Stuff I Grew Up With: Dennis the Menace (1993)

Since I'm not a comic book or newspaper strip reader, my first exposure to the Dennis the Menace character was that 80's cartoon, which was still playing in syndication when I was a young kid. I also remembered how Dairy Queen had imagery from that show all over their products, and it seemed like it went on long after the show itself stopped playing in regular syndication. However, that cartoon wasn't one of my absolute favorite shows, but just something I saw here and there. And of the many different adaptations of the strip that have been done, this is the only other one I've ever seen and is also the one I have the most affection for. I didn't see it in the theater, but caught it for the first time on video, when someone we knew saw it and let us borrow it. I was reluctant to watch it at first, as it was really hard to get me to watch something I wasn't already very interested in, but when I finally did, I absolutely loved it. While I never owned a copy of it myself, I saw it plenty of times throughout my childhood, mostly on TV but also when I watched someone else's copy of it, and I always enjoyed it. It not only had plenty of laughs, often at the expense of poor Mr. Wilson (Walter Matthau was absolute perfect casting), but also had a little bit of a scary and even gross side with the character of Switchblade Sam, and heart as well. Having not seen it in many, many years, I finally got my own copy of it when I bought the DVD in the 2010's and, I have to say, I still have fun with it. It is very juvenile, to say the least, with little story aside from strings of gags tied together, and it doesn't hold up as well as some of my other childhood movies from around that time, like the first two Home Alones, Homeward Bound, The Sandlot, or many of the Disney animated movies, but I can still remember how much joy it gave me back then and enjoy it purely for the nostalgia. That and, as immature as the humor often is, since I'm a fan of slapstick, some of it still makes me laugh.

It's summer, and five-year old Dennis Mitchell is out of school. That's a big problem, both for his working parents, who often find it hard to find babysitters due to his antics, and their next-door neighbor, George Wilson, whom Dennis drives completely crazy. Much to Dennis' dismay, he has to spend many of his days over at the home of Margaret Wade, a bratty little girl who makes both him and his friend, Joey McDonald, miserable. At the same, Mr. Wilson has big plans, as he's been selected by their town's garden club to host the annual Summer Floraganza, and on the night of the event, the Night-Blooming Mock Orchid, a rare flower he's been growing for the past forty years, will finally bloom before immediately dying afterward. Unbeknownst to either of them, trouble arrives in town in the form of Switchblade Sam, a nasty vagrant who begins robbing the homes and terrorizing the local kids. Things come to a head when both of Dennis' parents have business trips at the same time and, with no one else willing to look after him, he has to stay with the Wilsons. Though Mr. Wilson himself is not at all thrilled, his wife, Martha, is more than delighted, as she adores Dennis. After putting up with the kid's antics for several days, Mr. Wilson is livid when Alice is unable to fly home from Oklahoma City due to a bad storm, meaning he'll have to stay with them during the Floraganza. Despite warnings from Mr. Wilson not to ruin things for him, Dennis' precocious ways get him sent into the house for the remainder of the night. While the adults are distracted as they wait for the orchid to bloom, Sam breaks into the house and steals Mr. Wilson's valuable gold coins. Hearing this and discovering the theft, Dennis attempts to alert everyone, distracting them just in time to miss the magic moment. Angrier than he's ever been, Mr. Wilson lashes out at Dennis, telling him he wants nothing to do with him. Hurt, Dennis runs off into the woods, and right into Sam's clutches. However, the thief has no idea just what he's gotten himself into.

You know, even though. as I've said before in other reviews, I didn't grow up with any of the movies he directed, and didn't see those that I have until I was in middle school or so, I've come to realize that John Hughes had more of a presence in my childhood than I thought. He wrote and produced a lot of significant or, at the every least, movies I always remembered from when I was a kid, such as the aforementioned Home Alone and Home Alone 2, Beethoven, the live-action 101 Dalmatians (I watched that one constantly when I got it on video), and Flubber. Dennis the Menace was no exception, as this was after Hughes had stopped directing following 1991's Curly Sue but was still very active in movies, coming off the massive success of the first two Home Alones. You can tell he was influenced by them, as he wrote this one in a very similar vein, especially the climax between Dennis and Switchblade Sam, and a number of actors from the first one appear here. It was also due to Hughes that Christopher Lloyd agreed to appear in the movie, after missing out on the role of Harry in Home Alone, and the legendary Jerry Goldsmith did the score. Even though this and a lot of the others I've mentioned weren't critical darlings at all, their success proved that Hughes knew how to make the type of entertainment that appealed to kids and families around that time.

I was especially bowled over when I learned the movie was directed by Nick Castle, John Carpenter's film school pal, early collaborator, and the original Michael Myers. I knew Castle became a director himself after the original Halloween, doing movies like The Last Starfighter and Major Payne, and back when I was really into Disney Channel, I was quite surprised at the time when I learned he directed their 2001 original movie, 'Twas the Night, but learning that he did Dennis the Menace was a true revelation. Moreover, it was the most commercially successful theatrical movie he ever directed, as The Last Starfighter is a cult favorite that didn't do well when it was originally released, and other movies of his, such as The Boy Who Could Fly and Tap, did well critically but didn't exactly light up the box-office. I think Major Payne may have been the only other movie of his that you could call a hit. In any case, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Castle at the Spooky Empire convention in Orlando in 2014 and, while I was there to have him sign my poster of Halloween, I did tell him of my soft spot for Dennis the Menace and he was very pleased about it, saying he really likes this film.

In my opinion, this film has some of the most perfect casting possible, especially in the case of Dennis himself. Mason Gamble is just dead-on in the role, managing to perfectly capture the character's essence as a precocious and mischievous, but ultimately well-meaning and innocent kid who doesn't intend to cause the trouble he does (and yet, the idiots at the Razzies nominated him for Worst New Star at the time). When he's first introduced, riding his bicycle down the street, pulling along a wagon filled with random objects, and followed by his dog, he gives off that vibe of a kid who's always looking for stuff to get into, especially when he's on summer vacation and has a lot of downtime. What's more, the sound of his approaching bike and the rattling of the tin cans attached to the back of his wagon, not only sends Mr. Wilson running but also all the animals in the neighborhood, from the birds in the trees to the cats on the ground. Speaking of Mr. Wilson, Dennis, true to form, adores the old grump, completely oblivious to his disdain for him or the fact that he causes him trouble. In the opening, Dennis goes into the Wilson house and up into the bedroom, unannounced, and when he finds Mr. Wilson asleep in bed, apparently sick, he attempts to give him an aspirin, ultimately opting to shoot it in his mouth with his slingshot. That's the first of many unintentional problems, dilemmas, and injuries he causes him, but Dennis has his own problems. Mainly, he has to deal with being stuck at the Wade house, where he and his friend, Joey, are bullied and bossed around by Margaret. Regardless, the three of them do manage to work together and fix up an old, abandoned tree-house in the woods, and play hide-and-seek with the other kids in the neighborhood (although Dennis cheats by having another kid watch where everyone else is hiding). By the time both of his parents have to go off on business trips, Dennis has alienated so many potential babysitters that they have no choice but to have the Wilsons watch him. That's fine with him, though, as he tells Mr. Wilson that he's the only other person he wants to be with aside from his parents, much to his chagrin.

Besides how mischievous he is, another endearing trait of Dennis' is how, like many energetic kids, he tends to be a real motormouth, going into periods where he just talks and talks and talks, sometimes innocently mentioning things that make adults uncomfortable, and other times annoying the crap out of them, like Switchblade Sam. He also tends to ask a lot of questions, and when Mr. Wilson asks why, Dennis answers, "I've only been around for five years. There's a lot of stuff I don't know."

