Night 'n' Gales

I remember watching this during my secondary school career. Despite the fact that this was 50 years old in the 1980's, set in America, and had a stereotyped character called 'Buckwheat', it was still entertaining and funny to watch. I think every child should be introduced to the 'Little Rascals'.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Night 'n' Gales, is the one hundred fifty-seventh entry in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the sixty-ninth talkie. At night, The Four Nitengales "entertain" the Hood family with their rendition of "Home, Sweet Home" endlessly. Darla and her mother seemed entertained but her father (Johnny Arthur) and little sibling Junior (Gary Jasgur in his first OG appearance) are definitely not! Eventually, Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, and Porky decide to go home but it's raining so instead, they're invited to stay to the consternation of the father! I'll stop there and just say this was another hilarious outing for the gang, added immensely in entertainment value by Johnny Arthur's performance, not surprising since he was as hilarious when previously portraying Spanky's father in Anniversary Trouble. Oh, and I loved the use of Nathaniel Shilkret's score of "Funny and Mysterious"-which I previously heard in Laurel & Hardy's Way Out West-here. So on that note, I highly recommend Night 'n' Gales.

Alfalfa, Spanky, Porky and Buckwheat are over at Darla's house singing for her parents. Her mother is thrilled--Dad (the sane one) thinks it's dreadful. Unfortunately for Dad, it's raining so hard that the boys are asked to stay the night. And, not surprisingly, they make a mess and drive Dad crazy.

A low-point of the short is Buckwheat and his stomachache. Even for the Buckster, this is REALLY bad acting. You wonder why the director didn't try harder to get a better job of acting here. High-points are watching Darla's dad (Johnny Arthur) getting tortured and there is very little singing in this one (unlike many in these later Our Gang shorts)! The bear scene, while funny was also kind of dumb--making it a bit good, a bit bad. On balance, it's an okay short--worth watching but just not up to the standards of the heyday of the series from 1930-33.

By the way, when Alfalfa hits the man in the face with a shoe, he appears to really be doing it--and quite hard. From what I read about Alfalfa Switzer, he probably did this deliberately. It made for a great scene but must have hurt!

So many of our old movies have elements that grate against racial sensitivities. So when we encounter some that don't, it is worth noting.

The general setup of the gang is that there a couple girls, and a collection of boy types. All of these boys are designed to have comic characteristics, and over a variety of episodes each is made fun of equally. One of these boys is Buckwheat, a black boy.

He's just a member of the gang. In this episode, the four core boys are singing at Darla's house until late. So they have to stay. All four (wearing Darla's extra nightgowns) crowd into the bed with Darla's dad. Let this sink in a minute: a black kid in this situation with no notice at all of his race. In 1937!

Two minor events in this episode could be considered stereotypical. Buckwheat is the one who's scared of the dark. And when they open the refrigerator and discover watermelon, he says "I like that." But he takes a couple bites and it is the fat kid, Porky that eats it all. And when the real scare happens (the dad in a bear rug) all the kids are equally bugeyed.

At the very end, the boys leave to go home. The last word is that the dad is crazy and a very strange word, he's "pixelated." That and the racial enlightenment made me think this was a modern film.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.