Beloved Brat, The (1938)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Extremely bizarre and at times dark tale of rich girl Roberta (Bonita Granville) who hates the fact that her parents (Donald Crisp, Natalie Moorhead) think they can just give her money and nothing else when in fact she wants their attention and love. Roberta begins acting out and this leads to some tragic events, which finds her in a girl's school ran by a woman (Dolores Costello) who thinks she can reach her. THE BELOVED BRAT is one of the craziest movies I've seen from any of the major studios during this era. I can't say I completely understood what they were going for but I will admit that I've become a major fan of Granville over the past several years. Most people are going to remember her from the four Nancy Drew pictures made by Warner but she appeared in quite a few good films but for some reason her star never fully raised into a major career, which was a real shame. She has no problem playing the "brat" here. She's rather perfect in the role as she has no problems being mean when she has to and God knows she certainly knows how to throw a fit here. Just check out the scene where she pretty much beats up her butler after he throws her friend out of the house. She also manages to be quite believable when it comes time to show the more tender side of the character. Both Crisp and Moorhead are wasted in their thankless roles and even Costello doesn't show up until forty-minutes into the movie. Costello at least manages to be very charming in her part as is Matthew 'Stymie' Beard who plays the black friend who teaches Roberta how to shoot a gun. Leo Gorcey also appears in one scene. This is an incredibly dark movie at times with the subject matter going way past what most would consider a brat. There's several scenes where Roberta is quite abusive but even more disturbing are a few scenes where she's abused by the butler (Emmett Vogan). These scenes are extremely brutal when viewed today and there's even a scene where he repeatedly tells this 13-year-old girl to kill herself. I'm guessing this type of behavior was more acceptable back in the day but viewing it today makes one feel rather uneasy. There's even a scene where Gorcey pushes Granville into a river and she falls back and the scene shows her legs spread and her panties exposed. Considering the era I'm a little shocked that this here got past the censors or even that the studio didn't do a different take. With that said, the film has such a surreal feel to it that you can't help but be entertained and the 62-minute running time passes quite quickly. However, it's certainly Granville's show and she's the main reason to watch.