Dennis does have moments where he proves to be smarter and up on things than a kid his age, like when his babysitter's boyfriend comes by and he's not impressed with how vain he is. Another is when he shows Sam a more effective way to tie people up, which proves very bad for him. However, Dennis is also innocently naive about certain things, like how babies end up in their mothers' stomachs (he says they're installed through the bellybutton by a minister and doctor),

and about what Martha Wilson means when she says her mother has been gone for a long time. When he runs into Sam during the climax, he has no idea he's just been taken captive by a dangerous criminal, as he doesn't know what a hostage is, and when Sam says they'll catch the midnight train, Dennis talks about going by his house beforehand to get some stuff. It's only when he learns that Sam stole Mr. Wilson's gold coins that he realizes he's in trouble but, by that point, he's unintentionally set up yet another painful and humiliating experience

for the vagabond. Ultimately, Dennis is a good-hearted kid who wants to do the right thing. When he learns that Mr. Wilson has been robbed, he tries to warn him, but unintentionally ruins his big moment by distracting everyone when the Night Mock Orchid blooms. And when Mr. Wilson angrily admonishes him for it, telling him he wants nothing to do with him, Dennis is so hurt and guilt-ridden that he flees into the woods. This leads him to manage to capture Sam and get Mr. Wilson's gold back, and he even gives Sam his knife back before he's taken away by the police, unaware of his intentions for it.

I think for a lot of people from my generation, this was our introduction to Walter Matthau, and, again, he was perfect casting as George Wilson, just as much as Mason Gamble was for Dennis. Matthau really embodies Mr. Wilson's grumpiness and cynicism, while also showing flashes of a heart of gold underneath it all. On the one hand, he has every right to be aggravated with Dennis, especially after the opening, where the kid goes into his house uninvited and shoots an aspirin down his throat with a slingshot. On top of that, Dennis unintentionally splatters a glob of paint on his barbecue grill, breaks his dentures' front teeth and replaces them with Chiclets, giving him a pair of beaver teeth when he has his picture taken for the local newspaper, annoys him while he's trying to work, and causes him almost endless embarrassment and pain during his stay with him and Martha, particularly during the Floraganza. He has some particularly old-fashioned ideas about how kids should be made to mind, and becomes frustrated with Henry Mitchell when he opts not to do it that way, instead saying he'll have a talk with Dennis, but he does have a point when he says Dennis' parents should do a better job at disciplining him and teaching him not to go on other people's property without permission. On the other hand, though, Mr. Wilson is not only grumpy but also a bit arrogant and self-centered, especially when it comes to his garden and his precious Night-Blooming Mock Orchid. Having been growing the thing for forty years, he only cares about the attention and clout it will bring him among their local garden club, and doesn't want anyone to ruin his "moment of triumph." When he gets his picture taken for the newspaper, he doesn't want Martha in the picture with him, and he's furious when Alice is unable to come home when she was supposed to, meaning Dennis will have to stay with them for the Floraganza. He even tries to blame it on Alice herself, growling, "Over my dead body! This is the crowning moment of my retired life, and I'm not throwing it away like the evening trash for some ninny who can't get her keister to the airport on time!" Martha tells him it's no one's fault but he goes, "A tragedy of this magnitude has to be somebody's fault, Martha." 

When the big night comes, Mr. Wilson warns Dennis ahead of time not to embarrass or ruin things for him but the boy, because of his mischievous nature, gets on his nerves, leading to him being confined in the house for the rest of the party. But then, when Dennis realizes Mr. Wilson's gold coins have been stolen and attempts to warn him, he inadvertently causes everyone to miss the orchid's blooming before it immediately withers. As far as Mr. Wilson is concerned, that is

absolutely the last straw. After exclaiming, "Forty years down the drain!", ripping the plant out by the roots, and slamming it to the ground, he storms up to Dennis and lets him know how he feels in a manner that, as opposed to his past outbursts isn't funny whatsoever: "You're a pest. A menace. A selfish, spoiled little boy and I've no use for you. You took something from me that I can never get back, something that means more to me than you ever will... I don't want to see you. I don't want to know you. Get out of my way." He walks past him

and, ignoring the boy tearfully saying he's sorry, goes into the house and tells everyone to go home. Later, he realizes he actually was robbed and Dennis was genuinely trying to help. Now, with Dennis missing, Mr. Wilson, feeling horribly guilty about what he said, as well as remembering all the times he was awful to him in general, drives off and spends most of the night looking for him, as does the entire neighborhood. And, in a nice spin on the movie's opening, where he came outside to fetch the newspaper and ran back in when he heard Dennis coming, we see that Mr. Wilson spent the night sleeping in a chair on the porch, waiting for him, and the next morning, he sadly gathers the paper and waits to see if he hears Dennis' bicycle, which he doesn't... at first.

This isn't the first time where we see that Mr. Wilson is actually a decent guy. Early on, when everyone's playing hide-and-seek and he sees that Dennis is cheating, Mr. Wilson decides to even the odds. Granted, he tells an awful lie to little Gunther Beckman, and says the kid needs to get used to disappointment due to his physical problems, but still, it's obvious he likes for things to be fair, even when it comes to mere child's play. And, while he's likely more annoyed that Dennis was looking

through his stuff, when he sees him looking at an old adult magazine, Mr. Wilson scolds him, "Put that away, that's not for kids." A more significant example comes the night before, when Martha tries to tell him how she recited a poem to Dennis that her mother used to recite to her, and it makes her wish they'd had children of their own. Mr. Wilson, however, isn't interested in her feelings, which hurts her, and prompts her to get up and go downstairs to make herself some tea. At first, he

thinks she's mad about their not having children, but she tells him, "It's about my... feeling something very good, and not being able to tell you about it." After lying in bed by himself for a bit, he goes downstairs to find her and thinks he sees her sitting in a chair in the living room. While, unbeknownst to him, it's Dennis' dog, Ruff, Mr. Wilson sincerely says, "I didn't mean to hurt ya. I'm not terribly good with feelings and emotions. There are a lot of subjects I'd just as soon not bring up, let alone discuss. I would've liked a son, or a

daughter. You couldn't fire the fatherly feelings in me... 'cause they're not there. But that doesn't mean my feelings for you have gone cold. That'll never happen. You've got all the love I have." He then goes to kiss her, and ends up kissing Ruff, much to his aggravation, but he still clearly meant what he said. And then, as I've mentioned, he spends most of the night searching for Dennis when he goes missing, becoming visibly worried when he can't find him, and waits up for him. When Dennis does return, he's just as elated as Martha and Dennis'

parents, and the two of them have a genuinely warm reunion. By the end of the movie, Mr. Wilson is willing to watch Dennis throughout the summer, rather than having him spend his days at the daycare center at his mother's workplace. Though, another of Dennis' antics seems to have made him reconsider and decide, at the very least, that they should split their time watching him.

Joan Plowright is another person I associate with my childhood, as she was not only in this movie as Martha Wilson but also played Nanny in the live-action 101 Dalmatians. Just as Walter Matthau embodies Mr. Wilson's being a lovable, old curmudgeon, Plowright captures what a sweet, compassionate woman Mrs. Wilson is by contrast. As is often case with her, Martha absolutely adores Dennis and sees him as just a cute, rambunctious little kid, sometimes a bit unfairly to her husband, as she never receives the blunt end of his antics. Her affection for Dennis mostly comes from her and Mr. Wilson having no children of their own, which seems to have been a result of her being infertile, given how he says, "It was out of both our hands." When he stays with them and she recites a poem that her mother used to say to her, it brings up really good feelings for her, and also makes her lament not having any children, as she feels she would've been a really good mother. Thus, she's hurt when her husband expresses nothing but apathy about it, and though she does hear him explain himself and admit that he does still love her, she can't help but find it amusing that he unknowingly said it to and then kissed a dog. And unlike Mr. Wilson, who's only interested in the prestige he'll gain from his orchid blooming and is angered when Alice Mitchell is unable to get home in time to pick up Dennis before the Floraganza, Martha is understanding and tells her husband that it's nobody's fault but the weather's. She tells him, "If you want to forsake your neighbors when they need help, you do it alone," and when he asks, "Why is it when everyone else feasts on the pleasure of life, I get the indigestion?", she retorts, "Because you're an old grump!"

