Christmas Review: Streets of New York (1939)

By Jessica Pickens over at Comet Over Hollywood as part of her review series, "Watching 1939."

Starting in films in 1929 at age 7, Jackie Cooper who could cry like no other in films; breaking your heart as tears streamed down his sweet big cheeks.

And after Jackie grew out of this little kid crying roles, he had to transition into teen and adult roles. Cooper was still acting in his teens in both big and low budget films. It was the year before this film in 1938 when he first saw himself as a leading man. On the set of “White Banners” (1938), director Edmund Goulding chastised him for using his same-ole little kid acting tricks and called Cooper a “leading man.” Cooper wrote in his autobiography “Please Don’t Shoot My Dog” that this changed his mindset on acting.

Cooper also wrote in his autobiography that the films he made when he was sixteen and seventeen weren’t anything special. He didn’t care about acting and he mainly cared about “girls, cars and music… pretty much in that order.”

To continue reading about this 1939 Christmas classic, click here. Be sure to watch "The Streets of New York," now streaming on The Film Detective app as part of our 25 Days of Christmas special!