Little Orvie (1940) User Reviews

like the big dog more

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 12 December 2023]

Little Orvie Stone (Johnny Sheffield) is desperate to get a dog. He tries to be good, but it's too hard. He throws a rock which breaks the window and hits his father. He befriends a giant stray dog which only leads to more broken windows and trouble. He keeps trying and even sneaks a puppy into the house.

Orvie is basically Dennis the Menace. This movie is based on a 1934 book. Child actor Johnny Sheffield would later play Tarzan's adopted son and later still, Tarzan knockoff Bomba. I like the big dog more. It has better comedic potential. Orvie could try to sneak him into the house and cause complete mayhem. It would be one of many great small kid and big dog comedies.

"Put on your slipper." "I'm going to put it somewhere else first."

[Maniac_In_Black · 7/10 · 13 January 2022]

The not so innocent adventures of a young boy and a stray dog which is comical and hardly sentimental, which a lot of "dog movies" tend to be guilty of. This movie goes for more of a realistic tone, versus the cliched Hollywood ways. Little Orvie Stone, played by John Sheffield, is believable in his role and is quite good, as is everybody else.

Why this movie is rated a 5.7, I don't know. Perhaps if more saw it, it would get a higher rating.

Family film...innocuous and yet with something to offend everybody

[moonspinner55 · 2/10 · 18 March 2012]

Suburban youngster schemes to keep a stray hound. Silly adaptation of a Booth Tarkington novel was probably a decent-enough matinée item for 1940, but time has not been kind to the picture, what with a mother who acts like a cold-hearted villainess and both black and Italian caricatures so over-the-top they are positively gruesome. John Sheffield (née Johnny), Boy from the "Tarzan" flicks, has more lines here than he ever spoke on film before; he's a cute, if somewhat inexpressive and monotone youngster, but Ernest Truex and Dorothy Tree are totally inappropriate as his parents. Truex looks like Sheffield's grandfather and Tree's father, while Dorothy snaps at and orders everyone around like an R.K.O. version of Joan Crawford. There's some funny slapstick business at the beginning, and the pathos near the finish are carried off well (thanks to Sheffield), however the subplot involving a cook and a tippling gardener is excruciating. *1/2 from ****

A great punishment for unruly children!

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 23 December 2018]

If you are feeling a bit desperate in a way to punish a child, sit them down and make them watch this adoption of the Booth Tarkington story. It will either bore them to tears or make them extremely depressed. The story focuses on young Johnny Sheffield of the "Tarzan" movies the "Bomba" series who constantly gets into trouble because of his desire to have a dog.

Mother Dorothy Tree and father Ernest Truex disagree on whether or not he should have one, but Johnny, at every turn gets into trouble, and when they finally get rid of the big hound that followed him home from the pound, Johnny takes in a box of puppies which his mother finds out about and flotsam malicious way to get rid of them. she's a rather cruel woman, with hints of understanding but determined to be the disciplinarian no matter what even though husband Truex till she's handling it all wrong. Yes, the film is very much a slice of life but it is so depressing in many ways and at times, difficult to take.

Then there's the stereotypical black housekeeper played by Daisy Lee Mothershed who along with Ray Turner (as her pop-eyed husband) who bring the film further down with their one-dimensional characterizations. Along with them are other assorted nosy neighbors, know-it-all locales who interfere in the family problems or cause difficulties for Sheffield in his desire to get a dog. if I had been made watch this when I was a kid, I would have hated it automatically because of the unlikeable mother and would have told Papa Truex to grow a pair. The ending is too quickly an unbelievably wrapped up and that truly is the nail on the head of how weak a script this is.

Sweet movie from a different time (duh)

[maureenpetpal · 8/10 · 9 November 2021]

I liked it a lot ... because I remember well how much I wanted a dog as a kid and the canary I got instead - I wanted to throw that cage across the room (sorry Tweety-Pie!)

Yes there are unacceptable stereotypes, but that was the time ... how many old movies could stand up to scrutiny today?! At least the black maid was assertive and spoke her mind in a big way, no milk toast Brady-Bunch Alice here lol! She's hilarious!

For what it's meant to be, I think it's a good little movie; one that you could watch with your kids and explain this different time in America's history.

I thought the actors did a fine job, and Johnny Sheffield showed the natural style of acting uncommon amongst child actors of that time. I thoroughly enjoyed him and think he was one of the best child actors who didn't ham it up.