Between Dennis' parents, Alice (Lea Thompson) and Henry (Robert Stanton), Alice is the one who gets the most focus, as she has to deal with both her and her husband working and trying to find someone who will watch Dennis while he's out of school. Things really get bad when they both have to go on business trips at the same time and Alice attempts to have hers rescheduled, but to no avail. And when they run out of potential babysitters and the only ones left are Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, each says to the other, "You call." Alice also has to deal with Andrea, a nasty, condescending coworker who makes no secret of the fact that she looks down on her for having a family. When Alice tries to get her business trip to Oklahoma rescheduled, Andrea makes it clear that she considers her own free time more important that Alice's family matters. During the time when all three of them are separated, both Alice and Henry are shown missing each other, especially Alice, who's in tears. Even worse, on the night of the Floraganza, Alice's flight home gets cancelled due to a bad storm, and she's worried about how Mr. Wilson will react. By the time she gets home, Dennis has run off into the woods after being verbally ripped apart for ruining Mr. Wilson's big moment. Both she and Henry are relieved when he shows up the next day, safe and sound, and Alice tells them that her workplace is opening a daycare, allowing her to take Dennis to work with her. I haven't mentioned Henry much because there's little to say about him (I don't think we even know what he does for a living). His only significant scene is at the beginning, when Mr. Wilson confronts him about Dennis and he assures him that he'll have a talk with the kid, but he's mainly just trying to get away from Mr. Wilson, as he's late for work. While he tends to be a little more stern with Dennis than Alice, he still doesn't do enough to make the kid behave himself.

For Roger Ebert, while he found Dennis the Menace to be a pretty fair movie, Christopher Lloyd's character of Switchblade Sam (his name is never said onscreen) prevented him from giving it a recommendation. I can kind of see why he would feel that way as, up until the third act, when he becomes more comical, Sam is a shockingly dark and unsavory character. The scene where he arrives is executed in a menacing manner: after he jumps off a train passing nearby, he looks at the town and growls, "Ah, ain't that a pretty sight? I bet they don't even lock their doors." The next day, he begins his crime spree, stooping as low as to steal Margaret Wade's doll and take an apple from little Gunther Beckman using his switchblade, as well as scope the town out for easy houses to hit, which he does at night. He even steals a lady's purse while she's pushing her kid on a playground swing-set. Even though he catches the attention of Police Chief Bennett, who advises him to move along, Sam isn't the least bit intimidated and stays long enough to rob Mr. Wilson of his gold coins the night of the Floraganza. With that, he intends to leave town by catching the midnight train, and when Dennis runs into him in the woods, he decides to make him his hostage. (Speaking of Siskel and Ebert, they were also concerned that this would make kids think that every single homeless person they run into is like this character. Personally, though, I never thought that, but I think I may have been a little too young and naive to know just how dangerous Sam potentially is.) Of course, Dennis soon makes him regret meeting him, as he unintentionally nearly kills the man, all while just trying to help him.

When Sam makes the mistake of getting mixed up with Dennis, his menacing nature begins to crumble, as Dennis unintentionally inflicts more and more pain on him. First, Dennis annoys him with his constant talking and asking questions, further exacerbated when the kid doesn't understand what he means when he tells him to, "Put a cork in it," and, "Shut your yap." Second, Dennis accidentally whacks him in the head and then sends a burning piece of wood into the back of

his pants. Third, Dennis shows him a better way to tie someone up, as well as handcuffs him to the rope, which he ties tightly around his feet, and then trips and flings the key into his pot of baked beans. Trying to get the key out without wasting the beans, he makes Sam eat the whole pot, only to realize he must've swallowed it. Fourth, Dennis knocks him cold twice, first with a big block of firewood and then by accidentally whacking him with a box from his bag. He then puts a blanket on

him as he sleeps, but drags it over the campfire, eventually leading Sam to jump into the nearby river, onto a mat floating in it. And finally, while trying to help him get out of the river using a rope, Dennis sets up Sam getting pulled up to the underside of the bridge they're camping under, getting dropped back down onto the mat, and his own knife falling and sticking into his butt. By the time Dennis wheels him into town the next morning, Sam pleads Chief Bennett for help. Though Lloyd still has a handful of menacing

moments during this last section, with how he's constantly trying to get his knife to stab Dennis, comes close to doing it before getting pulled up to the ceiling, and tries one last time when Dennis innocently gives it back to him when he's sitting in the back of the squad car, he mostly does more of the over-the-top comedy you expect from him, with his silly facial expressions and sounds of pain.

Sam is not only creepy and truly intimidating for much of the movie, but he's downright ugly and gross, which I have to give major props to the makeup and wardrobe people for. They did an excellent job of making Lloyd nigh unrecognizable and as unappealing as possible. He has long, stringy hair, red circles around his eyes, really nasty teeth, and looks very grimy all-around. He also often wears this dark coat over an outfit consisting of a black vest over a drab, multi-

colored shirt, black pants, and black, leather shoes. And he just gets uglier during the climax between him and Dennis. Dennis' accidentally bludgeoning him in the head several times leaves ugly bumps on his face and forehead; the moment where he forces him to eat the entire pot of baked beans is really gross, as a lot of it is crammed in his mouth, his face is covered in a bunch he didn't swallow, and his stomach is bloated and gurgling from it, leading him to let out a massive fart; and he sets his pants on fire and causes his own knife to stab him in the rear end, giving us a not so nice look at his boxers during the latter part of the movie.

At her workplace, Alice has to deal with Andrea (Melinda Mullins), a bitchy coworker who looks down on and even mocks her for having a child. While at a business meeting, Alice, during her presentation, starts talking about what it's like to take Dennis to the mall, only for Andrea to sneer, "Could you spare us the family anecdotes please?" (Incidentally, Ben Stein is in that one scene, but he never says a word, making me wonder if he had more to do originally but it was cut out.) Later, when Alice attempts to have her trip to Oklahoma City rescheduled, Andrea confronts her about it. She approaches her cubicle, tapping her long, claw-like fingernails along the counter as she walks, and condescendingly asks, "Have a Cub Scout meeting or something?" When Alice says it's because Henry has a trip at the same time, meaning there won't be anyone to watch Dennis, Andrea, in a manner that makes you just want to choke someone, tells her, "If you want to blow off your trip, I'm the one who has to cover for you, and I have plans I can't break. I don't have kids but I do have a life. I'm sorry. I'm just not gonna be able to help you." Fortunately, she gets her comeuppance in a scene during the credits, where Dennis turns on a copy machine when she's not expecting it, her blouse gets caught in it, and she gets slammed down on the printer-bed, screaming and grumbling about getting Dennis, as images of her making hilarious faces pour out of the machine.

The other kids whom Dennis hangs out with don't get that much attention, but are still memorable in their own way. He and his kind of awkward friend, Joey McDonald (Kellen Hathaway), have to endure being stuck with the bratty Margaret Wade (Amy Sakasitz), who pushes them around and makes them do whatever she wants, either through threats of violence or telling on them. In her first scene, she forces Joey to kiss her doll's rear end using those methods, and then tags along with them

when they go out into the woods, intending to fix up the old tree-house out there and turn it into a fort. She, however, intends to turn it into a nice little house, a "love nest," as she specifies, first showing that she has a bit of a crush on Dennis (when he goes missing late in the movie, she melodramatically says, "I've lost the only man I ever loved,"). That doesn't stop the three of them from debating about the roles of men and women in their own special manner, with Margaret declaring, "If you didn't have women, you wouldn't

have babies, which means you wouldn't have people," and Joey countering, "If you didn't have men, who'd drive the ladies to the hospital?", with Dennis then saying, "The most important thing is they marry the women, then the women can go down and get the baby." Little Gunther Beckman (Hank Johnston) is so young that he has very few lines but, and I mean no offense whatsoever when I say this, his being cross-eyed and often looking like he's in shock and awe, such as when Sam takes his apple, makes him memorable. I always remember how, at the end, when Sam is being taken away by the police, Gunther innocently waves goodbye to him.

