Malcolm Sebastian played the title role of Big Boy in a series of two reel pictures for Educational Comedies. From 1925 to 1929, he appeared in twenty eight films as the unpredictable boy with an oversize bowler hat on the top and a loose fitted diaper on the bottom. Produced for Educational Pictures by Jack White, the brother of Columbia Pictures own Jules White, these films were made due to the popularity of the Hal Roach series of Our Gang Comedies.
In Funny Face, he appears with child actor Jack McHugh, who is best remembered for his role in Wild Boys Of The Road as Mac and for his one turn as a bad kid in the Hal Roach short, Shivering Shakespeare. He had his own series of films at Educational but that would end in 1929. Together, they live with Granny, who has fallen on hard times. Through a series of situations, they try to help her by earning money.
The film has several scenes that were shot on location in Southern California. There is a sequence that takes place at a public park. Upon careful examination of the 16mm print in my archive, it is clear that the location is Echo Park and Echo Lake. The bridge that Charles Chaplin and Harold Lloyd used for sequences in their films can be seen as well. The surrounding streets in other shots are visible enough to determine that some of the footage was shot in the Silver lake district.
Not quite as entertaining as the Our Gang series, the film does utilize the very expressive face of Sebastian, who looks like he could be a sibling of Jackie Coogan. Adorable face with a sweet smile and a penchant for mischief, I only wish more of his films were available for viewing to fully appraise his work. Like his on screen brother, Sebastian was seen in Shivering Shakespeare and then he vanished from the screen. He passed away in 2006 at the age of eighty two. Never having had the pleasure to meet him, I hope he received praise in his later years from fans who knew who he was and enjoyed his performances in the silent films of old. I hope his family takes pride knowing how much joy he gave to the world back when he was a little boy.