Baby LeRoy gives adult comedians a child who seems indifferent to their dignity. Beside W. C. Fields, that is enough to be funny; we value the results without mistaking an infant's reactions for studied technique.
Fi1m perspective
In It's a Gift (1934), Baby LeRoy belongs to the small-scale trouble that W. C. Fields can make seem intolerable. As Baby Dunk, he is a useful presence in a comedy built from the aggravations of being near other people. We rate the film highly, though we would not pretend that its pleasures begin and end with the child. LeRoy's contribution is simpler: an infant's reactions give an adult comedian something he cannot reasonably argue with. There is no need to credit him with an adult's understanding of the joke.
He began opposite Maurice Chevalier in A Bedtime Story (1933), where his expressiveness was already the attraction. Tillie and Gus (1933) brought him together with Fields, the partnership that came to define his reputation. The pocket watch and custard business in The Old Fashioned Way (1934) makes their physical interaction the point of the gag. Yet Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen (1934) also used those expressive reactions in a dramatic leading child role. That is worth remembering before treating every gurgle as a comic calculation.
We laughed at the porch sequence in It's a Gift, because Fields gives small disturbances the weight of a considerable injustice. That response depends on the adult's handling of the nuisance, and it helps explain what makes LeRoy a useful partner. His laughing, gurgling and attention to props can look unplanned, leaving the grown-up to make the encounter funny. A more knowing child performance would change that exchange: the apparent lack of calculation is part of what works.
The limitation was practical: these parts required a baby, and by It's a Great Life (1935) his main run of screen work was ending. His reputation remains closely attached to Fields, which seems a fair reflection of how this comedy works rather than a reason to dismiss him. It's a Gift is the place to start, with LeRoy contributing to a film that sustains its small-town aggravation remarkably well. Allow for the rest of the family, whose company can wear us down too.
Biography
Baby LeRoy, born Ronald Le Roy Overacker, was an American child actor who appeared in films in the 1930s. His screen career began when he was less than one year old.
He is best known for his appearances in three W. C. Fields films: Tillie and Gus (1933), The Old Fashioned Way (1934) and It's a Gift (1934), in which he played Baby Dunk. He also appeared as the Joker in Alice in Wonderland (1933). At 16 months old he became the youngest person placed under term contract by a major studio.
He retired from the screen at the age of four.