At one point, Alice and Henry get a young woman named Polly (Natasha Lyonne) to babysit for him, and she shows up carrying a helmet, as a friend of hers once sat for Dennis and warned her, "Bring a helmet, and wear pants." Later, her boyfriend, Mickey (Devin Ratray) shows up, proving himself to be very vain, as Dennis opens the door to him combing his hair and trying to look all cool, as well as dumb, as he can't even read simple words from a children's storybook. He also questions the "logic"

of the story about a little train wanting to grow up to be a big, strong train, and calls it stupid. After Dennis has, supposedly, gone to bed, Polly and Mickey start making out, only for Dennis to sneak out of the house and play a ding-dong, ditch prank on them. When he does it twice, they try to get back at him by setting up a trap consisting on a thumbtack on the doorbell, and pouring water and flour on him; unfortunately, Mr. Wilson falls for it instead.

Paul Winfield, whom I always think of as Lt. Traxler in The Terminator, has a small role here as the town's police chief, Bennett, who spots Switchblade Sam at one point and tells the unsavory guy to get out of town, before arresting him at the end. Billie Bird and Bill Erwin, two actors who'd briefly appeared as an old couple in Home Alone, are here as Edith Butterwell and Edward Little, the heads of the garden society. A running gag with them is that they're both so old that they're often unable to read whatever they have to, with Edith having to help Edward and sometimes, they swap glasses. And, in his last theatrical appearance, Arnold Stang appears as the photographer who takes Mr. Wilson's picture with the beaver teeth Chiclets in his dentures.

While I don't think anyone would ever call Nick Castle a master filmmaker, he's definitely no slouch, either, as he shows here that he not only has a lot of technical skill but also knows how to make a movie look good and charming, as well as keep it entertaining and nicely-paced. One thing that stands out is his frequent use of big close-ups on people's faces, and a number of high-angle shots, both of which, more often than not, are for comedic effect. He also comes up with a few memorable images and shots here and there; the

one that comes to my mind is at the very beginning of the movie, when you see a POV from inside Mr. Wilson's mouth when Dennis prepares to shoot the aspirin with his slingshot. On the flip-side, he often shoots Switchblade Sam in a manner to make him come off as menacing, with his introductory scene being done mostly in shadow and low lighting, while the first true glimpses of him we get is a close-up of his hand and then his eyes. As he stalks around town, he's often revealed gradually or stalking around in the background of big, wide

shots. The moment where he steals this one woman's purse at the playground is edited interestingly, with a close-up of Sam's face being momentarily covered by one of the kids as they swing back and forth, showing him watching and then going for the purse. And when he prepares to stab Dennis near the end, the camera pulls back on a close-up of his hand grabbing the knife and shows him looming over the oblivious kid. Finally, on the whole, Castle and his cinematographer,

Thomas E. Ackerman (who, before this, had worked with Tim Burton on his short film, Frankenweenie, and Beetlejuice), just make the movie look appealing. As it takes place in the summertime, the daytime scenes are shot in lovely, bright sunshine, while the nighttime exteriors often have the classic blue, "moonlight" look (given Castle's involvement with Halloween, I do wonder if he was influenced by how John Carpenter and Dean Cundey shot those nighttime scenes). Like I

said, the nighttime scenes involving Sam are kept pretty dark and creepy, as is the sequence leading up to Dennis running into him as he pedals through the woods (this one backlit shot of him looks like something out of William Friedkin's The Guardian) and the final scene between him and Dennis under the bridge is bathed in the orange glow of the campfire.

Though the comic strip is set in Kansas, the film, as per usual with anything affiliated with John Hughes, was shot in Illinois (though whether or not it actually takes place there is never made clear). The place definitely has that charming, quaint feeling of small-town USA: a small community nestled in the middle of some very beautiful country, with a railroad running nearby. You have the downtown area (Hinsdale) and the main setting of the suburb (Evanston) where the Mitchells and Wilsons live next door to each other, which gives

you that vibe of it being a place where everybody knows each other (and yes, it does have white picket fences), with all of the neighborhood kids playing hide-and-seek at night in one scene, while some of the adults, like Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, sit out on the porch, enjoying the summer weather. The woods surrounding the town also play a major role in the story, as they come off as both lovely and charming in some scenes, like when Dennis and the kids are fixing up the old tree-house (you have to love little spots like that), as well as spooky

in others, like when Dennis runs away after being angrily admonished by Mr. Wilson and runs into Sam. Speaking of Sam, the railroad not only gives him a way to sneak into town but the spot under the bridge it passes over gives him something of a hideout, though Dennis manages to almost turn it into a deathtrap for him. Except for a few scenes at Alice's workplace, her and Henry staying at separate hotels across the country during their business trips, and the stormy scene at the

Oklahoma City airport, the movie remains in the town for the duration, causing those other scenes to give off a major contrast in how they feel. As far as the actual homes go, the Wilsons' very nice house is the most memorable one, specifically for Mr. Wilson's study with the hidden safe containing his gold coins, the garage containing all his old stuff, including the "G.D." garden lamps he's looking for at one point, and the lovely garden housing the Night-Blooming Mock Orchid.

You wouldn't think it, but there are a fair number of special effects to be found here. There are a handful of very nicely-done matte paintings of the horizon at night, sometimes with the town in the distance and the full moon in the sky above (that might've been a combination of mattes and miniatures), a very striking one of the moon in the sky behind Switchblade Sam, as he stands silhouetted on the bridge, and similar shots during the little montage that shows how all three of the Mitchells are thinking of each other while they're 

separated in different parts of the country. There are also what appear to be some very early instances of CGI for quick gags, like the projectiles Dennis shoots that hit people in the head and the glob of paint he blows up into the air that lands on Mr. Wilson's barbecue. And there are some memorable practical effects, like the mock-up of the inside of Mr. Wilson's mouth for when Dennis slingshots the aspirin into him, the gradual opening, blooming, and withering of the orchid, and that really gross effect of Switchblade Sam's bloated, gurgling stomach after Dennis forces him to eat all the baked beans.

In doing research for this review, I wasn't surprised to learn the movie didn't receive the best notices from critics. Not only was this when it was believed that John Hughes, who, again, was only writing and producing by this point, had severely lost his mojo, but because the comedy, as we'll see, is very much in the vein of Home Alone, with all its slapstick and the recycled plot-point of a criminal or criminals getting beaten up by a kid, critics, who were never big on that movie anyway, despite its being a comedy juggernaut, likely found Dennis

the Menace to be a tired retread. Of course, as a six or seven-year old who loved both of the first two Home Alones, as well as slapstick, cartoony violence, I ate it up. Also, in watching Siskel and Ebert's review, they both not only disliked Switchblade Sam for being overly menacing and inappropriate in their eyes, but also found his very presence in the movie unnecessary. Siskel, who particularly loved Walter Matthau's performance as Mr. Wilson and felt the movie worked best when it

focused on his and Dennis' relationship, said the movie spent too much time on Sam and he would've liked more scenes, such as when Dennis tells Mr. Wilson he only wants to be with him if he can't be with his parents, and when he peppers him with questions about his gold, his safe, and so on. It would've been nice to have more of that throughout the movie but, in my opinion, we do get plenty of that, especially in the second and third acts, and until the third act and the climax, Sam is mostly in the background.

