Peck's Bad Boy (1921) (Silent)

Little Henry Peck causes a riot when he accidentally frees a man-eating lion from his cage. Trouble and havoc seem to trail the boy wherever he goes and only his dear mother understands him. But when young Henry's pranks get his big sister's boyfriend, Dr. Martin, arrested, dad decides that the boy must be punished!

Jackie Coogan was clearly a seasoned veteran when he starred in Peck's Bad Boy at the tender age of seven. He had been performing with his vaudevillian parents since age four. Discovered on stage by Charlie Chaplin, he won widespread fame for his role in the 1921 classic, The Kid. By the mid-1920s, he was one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. After notable roles in Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931) he was relegated to bit parts. He would find success again in 1964 on the small screen playing Uncle Fester in the hit television series "The Addams Family."

Based on George Wilbur Peck's affable stories of boyhood misadventures, PECK'S BAD BOY stars America's biggest silent child star, Jackie Coogan (OLIVER TWIST), as a lovable youngster who can't stay out of trouble. From planting ants where they shouldn't be to releasing a lion from its cage at the circus, Coogan's transgressions are both humorous and extensive. They also tend toward the illicit: Coogan attempts to blackmail his father and hides documents that cause the arrest of his sister's boyfriend. At first the boy's only real loyalty is to his dog, whom he rescues from the neighborhood dogcatcher in another amusing bit of troublemaking. But when pressed with real consequences, Coogan learns to take responsibility for his actions, an act that later proves instrumental toward saving the life of his dog. As the decades roll past, the content of PECK'S BAD BOY remains a fine piece of family entertainment for Coogan fans and the young at heart.