Hollywood made a number of movies about one-parent children who had lost a mother or father. Whether drama or comedy, such films always tugged at the audiences' hearts. "The Toy Tiger" is one such film, with a very cute child, Tim Hovey, playing Timmie Harkinson. Laraine Day plays his mother, who goes by the name of Gwen Taylor, and Jeff Chandler, as Rick Todd, becomes the unwitting dad to fill the shoes of the make-believe father Timmie has created to impress his mates at the private school his mom has enrolled him in.
Timmie says to Rick that he wasn't telling a lie because when he crosses his fingers it's just making believe, or a fairy tale. Rick lets that go and no one ever corrects Timmie on that point. But it turns out well after some funny scenes get Rick hooked into assuming the role of Timmie's mysterious explorer father. It is a bit hard to take Gwen's sudden warming up to and romantic attraction to Rick at the end. She had been a tough, hard as nails ad agency manager, and even Rick doubted her first efforts at letting her hair down. She had been too serious and all business and cut-throat before that.
But, this is Hollywood and a film meant to entertain and it does that, built around a young boy with a terrific imagination. Hovey was quite small for his age. He's supposed to be and looks and acts the part of a seven-year-old boy in this picture. But he was actually 11 years old when the movie came out. He didn't stay in movies beyond 1959, but worked in the music field. He died of a drug overdose at age 44 in 1989.
Timmie says to Rick that he wasn't telling a lie because when he crosses his fingers it's just making believe, or a fairy tale. Rick lets that go and no one ever corrects Timmie on that point. But it turns out well after some funny scenes get Rick hooked into assuming the role of Timmie's mysterious explorer father. It is a bit hard to take Gwen's sudden warming up to and romantic attraction to Rick at the end. She had been a tough, hard as nails ad agency manager, and even Rick doubted her first efforts at letting her hair down. She had been too serious and all business and cut-throat before that.
But, this is Hollywood and a film meant to entertain and it does that, built around a young boy with a terrific imagination. Hovey was quite small for his age. He's supposed to be and looks and acts the part of a seven-year-old boy in this picture. But he was actually 11 years old when the movie came out. He didn't stay in movies beyond 1959, but worked in the music field. He died of a drug overdose at age 44 in 1989.