In addition to all of its comedy, the movie does have instances of that sentimentality found in a lot of 90's kids' movies. Some may consider it schmaltzy but, in this case, it just takes me back to a much simpler, more innocent time in my life. The best example comes in the middle, when Dennis is staying with the Wilsons and Mrs. Wilson recites to him a poem called Wynken, Blynken, and Nod as he lies in bed. Not only is it a moment that shows how strong her maternal instincts are and how she, indeed, would've been a great mother, but as she

talks, Dennis looks out the window, at the moon in the sky, and the camera pans out past the window, before transitioning to where Henry is on his business trip. He's sitting in his hotel room, looking at a picture of his family in his wallet, and then, it transitions to Alice in her motel in Oklahoma, as she's lying in bed, unable to sleep, and tearfully looks at her wedding ring before also looking out the window, at the moon. Clearly missing her family, she pulls her covers up and tries to sleep, we see Henry still looking at the picture, and, as

Mrs. Wilson finishes the poem, it cuts back to Dennis, who has fallen asleep. When she sees that he has, she smiles and looks up, clearly thinking of her long departed mother and how she used to recite that to her. She continues feeling maternal when she folds Dennis' clothes afterward. This leads into her trying to share how good she feels to her husband, him proving rather apathetic about it, and then sincerely pouring his heart out to her in apology, despite his not knowing he's talking to

Dennis' dog at the time. That's about as far as the sentimentality goes, though, in addition to the genuine drama that occurs after Mr. Wilson's cruel words send Dennis running off into the woods, the whole neighborhood searches for him, with a guilt-ridden Mr. Wilson searching by himself, and the happy reunion that occurs when he arrives home the next morning.

The movie has a memorable opening where Mr. Wilson comes out of his house early in the morning, fetches the paper (which the boy, as usual, threw in the bushes), and goes to head back on, only to stop in abject terror when he hears the sound of Dennis' bicycle approaching, which also sends various animals in the neighborhood running for cover (two cats are so eager to hide that they bump heads in their haste). Mr. Wilson runs for it too, heading inside his house, closing both the

screen and main door, and nearly slipping on a rug as he heads upstairs to his bedroom. He grabs a bunch of bottles from his medicine cabinet and gathers them all on his bedside table, as he hears Dennis hit the brakes outside; throughout all of this, Dennis is introduced through a montage of close-ups of his bike wheels, his wagon full of items (which include not only toys but a jar of grasshoppers and a snake in a plastic container), the tin cans he drags around behind him, his dog

running along with him, and his slingshot sticking out of his overalls pocket. He comes to a halt outside of Mr. Wilson's home, causing the teddy bear in his wagon to snap forward, and turns and yells for him in our first look at his face. Mr. Wilson climbs into his bed, attempting to pretend he's sick, as Dennis walks into the house and bedroom unannounced. Seeing Mr. Wilson seemingly asleep, Dennis whispers his name several times, including right into his ear, but he snores to make him get back. But Dennis, seeing

all the medicine bottles and thinking he is sick, is undeterred. He listens to Mr. Wilson's heart, commenting that it, "Sounds like our washing machine," and pulls on his jowls, saying, "Oh, no. He's growing extra skin." Mr. Wilson snorts and turns over, but Dennis grabs a small flashlight, shines it in his face, and puts it inside his mouth. Dennis comments, "His tongue's very ugly, and blue and spotty." He uses the flashlight to look up his nose, then feels his forehead, and decides he needs an aspirin. He grabs a nearby bottle of Bayer,

easily pops off the "childproof" cap, and, while trying to get the cotton out, spills them all over the floor, much to Mr. Wilson's horror. Regardless, he picks one tablet off the floor, blows on it, licks it, and wipes it on his overalls to clean it, and tries to put it in Mr. Wilson's mouth. Knowing what he's doing, he makes it hard for him, but Dennis, being the stubborn kid he is, takes out his slingshot and, when Mr. Wilson opens his mouth for a fake snore, shoots it in there. Mr. Wilson's eyes snap open and he sits up, letting out a strangled yell, and then spits out the pill, sending Dennis running out the door, back down the stairs, and out of the house.

Dennis goes back into his house through the kitchen's doggy-door, crawling under the table, as his dad asks him where he's been. When he says that Mr. Wilson is "sick," Alice decides to call him up and check on him, only to get an earful when Mr. Wilson yells about Dennis shooting the aspirin down his throat. He then starts to go on about how things were different when he was a kid but Alice promptly ends the call, being forced to hang up on him when he won't stop ranting. She and Henry

confront Dennis, who knows he's in trouble, about it, and his reason for using the slingshot is, "I didn't want him to bite off my fingers with his big, fake teeth! Those things are sharp!" Henry confiscates the slingshot and tells Dennis to go sit in the corner, "Until you're sorry," to which Dennis retorts, "Oh, good. I'm sorry now." Then, Alice reveals she's taking him over to Margaret Wade's house, which causes him to let out a horrified yell, startling them, as he yammers, "Margaret's house?! I didn't do anything bad enough to deserve to go to

her house. She's a lunatic. I'll go crazy. She tortures me. She's mean, she's ugly, she doesn't share!" He goes as far as to say he'll go back to school to avoid going over there, but when they make it clear nothing is going to change this, he lightly bonks his head on the table and moans, "My life is falling apart." Before he leaves for work, Mr. Wilson confronts Henry about Dennis, telling him, "However you're dealing with him, he hasn't learned it's not good manners to break in on a fella and shoot an aspirin down his throat... When I was

five, I had some respect... In 1925, I was not the exception; I was the rule." He keeps going on but Henry doesn't really pay attention, as he hops into his car and drives away, with Mr. Wilson yelling that he's not the bad guy in this scenario.

Dennis is very unhappy as his mother drives him to Margaret Wade's house, especially when they pass by other kids having fun. On the way, he learns that his friend, Joey McDonald, is also there, and we then cut to Joey, whom Margaret is forcing to do something he doesn't want to with threats of violence and getting him in trouble if he retaliates. With no other recourse, he mushes his lips together and closes his eyes, thinking he has to kiss her... when, in reality, she tricks him into kissing her

doll's rear end, much to his shock. When Alice arrives with Dennis, he does everything he can not to go in, including going all limp, forcing her to literally drag him into the house. In the next scene, the boys have climbed up a small tree in Margaret's backyard, but just when they think they can ditch her by going into the woods to fix up the old tree-house out there, she tags along, threatening to tell on them if they leave her behind. And, when they get there, she takes over their plan to turn it into a

fort, intending to make it into a pretty house instead. That night, after Mr. Wilson learns he's been selected to host this year's Summertime Floraganza, he and Mrs. Wilson sit out on their porch, watching the neighborhood kids play hide-and-seek. Despite running off a pair of girls who hide behind their fence, he brags to Martha that he was great at both parts of the game when he was a kid. Martha comments that she wouldn't expect him to be good at hiding, as he was a fat kid, and Mr. Wilson clarifies, "I was husky." Then, he sees

that Dennis is cheating by having Gunther Beckman watch where everyone's hiding and decides to even the score. He tells Gunther, "I was just talking to your daddy on the telephone. He's going to the ice cream store. He wants to take you with him. Hurry up and go home!" Gunther, his eyes crossing in excitement, runs off. Martha scolds her husband for lying to the kid and setting him up for a disappointment, but Mr. Wilson says, "Well, he better get used to it. Disappointment's gonna be a big part of his life. He's a foot short for his age, and he's cross-eyed."

The next day, the kids are back at the tree-house, fixing it up, with Joey having to hold a nail while Dennis prepares to hammer it. Fortunately, he lets go just in time and avoids getting his finger smashed. After they're done for the day, they decide they should maybe paint the inside, as Margaret finds her doll has been stolen. Later, at dusk, Dennis grabs some paint from the top of some shelves in his garage, when he spies his confiscated slingshot on one of the lower ones.

With the paint can hanging on his arm, he reaches for the slingshot, causing the can to drop to the floor and splatter paint everywhere. Meanwhile, as Polly arrives to babysit Dennis, Mr. Wilson pulls his barbecue grill out of his own garage. Dennis attempts to get rid of the mess with a vacuum cleaner, then pulls the cleaner around the back of his house. While messing around with it, it sucks in some of his hair, and then, he notices the switch, which has an "IN" and "OUT" position. Curiously, he switches it to the latter, blasting the paint within

straight up, where it arcs over in a huge glob and comes down on Mr. Wilson's grill while his back is turned. He puts the lid on the grill and walks away, as the paint combusts within. When he and Mrs. Wilson settle down to eat, he's the one who gets to try his barbecued chicken, only to stop in the middle of chewing and comment, "It tastes funny. It tastes like paint... and wood." After sniffing her piece, Mrs. Wilson takes the plates away to make them some sandwiches, while Mr. Wilson looks over at the Mitchell house, knowing this is Dennis' doing.

