Pepper (1936)

Jane Withers plays "little Miss Fixit" in Pepper with a minimum of sentimental goo and a maximum of laughs. Though she's been warned not to do so, Pepper Jolly (Withers) intrudes upon the solitude of grouchy old millionaire John Wilkes (Irvin S. Cobb). Her unbridled good spirits virtually strong-arm the old fellow into cracking a smile for the first time in his life -- and of course has a reciprocal positive effect on everyone whom Wilkes himself has previously made miserable. The plot winds to a close as Pepper and Wilkes join forces to prevent his daughter Helen's (Muriel Roberts) marriage to an oily gigolo (who else but Ivan Lebedeff?) The scene in which Pepper coerces Wilkes into taking all of her friends to an amusement park is a riot, especially when Wilkes himself endures the happy agony of a roller-coaster ride. Recalling her co-star Irvin S. Cobb in 1975, Jane Withers told film historian Don Stanke, "He was a wonderful gentlemen. He thought I was going to be what I was like in Bright Eyes (in which she played a hateful brat), and he got the surprise of his life when I wasn't. We got along marvelously." Indeed, the warm rapport between the two stars shines through every frame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi