Our Gang Follies of 1938

Hal Roach was getting out of the short subject business when this movie was being made. He had fired Charley Chase, Laurel and Hardy were doing features only and he was negotiating to sell 'Our Gang' to MGM, where the shorts would continue to be produced for another nine years.

In the meantime, Roach was trying to produce longer Our Gang pieces, short features, or increase the production value by other means to get a higher price for his product. This is the result: Alfalfa sings in that annoying voice of his that people obviously considered cute. And there is a major 'night club' sequence, populated with the rascals. The problem is that Our Gang kids were chosen to be, well, kids, and the results here -- watching six year olds screech swing versions of "Loch Lomond" is pretty aggravating.

If you ever want to see an Our Gang/ Little rascals short, this is the one to see. A big-budget musical short that features a floor show in snazzy Club Spanky (thanks to the convenient plot device of having Alfalfa dream the whole thing), "Our Gang Follies of 1938" was the last truly great film in the Our Gang series and the last two-reel comedy Hal Roach would ever produce. This short is incredibly enjoyable, it's dialogue and gags instantly quotable, its songs are insanely catchy...and Buckwheat (excuse me, "CAB" Buckwheat) is the band leader. A winner by all accounts.

Interestingly enough, when MGM bought Our Gang from Hal Roach not six months after this short was produced, they tried a number of time to produce a short to match this one ("Ye Old Minstrels," "Melodies Old and New," "Calling All Kids," etc.) but it never happened.

Alfalfa tries to get a recording contract with an honest to goodness company. The adults there have fun with him and give him a contract--for 20 years in the future! Alfalfa thinks this means he'll be a star and soon dreams of great fame--singing songs like "The Barber of Seville" and the like. And, interestingly, in his dream he is 20 years older--but looks exactly like he does back in 1937. The dream, however, turns out to be a nightmare.

With the addition of Alfalfa and Darla to the cast of regulars came a marked change in the types of shorts made by Hal Roach. Instead of focusing exclusively on laughs, the newer ones often had singing and dancing. To make it worse, Alfalfa's horrible singing, while initially a passable gag, was featured too often--trying to generate cheap laughs. I am sure that the popularity drop of these kids can be attributed, in part, to the studio losing sight of what made the films popular in the first place--the kids acted like kids. No sane child acts like Alfalfa, that's for sure!! And as for Darla, but I always thought she looked plasticized--and a bit creepy--not a real child in any way.

This is the second Our Gang Follies film--the first being "Our Gang Follies of 1936". While this one has a bit more plot than the last, it is essentially chock full of singing and dancing. I can't see how children in the movie theaters would enjoy all this singing and dancing--but the parts of the film without that are pretty cute. Unfortunately, the momentum is constantly derailed by the insane need to do all the show tunes and wriggling--yuck! Pretty tough going in this one.

MGM, the distributor for Hal Roach's 'Our Gang' series, was so impress with the treatment of December 1937's "Our Gang Follies of 1938," the studio decided to dump an astronomical (for that series) $60,000 into the production for an expanded two-reeler, making it the most expensive "Our Gang" film ever. MGM's confidence for the short movie was well rewarded as the kids' spoof on the studio's "The Broadway Melody of 1938" became the most popular episode in the long line of 'Our Gang' shorts.

Most fans of "Our Gang," whose title was changed to "The Little Rascals" when Roach sold the package to television, instantly recognize Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) belting out the operetta tune 'The Barber of Seville.' In the film he trades his trademark 'The King of Crooners' for the more sophisticated aria of the opera. Spanky organizes a musical neighborhood revue show, complete with an orchestra conducted by Buckwheat. Alfalfa's act is advertised as the show's headliner, but the singer's head swells to outlandish proportions, thinking he's way too good for a kids' show.

Most of "Our Gang Follies of 1938" deals with Alfalfa's dream of securing a contract with Barnaby (Henry Brandon), a singer with the Cosmopolitan Opera House. The contract states the theater will hire Alfalfa 20 years in the future to sing professionally. His dream fast forward years later to the day when he gets his chance to sing 'The Barber of Seville' on the opera stage. Alfalfa's dream bursts when the members of the audience hear his off-key singing, and unleash a series of jeers, boos and thrown tomatoes. Behind the scenes, Switzer loved playing cruel jokes and pranks to the cast and film crew after Roach signed him to a contract shortly after his 1935 'Our Gang' debut. For the opera scene, director Gordon Douglas reassured Switzer the film crew was only equipped with soft tomatoes to toss at him. Unbeknownst to the kid prankster, the workers decided to obtain some hard tomatoes. Viewers can initially see Switzer taking the pasting pretty well. But after receiving a few 'hard' tomatoes, his face turns to anger. After the camera stopped, Switzer grabbed his brother and said, "C'mon Harold, let's go kick their ass." A handful of strong-muscled crew members interceded before too much damage could be done.

The ambitious 20-minute film, which was longer than the gang's normal recent 10-minute one-reelers, involved one-hundred children extras. Most appear in Alfalfa's dream at the time he spots nightclub owner Spanky and co-owner Darla, twenty years later, where several song-and-dance numbers are presented. After his disastrous opera debut in his dream Alfalfa wakes up and realizes he's more of a crooner and humbly returns to Spanky's neighborhood show. During the entertainment, child singer Annabelle Logan belts out the Scottish ballad 'Loch Lomon.' Miss Logan later became famous as the jazz singer Annie Ross, who briefly dated comic Lenny Bruce and appeared in several movies, including 1983's "Superman 3" as Vera Webster.

Another actor of note in "Our Gang Follies of 1938" is Doodles Weaver as the piano player. He was well known for his later TV appearances and was an early contributor to Mad Magazine. Doodles (real name Winstead Sheffield Weaver) is the uncle to actress Sigourney Weaver.

The classic "I'm The Barber of Seville" episode. As far as I am concerned this is the crowning achievement of the Rascals' career. The story is simple and funny, while the music is just plain entertaining. The director of the show Alfalfa goes to see and later in his dream throws him out into the street to sing is Henry Brandon. You may recognize Henry Brandon as "Barnaby" the heartless landlord in the classic Laurel and Hardy movie "The March of The Wooden Soldiers". This is just a great episode and seeing it in color was a pleasure ...