Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Making a film about comic strip characters is always risky. The tendency is to create caricatures that capture the essence of the comical characters, rather than presenting them as real people. That is just the trap that Director Nick Castle (The Last Starfighter) falls into in making the movies version of Hal Ketchum's comic strip character, Dennis The Menace. The film starts out promisingly enough as we hear and see Dennis' (Mason Gamble) rattletrap tricycle with tin cans tied to the end and baseball cards in the spokes, towing a wagon full of bottled insects, barreling down the tidy picket fenced lined street. Immediately the scene cuts to Dennis' elderly neighbor, Mr. Wilson (Walter Matthau) as he runs for the cover of his comfortable bed to avoid yet another fiasco at the hands of his irritating, but well meaning, pint sized nemesis. After the initial scenes, the film is primarily a series of formulaic, slightly amusing, confrontations between Dennis and Mr. Wilson that could have come straight out of the Sunday comics or 1960's television series based on Ketchum's characters.

Some of the more amusing examples include Dennis' replacing Mr. Wilson's nasal spray with mouthwash and shooting an aspirin into his mouth mid- snore via slingshot. The last straw, however, occurs with Dennis overturning the hors d'oeuvre table at Mr. Wilson's Garden Club party and causing his prize flower to wilt before a live audience. From that point on, the plot takes a strange, unexpected twist as Dennis is kidnapped by a slimy hobo named Switchblade Sam (Christopher Lloyd) in a weird sort of Ransom Of Red Chief style subplot. Although I have to admit that I found some humor in Dennis' ability to terrorize his captor, these scenes seem bizarrely out of place in an adaptation of a comic strip.

Except for a few amusing scenes, Castle's version of Dennis The Menace comes across as too contrived, with a lame script by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) that is limited in scope to a few slightly amusing confrontations between Dennis and Mr. Wilson, and a wild subplot that has little to do with the rest of the film. Dennis' family life with his parents is woefully underdeveloped and could have given a bit more depth to the plot.

Casting Walter Matthau as Mr. Wilson is an excellent choice. He manages to portray his grumpy character with enough warmth to make him almost human. The actress who plays Mrs. Wilson (Joan Plowright) is a wonderful foible to Matthau's character with her kind hearted temperament. My biggest question mark is in the casting of Mason Gamble as Dennis. His physical resemblance to the comic strip character is undeniable. However, he comes across almost too cherubic for his mischievous character. In my opinion Jay North, the actor who played Dennis in the television series, combined just the right amount of innocence and deviousness intended for Ketchum's character. Gamble's character, on the other hand, is so cuddly cute, you can almost see little angel's wings beneath his pesky exterior.

The strongest element in the film is the detail with which the sets and props are constructed. Castle goes to great lengths to present Dennis' hometown as the sleepy, quiet, idyllic setting depicted in the comic strip. He also uses many of the trademark props from the comic strip including Dennis' infamous slingshot, overalls, noisy tricycle and his friends Joey and Margaret, who are not much more than props due to their limited roles in the films.

Although I would recommend Dennis The Menace as a relatively entertaining family film, it lacks depth and continuity, and consists of a few gimmick laden conflicts and sappy reconciliation scenes between Dennis and Mr. Wilson. For the money, I recommend renting Home Alone, as a more entertaining choice in the genre of children's movies.






Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12