The Devil Is a Sissy is a 1936 American MGM comedy-drama film directed by W. S. Van Dyke and Rowland Brown. The film stars Freddie Bartholomew, Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney, three of the biggest child stars of the 1930s.
A well-bread British boy named Claude Pierce (Bartholomew) has recently moved to New York City to live with his father.
At school, he meets Gig Stevens (Rooney) and Buck Murphy (Cooper), two ill-mannered hoodlums from poor families. Gig's father has just been executed in prison. He wants to buy his father a tombstone, but does not have the money. He considers asking his wealthy aunt, but decides not to as he knows she didn't like his father.
Buck and Gig attempt to steal tires to raise the money, but Claude suggests they break into a wealthy home and get all the money at once. The three burgle a home of expensive toys and pawn them, allowing them to buy a gravestone.
The stolen goods are traced back to the three of them however, and they are summoned to court and put on probation. Claude however reveals the toys were actually his own, and he is cleared. Gig and Buck kick him out of their group for getting them into trouble with the law.
The night before they are to report to the probation officer, Gig and Buck decide to run away instead. Claude, who is sick with pneumonia, asks his father what would happen to his friends if they didn't report, and he is told they would be sent to reform school.
Claude finds the two boys at the cemetery, visiting Gig's father's grave. He begs them not to run away, but they ignore him and begin hitchhiking on the side of the road. A car pulls over and picks up the three boys. Claude and Gig however quickly figure out the men in the car are mobsters.
They take the boys to a French restaurant, planning on holding them for ransom. Claude is able to alert the server in French, and the boys narrowly escape as the gangsters are shot by the police.
After slipping out the back way, Claude collapses from his illness. When Buck and Gig visit him in the hospital, they attempt to talk to him but are not sure if he can hear them. Moved to tears by Claude having risked his life for them, they report for probation.
The film ends with Gig and Buck completing their probation program and being told they both have bright futures ahead of them. They rush outside to meet up with Claude, who has survived his illness, and they ride their bicycles into the distance.
Tropes:
- Corporal Punishment: Gig and Buck are given the strap for refusing to say who threw a football through a window.
- Creepy Crossdresser: One of the mobsters who pick up the boys, is dressed as an old woman.
- Duet Bonding: Gig, Buck and Claude become closer after singing with Gig's aunt Rose around the piano.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Buck's father beats him with his belt.
- First Friend: Gig and Buck are the first boys his own age Claude has ever spent any time with.
- A Friend in Need: Claude goes out of his way to stop his friends from running away, even after they kicked him out of the group.
- Friendship Moment: When Claude is in the hospital, Buck and Gig weep over his bed. Telling him they think he's swell, and that they're going to have a lot of fun when he gets better.
- Harmful to Hitchhikers: The men who pick up the boys first use them to avoid detection from the police, and then decide to hold them for ransom when Buck lets it slip that Claude is rich.
- Happy Ending: Gig and Buck successfully complete probation and have given up petty crime, and Claude survived his illness.
- High-Voltage Death: Gig's father was executed via the electric chair.
- Interclass Friendship: Claude comes from a very wealthy family, where as Gig and Buck live in poverty.
- Insult of Endearment: "We like you a lot, Limey. We think you're swell."
- Just Like Robin Hood: How Claude convinces the boys to rob a wealthy house.
- "Kick Me" Prank: Someone writes "Kick Me" on the back of Claude's coat on his first day of school. He is kicked by kids his entire walk home and doesn't know why.
- The Mafia: The boys are picked up by Italian gangsters while hitchhiking.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The boys ride their bikes off into the distance at the end.
- Rags to Riches: Gig's wealthy aunt takes custody of him by the end of the film.
- Rich Language, Poor Language: Claude speaks in a British accent and uses perfect grammar and large words. Buck and Gig speak in New York accents, use excessive slang and shortened words.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Claude is the sensitive guy, Buck the manly man, with Gig falling in-between.
- Troubled Teen: Buck has an alcoholic, abusive father and Gig is mourning his own father who has just been executed by the State.
- Would Hurt a Child: One of the mobsters punches Buck in the face when he tries to leave, knocking him to the ground.
- Working-Class People Are Morons: Gig and Buck don't know what R.I.P. stands for.
