Jackie Moran - Star of Low-budget, Teen-oriented Films

Star of Low-budget, Teen-oriented Films

With his name now in (dim) lights, Jackie Moran went on to star in several youth-oriented films for low-budget and poverty-row studios, such as Republic and Monogram. His most frequent co-star was the one-year-younger Marcia Mae Jones, who appeared with him in eleven films, including four Monogram tributes to life in idealized pre-World War II rural America, 1938's Barefoot Boy and, in 1940, Tomboy, Haunted House and The Old Swimmin' Hole. The trio of 1940 films was helmed by the co-creator and former guiding spirit of Our Gang, Robert F. McGowan, in his final directorial assignment. In 1938, in addition to starring in Barefoot Boy, Jackie Moran and Marcia Mae Jones played supporting roles in the Deanna Durbin vehicle Mad About Music and, in Jackie's breakout picture, Marcia Mae had the relatively minor part of Tom Sawyer's bratty cousin Mary (Ann Gillis was Becky Thatcher). Most of Jackie and Marcia Mae's remaining five films cast them in major supporting roles. They were in the independently-produced, RKO-released 1939 Jean Hersholt vehicle Meet Dr. Christian, made brief cameo appearances in RKO's 1940 Anne of Green Gables installment Anne of Windy Poplars and co-starred with Frankie Darro, Keye Luke and Mantan Moreland in two 1941 Monogram series films, The Gang's All Here and Let's Go Collegiate. Their final entry, after a two-year break, was the 1943 Republic musical Nobody's Darling, one of the first films helmed by top 1950s and 60s director Anthony Mann.

In addition to the Dr. Christian film, Jackie Moran made memorable appearances in four other 1939 releases, including a cameo in that year's biggest, Gone with the Wind. In an epic scene, as a Confederate marching band passes by, the audience sees Jackie as a fife player (with Tommy Kelly on the drum). Producer David O. Selznick, who, the year before, had given Jackie and Tommy their once-in-a-lifetime roles as Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, paid tribute to the two young stars of that very successful previous film by briefly showcasing them in his greatest production. Jackie also had a top co-starring role in Universal's iconic 12-chapter serial Buck Rogers in which he was third-billed as Buck's young buddy, Buddy Wade. Jackie's next 1939 release was the Hardy Family-like Everybody's Hobby, while the last, Spirit of Culver, a remake of 1932's military-school classic Tom Brown of Culver, teamed him with two former top child stars Jackie Cooper and Freddie Bartholomew, each of whom was nearing the end of his film career. Military school pictures were a relatively frequent sight on the screen in the years immediately preceding and during World War II, with most teenage actors of the era appearing in one or more of such films (In 1940-42, for example, Tommy Kelly was in Military Academy and Freddie Bartholomew was in Naval Academy, Cadets on Parade and Junior Army).