That night, Martha catches him attempting to sneak over into the Mitchells' backyard, saying he's going to prove that Dennis has been fooling around with paint. He ignores Martha telling him, "He's only a boy!", and goes over there through the hedges. Meanwhile, Dennis comes downstairs and, seeing Polly and Mickey making out on the coach in the living room, sneaks out the front door. He rings the doorbell and quickly runs away and hides behind the picket fence, watching Polly answer the door.

He snickers at her confusion, then giggles when she closes the door. She and Mickey go back to it, while Mr. Wilson stumbles around the backyard, stepping into a little wading pool and then on a little horn lying on the ground. Dennis rings the doorbell again and Polly, again, shoves Mickey away in a painful manner; the two of them then decide to get back at the prankster. While Mr. Wilson looks around in the garage, Dennis watches as Mickey looks out the front door, then tapes a

thumbtack to the doorbell. Mr. Wilson looks at the vacuum cleaner and, in his inspection, turns it on. The hose sucks up a golf-ball, then curls around until it's aiming at his rear end. On cue, he turns the vacuum off and the ball blasts out and whacks him hard on his buttocks, causing him to wrench up in pain. Inside the house, Mickey grabs a bowl of flour and stands at the front door, while Polly goes upstairs with a bucket of water and opens a window. Mickey, in a horribly fake voice (I don't understand why, in comedies or kids' stuff,

whenever someone is pulling a prank, the characters do the worst acting imaginable), says, "Gee, I guess those kids took off." Regardless, Dennis goes back to the door and, right when he notices the tack on the bell, sees Mr. Wilson coming around the corner. He runs and ducks back inside through the kitchen door's doggy-slat; even though he's bent over and in pain from getting hit in the butt, Mr. Wilson is sure he has Dennis this time. He straightens himself up when he reaches the front door and pushes the doorbell, only to

recoil and let out a pained yell, putting his thumb in his mouth. Polly dumps the water on him from above and Mickey comes out and throws the flour on him. They both immediately realize their mistake and duck back in, with Mickey feebly saying, "Sorry. Uh, good night." Mr. Wilson heads back home and, when Martha opens the door and sees him standing there, he says, "He's only a boy, huh?"; Martha, in turn, chuckles (a genuine reaction from Joan Plowright, who didn't know Walter Matthau was going to look that way).

The next day, Dennis goes back over to the Wilsons' house with a card addressed to Mr. Wilson. Meeting Mrs. Wilson in the kitchen, he asks her how long Mr. Wilson is going to sleep and if he can go upstairs to give him a, "I'm Sorry, I Shot Paint On Your Chicken," card. He walks over to the door, talking to Mrs. Wilson, yammering and telling her, "I'm kind of busy today, so I won't have a chance to give it to him. I have to go to Margaret's house 'cause we're gettin' poor and my

mom's got a job now. So could I just leave it up by his whisker-cutter? That's where I leave all my dad's 'Sorry' cards, and it's a good time to say you're sorry. 'Cause grownup guys are happy in the morning when they wake up. My dad's so happy, he whistles when he goes to the bathroom. The only time he isn't happy is on Sunday morning, when he and my mom wrestle. They kind of like to be alone when they do that. I think it's 'cause they take off their shirts and then they start to make

funny noises..." Mrs. Wilson, rather uncomfortable with that last part of Dennis' rambling, tells him he can go upstairs, but asks him not to disturb Mr. Wilson. Before he heads out into the foyer, he turns and tells Mrs. Wilson, "You know what, Mrs. Wilson?... You're the nicest old gal on the block," which she chuckles about. He quietly walks up into Mr. Wilson's bedroom, who wakes up, only to see him and emphasize a couple of more snores. He walks into the bathroom and puts the card in a little shelf above the sink, underneath a green container,

which he sees has Mr. Wilson's dentures. Getting curious, he takes them out and looks at himself in the mirror as he holds them in front of his mouth and pretends like he's talking with them. He giggles at this... until he snaps them together too hard, breaking off the two incisors, which roll into the sink and down the drain. Dennis, knowing Mr. Wilson is having his picture taken for the newspaper that day, desperately tries to find something to replace them with and settles on Chiclets. The photographer arrives, ringing the

doorbell, and Mr. Wilson awakens upstairs and realizes he overslept when he sees the clock. As his wife calls up for him, he grabs his dentures and comes outside into the garden, all dressed up. He stands in the middle of it, Martha fussing with his tie, much to his chagrin, and looks at the camera. The photographer tells him to smile and he does, revealing his new buck-teeth and surprising both Martha and the photographer.

Following a montage set to The Orlons singing Don't Hang Up, where Alice and Henry call up numerous potential babysitters, going through the entire alphabet, and get blown off by all of them (including a guy with his arm in a cast), they find they have no choice but to go with the Wilsons.  And Dennis comes over to stay with them just as Mr. Wilson sees his picture with the Chiclet teeth right in the center of the "YARD & GARDEN" section. Dennis brings Mr. Wilson a jar of

grasshoppers, and he also says, "I brought my own pillow so I won't get my spit all over yours," much to Mr. Wilson's disgust. It cuts to a rainy day, where everyone's stuck inside, and Dennis annoys Mr. Wilson by tapping a window's blinds cord against the glass. After Mr. Wilson tells him to stop, he becomes interested in his gold coins and flat-out asks what the safe's combination is. Mr. Wilson, naturally, isn't going to tell him, and Dennis then annoys him about his remembering the combination: "You got it wrote down someplace?"

"It's in my head." "What's that mean?" "It means I know it. I remember it." "What about if you forget it?" "I won't forget it! It's a familiar number! I won't forget it!" "What's that mean?" "It means it's a number that I use all the time, so I won't forget it! I use it all the time." Dennis then suggests that the combination might be his address, and right then, Mr. Wilson freezes, accompanied by a loud thunderclap. Dennis says he knows because his friend has a lock on his bicycle and his address is the combination.

That night, Dennis is in the bathtub, whirling around and splashing soap suds all over the floor while singing She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain (I've read that in the comic strip, Dennis doesn't like taking baths, which clearly isn't the case here). Mrs. Wilson, after asking him if he's wrinkled up enough, asks if he wants her to help him out of the tub, to which he answers, "Not unless you wanna see what the stork saw!", then goes back to whirling around and singing. After

getting out of the tub, he brushes his teeth, then notices Mr. Wilson's nasal spray and, taking the top off, squirts it up into the air. Thinking it's like Old Faithful, he sprays some more, getting it on the mirror, when it quickly runs out. Taking the end off, he looks in the medicine cabinet, sees a bottle of mouthwash, and fills the sprayer back up with it. He ends up pouring out all the mouthwash and, looking under the sink, fills it back up with some toilet cleanser he finds. Meanwhile, we see that Mr. Wilson dotes on his beloved orchid to the point where he had an umbrella open above it during the rain, which he puts away.

