Newly Rich (1931): Child stars, dock gangs, and Jackie Searl being a brat

If you've ever wanted to see what 1930s Hollywood thought 'cool' kids looked like, Newly Rich is your movie. It is worth watching today only if you have a soft spot for early talkies or if you find the idea of child stars joining a dock gang hilarious. People who hate 'precocious' kids in movies should stay far, far away from this one.

It starts out in a small town with two widows who are basically the original stage moms. They take their kids to Hollywood because, of course, every kid in 1931 was destined to be the next big thing. The girl, played by Mitzi Green, is the sweet one, while the boy is played by Jackie Searl. If you know Jackie Searl, you know he was the king of playing the entitled little jerk back then.

The story go from Hollywood to London in what feels like five minutes. They are sent there for a publicity stunt to meet some middle European boy King. It's all very silly. The mothers are constantly bickering about whose kid is more famous, and honestly, the moms are kind of the best part of the first half.

Edna May Oliver is in this, and she is always a treasure. She has this face that looks like she just smelled something sour, and it works perfectly here. She’s way more interesting than the actual plot for a while. You can tell the movie is trying hard to be a 'satire' of Hollywood, but it's a bit too clunky for that.

The London Escape

The movie gets way more interesting once they get to London. The three kids—the two stars and the boy King—decide they’ve had enough of the fancy clothes and the boring dinners. They just... walk out. They end up at the docks, which look suspiciously like a movie set with a lot of fog and very clean dirt.

They decide to join a gang. Not a fun 'Little Rascals' gang, but like, a bunch of rough dock kids. It’s completely absurd to see these kids in their nice suits trying to act tough. The boy King has this hat that looks about three sizes too big for his head, and I couldn't stop looking at it during his 'tough guy' speech.

There's a scene where they’re eating with the gang that feels like it was improvised on the spot. The dialogue is a bit messy and everyone is talking over each other. It’s one of those moments that feels more real than the rest of the scripted stuff. It reminded me a bit of the chaos in Juno and the Paycock, but way less depressing.

I was surprised to see Joseph L. Mankiewicz in the writing credits. You don't really see his 'sharp' wit here yet. It feels more like a standard studio job. Sinclair Lewis is also credited, which is even weirder. You’d think with those two, the movie would have more to say about class, but it mostly just likes seeing kids fall into things.

Jackie Searl is really the standout for me. He plays the 'killjoy sissy' (the movie's words, not mine!) so well that you kind of want to see him get shoved into a puddle. When he finally starts acting like a normal kid in the gang, it’s actually sort of sweet. He has this weirdly high burstiness in his acting where he goes from 0 to 100 in terms of being annoyed.

The cinematography is... fine? It’s 1931, so the camera doesn't move much. It feels like you're watching a play most of the time. Some of the dock scenes have a bit of atmosphere, but you can tell they were running out of budget toward the end. It’s definitely not as polished as something like Worldly Goods.

One thing that bugged me was how quickly the moms found them. It felt like the movie just needed to end, so suddenly everyone is in the same room again. No explanation, just 'Oh, there you are!' The pacing is really uneven in that last ten minutes. 🤡

Is it a great film? No. Is it a weird time capsule of how people viewed child fame a hundred years ago? Absolutely. It’s much more fun than some of the other stuff from that year, like California or Bust, even if that one is a silent.

The sound quality on the copy I watched was pretty rough. A lot of screeming and high-pitched kid voices that might give you a headache if you turn the volume up too loud. But Mitzi Green has a great screen presence that almost makes up for it.

"We don't want to be stars, we want to be humans!"

That's not a real quote, but it's basically what the kids are shouting the whole time. It's a bit heavy-handed. But hey, it’s a 70-minute movie about kids running away to the docks. You get what you pay for.

A few things I noticed:

• The boy King’s accent changes about four times.
• The mothers’ hats are aggressively large. Like, they should have had their own zip codes.
• There is a dog in one scene that looks very confused to be there.
• The transition from Hollywood to London is literally just a title card. Budget saving!
• Jackie Searl's crying face is a work of art.

I think I liked this more than I should have. It’s got that clunky, early-talkie energy where nobody quite knows where to stand, but everyone is trying their best. It's a mess, but it's a short mess. If you're bored on a Sunday afternoon, you could do worse.