Aug 25-31 Natasha Lyonne Week: There’s a new season of her weirdo mystery of the week coming out (I can’t remember the name rn, you can look it up), and she’s been steadily delivering chuckles for decades now.

Dennis Mitchell (Mason Gamble) spends time with his friends Joey McDonald (Kellen Hathaway) and Margaret Wade (Amy Sakasitz). He is followed everywhere by his dog Ruff, but to George Wilson (Walter Matthau) — Mr. Wilson — Dennis is Dennis the Menace.

Based on the Hank Ketchum comic strip, which debuted on March 12, 1951, and is still running, this was directed by Nick Castle. Yes, that Nick Castle. It was produced and written by John Hughes. Yes, that John Hughes.

Matthau is perfectly cast in this, as are Lea Thompson and Robert Stanton as Dennis’ parents, Alice and Henry. Plus, you get another great Christopher Lloyd bad guy in Switchblade Sam and Natasha Lyonne as Polly. She’d already been acting for six years, starting as Opal on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

If you grew up at the right time — my wife was 9 when this was released — this is the perfect nostalgia.

The direct-to-video film  Dennis the Menace Strikes Again is a sequel to this one and features Don Rickles as Mr. Wilson. I kind of love that. I don’t love that Dennis was dropped from Dairy Queen marketing in 2001, as the fast-food ice cream restaurant felt that children could no longer relate to him.

Happier news: There was also another direct-to-video release, A Dennis the Menace Christmas, and a 1987 live-action TV movie, which was later released to video as Dennis the Menace: Dinosaur Hunter. 

In the UK, this was called Dennis because there’s a comic strip called Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, which strangely debuted on the exact same day as the American comic strip.