That's all a build-up for a sequence that, as lowbrow as it is, still had me laughing when I watched the movie for this review. Mr. Wilson walks into the bathroom, loses traction on the soapy floor, and does the splits big time, grabbing his crotch and wincing in pain. He grabs onto the edge of the sink for support and lifts himself up, then looks and sees that he ripped a hole in the leg of his new pajamas. He takes the "mouthwash" out, pours some in his mouth, and gargles, only to immediately spit it all over the mirror, letting out a

disgusted yell; hearing him, Mrs. Wilson says to herself, "Poor thing, I wish he'd get that hernia fixed." He puts his mouth to the running faucet, attempting to rinse it out, and after cleaning off the mirror, grabs the nasal spray bottle. As soon as he sprays up his left nostril, he knows he made a mistake; his eyes cross and he lets out a crazy howl that a wolf in the distance answers. He plunges his head into the sink, which is full of water, trying to clean his nose. After that, as he lies in bed and tells Mrs. Wilson what he thinks happened, Dennis,

seeing Ruff tied up in his backyard, sneaks out of the house and lets him in. He goes back to bed, just barely missing being caught by Mrs. Wilson when she gets mad at her husband for his apathy towards her feeling maternal and goes down to make herself some tea. Shortly afterward, Mr. Wilson goes downstairs and pours his heart out to "her," unaware that he's talking to and patting Ruff on the head as he sits in a chair in the dark living room. He then attempts to woo "her" in French and goes

in for a kiss, just as Mrs. Wilson herself walks into the hallway and sees him standing on one leg, his other one stretched out. She says his name and he, looking behind him, sees her, then looks in the chair and realizes he just kissed a dog (John Hughes must've liked this gag, as there was a similar one in Beethoven, which he co-wrote). After righting himself and smiling innocently at his wife, he sends Ruff running out the front door, yelling at him.

The next day, as Whatcha Know Joe plays on a record player, Mr. Wilson searches his garage for his garden lanterns. He hears Dennis say, "Holy smokes! You gotta be pretty brave to ride on a tiger in your underpants," and looks up to see him looking through an issue of Peep Show magazine. He tells him to put it away, and after he does, Dennis spots a box of mothballs on a shelf. Picking it up, he looks inside, only to be repelled by the smell. He shoves the tab down into it and the balls fall out the bottom and onto the floor. Hearing this,

Mr. Wilson looks up again, but just sees Dennis sitting down, whistling innocently. Mr. Wilson goes back to look for the lanterns, while Dennis looks up and notices a big green canoe tied up to the ceiling. He follows the rope attached to the pulley with his eyes and finds the other end tied around a hook on the wall. He begins untying it, while Mr. Wilson, fed up with searching, yells, "Martha! Where are the G.D. garden lanterns?!" Naturally, he slips hard on the mothballs, landing

on his back. The sound of it startles Dennis, causing him to jerk around, and at that point, the rope comes loose and the canoe falls down towards Mr. Wilson, the end of it very nearly hitting him right in the groin. Looking up, he sees the garden lanterns sliding down towards him and they cover him up completely. Dennis slowly approaches him, removes the lantern covering his face, says, "I think I better go outside and play," and puts it back before leaving. After that, Mr. Wilson learns about Alice's delayed flight and that Dennis will have to stay with them for the Floraganza, while he, Joey, and Margaret finish painting the inside of the tree-house.

That evening, when the Floraganza begins, Mr. Wilson tells Dennis not to embarrass him. Dennis then sees a bunch of old women nearby and gasps, "Cheek-pinchers." Sure enough, when they see him, they go up to him, pinch his cheek, and ruffle up his hair, leaving him completely dazed when Mr. Wilson, again, tells him not to embarrass him. After nightfall, Dennis, who's forced to sit on the one side of the garage, opens the side-door to get a look at what's going on through the window, when he notices a button on the wall inside. Unable to

control himself, he rushes in and pushes it, likely thinking it's a doorbell; it turns out to be the button that opens the garage door. That also happens to be where the refreshments table is set, and the door lifts it up and slides everything off and onto the ground. Nobody notices this, as Mr. Wilson shows off his orchid, then invites everyone to have dessert and coffee. Hearing this, Dennis knows he's in for it. As Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and the others walk by, he waves innocently at the former, who just glares at him. Everyone then sees the spectacular mess,

and Mr. Wilson's anger quickly rises, as he turns around and looks at Dennis, who smiles and says, "I made a mistake?" That's when he gets banished to inside the house, while everyone else waits for the orchid to bloom. At that same time, Switchblade Sam, who's been scoping out the house, enters and makes his way into Mr. Wilson's study. Not fooled by the fake books in front of the safe, he opens them and then the safe itself to discover the gold coins. He takes them, but on his

way out, one of them drops to the floor. He stomps it with his boot, loud enough for Dennis to hear, then grabs the coin and runs out. Outside, as the orchid begins blooming, to everyone's astonishment, Dennis comes downstairs, enters the study, and sees that the gold has been stolen. He rushes to the backdoor, opens it, and yells, "Mr Wilson! Somebody robbed your house!", causing everyone to turn away just as the orchid blooms, then withers and falls apart. While everyone else goes inside the house, Mr. Wilson, realizing his moment is ruined, rips out the plant, throws it, then harshly admonishes Dennis, sending him running off in sorrow, leading him to run into Sam.

As I've mentioned, the third act consists mostly of Dennis accidentally tormenting and nearly killing Sam. They sit around the campfire beneath the bridge, with Sam, as he uses his knife to cut open a big can of baked beans, telling Dennis he could be his hostage and that they're going to catch the midnight train out of town. That's when Dennis, as he tends to do, starts yammering on and on, saying they need to stop by his house to tell his parents and lists off the stuff he needs to bring with him. That leads them into this fun exchange: "Put a cork

in it. You're givin' me a headache." "I don't have a cork." "Shut your mouth." "I can't, 'cause my nose is stuffy, 'cause of my allergies. If I shut my mouth, I can't breathe good." "Then keep your mouth open, but don't talk." Dennis doesn't take the hint, asking, "Where do you put the cork when you put a cork in it?", and Sam, irritated with how hard it is to get the beans opens, along with his talking, growls, "Didn't I ask you to shut your yap?" The conversation goes on like before: "What's a yap?" "It's your mouth!" "I can't shut my mouth because

my nose is stuffy..." "Shut up!" Even though Sam yells at the top of his lungs to where it echoes throughout the woods, Dennis, after a few seconds of silence, says, "I have one more question." Sam, seething, asks, "What?" "What does a hostage have to do?" "Nothing." "Then how come you need one?" "In case... the cops... show up!" "Do I get to use a gun?" "Ha, you get to stand in front of me in case the cops use a gun." Dennis takes out his slingshot but Sam has no interest at all in that, and,

three times, ignores him asking if he wants to see how good of a shot he is with it. Sam finally gets the can open and starts pouring the beans into the pot, while Dennis aims and shoots his slingshot. The projectile, which I think is a ball bearing, flies across the creek and bounces off a tree across the way. Sam looks just as Dennis shouts for him to, and gets whacked right in the forehead. While he recoils in pain, holding his forehead, Dennis tries to stoke the fire. He accidentally sends a burning

piece of wood flying up into the air, and as Sam is bent over by the river, putting water on his head wound, it goes down the back of his pants. Dennis winces as Sam's pants start smoking, and while it takes a few seconds for him to feel it, when he does, he yells and rubs his butt back and forth on the ground, trying to put it out. When that doesn't work, he gets up and jumps into the river, landing on an inflatable mat floating in it (I have no clue what the purpose of that thing is).

Once he gets out of the river, Sam grabs a rope from his bag, makes Dennis turn around, and starts tying him up. However, Dennis turns his head and tells him he's doing it wrong, which Sam scoffs at. Dennis says, "I bet you never tied up a five-year-old. I'll just get out... The rope's too big and my legs are too small to make it tight enough. There's only one way to do it, and I know because lots of people have tried to tie me up, but it doesn't work. But you try your way. I'll just get out and you'll just have to keep doing it." Sam has to admit he's

intrigued and asks Dennis what he does differently. Easily getting out of the rope, as he said he would, he ties up each of Sam's legs individually, then ties them together. When he's done, Sam tries to move and, sure enough, he can't get out. Then, to show him how to keep him from moving completely, he takes Sam's handcuffs and cuffs both of his hands around the rope. Sam admits that there's no way for him to get loose, then asks for Dennis to do it for him. Dennis goes to get the key to the handcuffs on Sam's bag, but after he takes it off the key-chain,

he trips and falls. Slowly getting up, he looks around for the key, only to see it sinking down into the beans. He says, "Oops," and Sam turns around with a panicked expression, not liking the sound of that. Seeing no other recourse, Dennis decides the only way to get the key without wasting the beans is for Sam to eat them. Sam is reluctant to do so, backing away like a baby trying to resist being spoon-fed, but Dennis manages to force them into his mouth. However, he yells at how hot they, and 

spits them out (a very nasty sight that I'm not going to show). In the next scene, Dennis has forced him to eat the entire pot, searching the bottom for the key. However, when he can't find it, he figures Sam must've swallowed it, telling him, "I swallowed my allowance once, and I had to wait a whole night and a day to get it back." That's when Sam lets out a massive fart that blows back the campfire, while Dennis fans himself with a disgusted expression. Again, as lowbrow and juvenile as that is, I always laughed at it, and was mad when they would remove it when the movie aired on network TV.

