Lord Jeff (1938)

Wonderful, clean, entertaining story about an orphan boy raised by jewel thieves. They use him as a front (posing as a young Lord) to get into jewelry stores unsuspected, distract the owner, and steal a valuable. The game is up when Lord Jeff is caught and sent to a trade school to learn seamanship - hopefully to teach him honesty and hard work, but if not, then he will be sent to reform school.

Good movie great story line when teaching kids to do the right thing in life

Freddie and Mickey work well together every time they're paired. This is a formulaic movie, which is okay in my book when animated by the stars. That describes Lord Jeff. Don't expect surprises, just relax and enjoy the boys.

Good to see a young Mickey Rooney. Good movie about a young man taught to be a crook and his path to honesty.

Good Old movie!!!

Great

Two points worth emphasising. Lord Jeff is basically a Freddie Bartholomew vehicle and he gives one of his strongest performances. As his biographer Clifford Aliperti has pointed out, Bartholomew was a young master of character transformation. In this case he is a corrupt young villain (in the pocket of two adult villains) well on the way to perdition. He ends up in a once famous institution which prepared young males for service in Britain's vital merchant marine.The institution is point two. The merchant marine training school is 'Lord Jeff''s' redemptive institution. That is, the place and his new friends and teachers enable the character to change direction in life. The film had a direct and obvious influence on the much more famous 'Boy's Town'. Lord Jeff was something of an international success and Hollywood moguls jumped at the chance of a spin-off with an American setting. Boy's Town earned Bartholomew's friends Tracy and Rooney a large slice of filmic fame and glory. Lord Jeff was made in early 1938 and released in June. Work on Boy's Town then started, with well-known success upon its release in September 1938.Quite a few other 'redemptive institution' films were made in the 1930s and early 1940s. They were a response to the social disruption caused by the Great Depression.

Entertaining film about a young delinquent who turns his life around after a judge orders him to a vocational school under the threat that if he does not conform to the school's rules, he will be sent to a reformatory. The young individual is tested when his former adult associates try to lure him back to a life of crime, but his loyalty to his school steers him away towards a righteous life.

Great movie. I loved it!