Boys To Board

Production Notes[]

Length: Two Reel
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Tom McNamara
Photography:
Editor:
Titles: H. M. Walker and Tom McNamara
Writer: Hal Roach and Tom McNamara
Released: April 8, 1923
Studio: Pathe Exchange

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Charles Stevenson - Moonshine Mose, the Bootlegger
Helen Gilmore - Mother Malone
Richard Daniels - 'Pop' Malone
Vera White - Alvira
Wallace Howe - Sheriff

The Short[]

Plot: Mother Malone's Boarding School promises all the niceties of home, but all the kids really get are skimpy meals and constant scoldings from Mother Malone. The boys' teacher, 'Pop' Malone, does what he can to protect them, but he himself is not safe from the wrath of his wife. He'd much rather be alone and read his Wild West stories, so when the boys stage an escape, he joins them instead of stopping them. They flee to a house which a bootlegger has jury-rigged with traps and a periscope to protect his whiskey-making operation. The boys fall right into one of the traps, a trapdoor with a slide into the basement. The bootlegger ties some of them up, but Pop Malone is right behind coming to the rescue, even if it is mostly accidental with him falling on the bootlegger. The sheriff climbs through a window at that point, arresting the criminal and applauding Pop, giving the latter too much credit. Nevertheless, Pop, now greatly emboldened, heads home with the reward money and the boys, announcing that he is boss now and things will be run his way. The boys all get real meals as Little Jackie gives the sign that things will be better from now on.
Quotes:

"Whooie - Lookit the moonface!" - Jackie Condon
"Old School? Mother Malone calls him Old Fool!" - Mickey

Notes/Trivia:

Mary Kornman does not appear in this short.
This short was later remade as Mush And Milk.
The nighttime scenes were actually filmed during the day with a dark filter.
This was the second short directed by Tom McNamara.

Sequence[]

Previous Short: The Champeen!
Next Short: A Pleasant Journey