While Dennis is gone, Sam spots his switchblade nearby and crawls towards it. He manages to grab it and uses it to cut himself free of the rope. But just when he is free, Dennis yells, "Firewood! Bombs away!", and drops a big block of wood from atop the bridge. It whacks Sam right on the head and knocks him out. When Dennis returns to the site, he finds Sam sleeping and decides to cover him up. He goes to get a blanket, while Sam awakens and gets to his feet. However, Dennis immediately sends him back into dreamland when

he flings a blanket he finds in his duffel bag and sends a small box flying at him, whacking him in the forehead. Unaware of what he did, Dennis drags the blanket over to him, unknowingly pulling a section of it over the fire. Noticing the box he clocked Sam with, Dennis takes it over to the other side of the fire and sits down with it, not seeing the blanket's bottom catch fire. Sam remains asleep for the moment, while Dennis looks through his bag and finds a purse inside; Sam then awakens and, after a few seconds, it hits him that there are flames

crawling up the blanket towards him. Dennis finds that Sam has a lot of money, when he starts smelling the smoke, and turns around and yells, "Yipes!" Sam starts screaming and Dennis tries to beat the fire down with his duffel bag, but causes more pain due to the stuff that's in there. Sam gets to his feet, the burning blanket sticking in his pants, and, once again, runs and jumps into the river, landing on the mat. He lies there, smoking, and when he lifts his head up, he coughs up a big

puff of it. The next time we see them, Sam is flailing around in the water, unable to swim because of the handcuffs, while Dennis, very casually, carries the rope up to the tracks on the bridge. He throws it over a bar above the track, then pulls the end with the loop over to a hole in the bridge, overlooking the river, and lowers it down to Sam, much to his relief. Dennis keeps talking, saying he's going to bed soon, then heads back down. Sam puts one of his feet in the loop, then Dennis throws him the other end, allowing him to pull himself in.

Watching Sam, Dennis backs into something and turns to see some familiar-looking gold coins running out of the bag. He bends down to get a closer look at them, while Sam climbs up over the side and smiles evilly when he sees his knife lying near Dennis. He takes it and looms over him, as Dennis realizes the gold is Mr. Wilson's, as well as the real danger he's in when he sees Sam with his knife. Sam tells him to say his prayers, but Dennis says, "I can't. I didn't take my bath yet." Telling him, "Have it your own way!", he prepares to stab

the kid, when the midnight train, which has been slowly approaching, arrives. It snags the one part of the rope off the bar and, as it goes, pulls Sam up to the underside of the bridge, pressing him against it. Then, the other end of the rope, which got snagged, is pulled loose and Sam falls back onto the mat in the water. Just to add insult to injury, his knife, which was sticking in the bridge's underside, comes loose and falls down towards him. It lands right in his butt and he lets out a loud, pained groan.

By the time Dennis returns home the next morning, with the beaten and bruised Sam in tow, when the poor thief spots Chief Bennett nearby, he, in a very winded voice, cries out for help. While Dennis is welcomed back by all the kids in the neighborhood, Sam is placed in the back of the police cruiser. He's suddenly approached by Dennis, and recoils and covers his face in fear of being injured again, only for the boy to give him back his knife. Taking the opportunity, he flicks out the blade, finally preparing to get his revenge on

Dennis, only for Bennett to slam the door on his hand, causing him to drop the knife down a manhole. Not knowing what just happened, Bennett closes the doors, gets into the car's passenger seat, and they drive off, as Sam moans in the backseat. While Gunther Beckman waves goodbye to him, the other kids chase after the car and mock him, just for one last kick in the balls. That night, while the Mitchells talk with the Wilsons, Dennis attempts to roast a marshmallow

over the barbecue grill, only for it to catch on fire. He tries to blow the fire out, while Mr. Wilson, much to Alice and Henry's shock, offers for him and Martha to watch Dennis while they're working. Just as he talks about how he's learned how to deal with kids better, Dennis flings the stick with the burning marshmallow back and forth. It then flies off the end and hits Mr. Wilson right in the forehead.

Though the movie is officially over, there's one last scene at the beginning of the credits. At the workplace, Andrea walks into the printing room, only to find Dennis sitting there. She asks why he isn't in the daycare center and he tells her, "That's where I was, but I had to leave, because the lady that watches all the kids said if she had to look at me for five more seconds, she'd jump out the window. She's a pretty nice lady, so I wouldn't want her to do that." While he's talking, Alice peeks around the corner, likely knowing that

Andrea is about to get her comeuppance for all the times she's been nasty to her. As she prepares to make a copy, Dennis asks if he can push the button and Andrea, in the most curt, condescending manner imaginable, "No, because you don't know which button to push." He then eyes a big, green button on one end that says "PRINT" under it and, after getting that familiar tic with his hands, pushes it, exclaiming, "It's this one!" A part of Andrea's blouse gets snagged in the machine and her face is

pinned on the printer-bed. She's repeatedly blinded by the machine's bright light and it spews out numerous pages of her face in various angry expressions. In a muffled voice, she threatens to get Dennis, who runs out in a panic, before finally wrenching herself free, albeit with enough force to send her flying back onto the floor.

For John Hughes, Jerry Goldsmith was his one and only choice for the music. However, as much as I love this movie and am very much a fan of Goldsmith as a composer, this isn't one of his more memorable scores for me; at least, it's not nearly as memorable as John Williams' work on the first two Home Alones. It's a score that definitely serves its purpose, being really silly, mischievous, and kiddish for the most part, as it should be, and also having a downtrodden sound for poor Mr. Wilson. It sometimes has an occasionally rustic, country sound to it, alluding to its rural setting, and has some genuine instances of emotion and heart, like when Mrs. Wilson recites her poem for Dennis and when Mr. Wilson is guilt-ridden and saddened by Dennis' disappearance. However, none of it really sticks in my mind. The one exception, though, is Switchblade Sam's menacing leitmotif, which is actually a mix of musical cues from Goldsmith's score for Total Recall. Technically, Sam has two motifs: a sneaking one for when he's scoping out the town and performing his robberies, and a very dark, creeping one which you hear when he's first introduced and when he's preparing to stab Dennis.

I would never call Dennis the Menace a comedy masterpiece, nor would I even count it among one of the greatest movies John Hughes was involved with, but it's still a childhood favorite of mine that I get much joy from it. It has a really good cast, with much credit going to Mason Gamble as Dennis and Walter Matthau as Mr. Wilson; a memorable and quite dark and nasty villain in Switchblade Sam; a lovely suburban setting in Illinois; technically, it's very well-made and shot, with very nice imagery, some of it natural to the location and some augmented by visual effects; a serviceable but still well-done music score, with some genuinely memorable motifs; good instances of heart; and, while much of it is very low-brow, comedy that does still manage to make me laugh. If you're not into these kinds of kids' movies from that period, particularly Home Alone, or aren't a fan of slapstick, the movie probably won't do much for you, but if you saw it as a kid or have kids yourself, you likely know what I'm talking about and would agree that it's a not bad one to share with your family at all.