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Detective John Kimble (Arnold) must forget everything he knows about the mean streets of Los Angeles and prepare for a mission of a different kind altogether: In order to catch a murderous drug dealer who has been ripped off by his ex-wife, Kimble must go undercover as a kindergarten teacher. That's the premise of Kindergarten Cop, Schwarzenegger's most recent comic success.

The villain is Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson), who is searching not only for his money, but for the son he hasn't seen for five years. To entrap him, Kimble - assisted by his partner and pal, Phoebe O'Hara (Pamela Reed) - has to function convincingly in a job for which he is, to say the least, ill suited. The diminutive school principal, Mrs. Schlowski (Linda Hunt), senses there's something wrong about the new teacher and stands watchfully over him, while teacher Joyce Paulmarie (Penelope Ann Miller), who has a son in Kimble's class, becomes both his love interest and a suspect in Kimble's case. The cop also has to face other less-than-friendly characters, such as Eleanor Crisp (Carroll Baker), the gun-totin' grandmother of the drug dealer's son. Ultimately, though, it's Kimble's relationship with a bunch of rambunctious five-year-olds that gives Kindergarten Cop its charm.

The picture reunited Arnold with the director and some of the writers of Twins. It won gentle reviews and went on to gross an impressive $85 million, firmly establishing the actor as a comic draw. The movie called upon him to reveal his lighter, more vulnerable side; to see him struggle with his tough guy persona in that context was delightful. The role also eased Arnold into a screen romance with more confidence than ever before. His success here as a "leading man" will undoubtedly pave the way for more mainstream roles. As Roger Ebert wrote in The Chicago Sun-Times, "When [Schwarzenegger] plays a love scene ... he is touchingly sincere. He uses gentleness, not machismo; he behaves toward a woman as a protector, not an aggressor. John Wayne often used the same approach."

But the movie, which also deals with the subjects of child abuse, drugs, and divorce, did trigger some mild controversy by virtue of including violent scenes that involve children. The actor himself estimated the picture could have grossed another §25 million if it had toned down such scenes. In all, though, he feels that the criticisms in this regard are "totally unjustified," as he told Interview. "We made a really conscious effort not to be violent. But what made the film different was that it told the story of this tough cop who's thrown into this situation where none of his tough tactics work. Through that you got into comedy ...."

Acting alongside children wasn't a problem for Arnold, himself a recent father. "I felt comfortable about not being upstaged", he told the Manhattan Spirit. "But, more importantly, I don't care about being upstaged. ... I am hard to hide in a movie. ..." he laughed. He confided to a studio-publicity interviewer that he found acting with children "almost like doing a movie with special effects. You always get surprised, you don't know what is going to happen next and nothing happens the same way twice. I was always caught off guard, so I had to be quick to improvise.

"The character I play in this movie goes through a complete transformation", he continued. "At first, he's a cop who knows only one thing - his job. And the way he goes about it sometimes rubs even the police department the wrong way. And then all of a sudden he goes undercover and has the painful experience of facing 30 children in the classroom with absolutely no idea how to communicate with them. It changes him completely". The success of Kindergarten Cop brought Arnold closer to his stated goal: less muscle, more laughter. And greater stardom.