don't Cry Bo-Peep," and "Go to Sleep, Slumber Deep," "I Can't Do the Sum," and "March of the Soldiers"
STORY: In the village of Toyland, evil old Silas Barnaby threatens to evict the Widow Peep, who lives in a shoe, unless she allows him to marry her daughter Bo-Peep. The Widow refuses, much to the relief of Bo-Peep, who is in love with Tom-Tom Piper. The Widow asks for help from her well-meaning, but simple lodgers, Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee. They assure her that they can borrow the money she needs from their employer, the Toymaker. Because they made a huge mistake on an order for Santa Clause, by ordering 100 six foot toy soldiers instead of 600 one foot soldiers, they got fired instead of a loan. They decide to obtain the deed to the shoe by hiding in a fake Christmas gift to Barnaby, and stealing the deed as he sleeps. He soon discovers their ruse, and the next day, Old King Cole, proclaims that they will be dunked in the pond and banished to Bogeyland. Bo-peep saves them from banishment by agreeing to marry Barnaby, in exchange for the charges being dropped against them and allowing her mother to move back in to the shoe. Bo-Peep and her mother sadly wait with Stannie and Ollie for the ceremony. The Widow then goes to Barnaby and asks for mercy, which he refuses to give. Ollie arrives with the the bride who is covered with a veil and the wedding commences. After the ceremony, Barnaby gives the deed to Ollie, who tears it up, but when Barnaby lifts the veil to kiss the bride, he finds Stannie. Barnaby vows revenge, and later that night kidnaps one of the three little pigs, and plants evidence to make Tom-Tom appear guilty. The next day during the trial, Stannie and Ollie find the pig in Barnaby's cellar, but by the time they bring him back, Tom-Tom has been sent to Bogeyland. Bo-Peep rushes off to find Tom-Tom, while the townspeople chase Barnaby, who goes to Bogeyland through a secret passageway in his well. Stannie and Ollie follow him and find Bo-Peep and Tom-Tom, then are chased back to Toyland by Barnaby and the Bogeymen. Chaos breaks out in Toyland as the town is overrun by Barnaby's marauders. Stannie and Ollie start-up the giant wooden soldiers. The soldiers march out of the toy factory and rout the Bogeymen.
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