Railroadin'

The second talkie in the long-run "Our Gang" series really kicks into high gear when the train a few of the kids are running goes out of control, speeding down the tracks. This dramatic "runaway train" segment comprises the second half of this 21-minute film.

During the train-out-control segment, Farina gets "run over" about a half-dozen times. Actually, and it shows this, he lies down flat just before the train arrives, so it passes over the top of him each time.

In all, in what starts off as a leisurely-paced story of kids learning about trains, turns into a dramatic story in which the kids - and passengers of on coming train - nearly lose their lives.

For those who love trains, there are some great closeup shots of these fantastic machines. This turned out to be a very entertaining early Our Gang short.

Joe tries to impress the boys by taking them aboard a locomotive. A lunatic hobo arrives and sets the train in motion, which literally runs OVER Farina. Eventually, they leave the rail yard and careen out of control through city and country.

I was enthralled by the location filming of this two-reeler. It gives some interesting glimpses of 1929 Los Angeles. It's also one of the first "Our Gang" comedies with sound, so some of the dialogue is a little hard to understand above the background noise-- but that hardly detracts from the genius of this great short.

This episode is another example of why I feel Farina was the heart and soul of the "Gang." Hal Roach often gave him the most memorable scenes, and for good reason.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

While playing in the train yard, Fat Joe Cobb, Farina & the Gang go RAILROADIN' in a runaway train, which none of them knows how to stop...

A funny little early talkie. Due to its age, some of the dialogue is difficult to hear. Highlight: Farina on the tracks. Fat Joe & Chubby are so obese it's painful to watch them.

There are plenty of hair-raising thrills and spills in this second Little Rascals sound film. The orphanage from which they came is now left far behind, and we see none of the adoptive mothers in this film either. The film takes place entirely in a rail yard and along the rail tracks leading from it. The film begins with Farina and Harry playing on a railway turntable in the rail yard. Then the little fat boy Joe, and a new friend of his who is also a little fat boy, Chubby (though we do not hear his name mentioned, played by Norman Chaney), bringing sandwiches in their metal lunch boxes to their fathers (Joe's being adoptive) who are railway engineers who operate a locomotive. Joe's father invites the boys up into the locomotive to see all the levers and controls, and permits Joe to blow the horn. They all then leave the locomotive and go to a bench where the men sit and eat their lunch. Meanwhile, the other five Little Rascals plus Pete the Dog are also playing in the rail yard. They have put together an elaborate den for themselves in an empty rail freight car which has no roof. It rests on a side track, far behind and not attached to the resting locomotive. Mischief begins when Joe and Chubby leave their fathers and go back to the train and climb up into the locomotive again. They fiddle a bit with some controls, but do not know how to start the train. The rail yard has been plagued for some time by a former rail worker who has gone mad, and who hangs around leering at people. He spots the boys in the locomotive and climbs in with them. He starts the locomotive for them and then leaps out. The only lever Joe knows how to control is one which causes the train to reverse its direction. The train moves ominously forward and in panic, Joe reverses its direction, so that it begins to go backwards towards the freight car where the other Rascals are playing. Joe reverses direction just before crashing into them. Meanwhile Farina has caught his foot in a switch and is sitting on the track helplessly in front of the oncoming locomotive. He sees it coming, puts his hands together in prayer and says 'Now I lay me down to sleep …' Then he leans back flat and the locomotive passes over him, leaving him unharmed. Joe reverses again and it passes over Farina in the other direction, and this happens several times. Harry comes to free his foot and says: 'How come the locomotive passed right over you and you ain't dead?' And then Joe fails to reverse in time and the locomotive does collide with the freight car, so that it becomes attached to the locomotive, with the children in it. Then he successfully reverses and begins to move forward at increasing speed, and they go through the town and into the countryside on the wild runaway train, with numerous cars and even a streetcar narrowly missing them at crossings. Then another trains carrying passengers is coming straight at them and disaster is narrowly averted by a quick-thinking signalman who pulls a switch for the passenger train to divert it at the last second. All of these goings-on are very much in the tradition of the silent films, such as Buster Keaton's, with split-second escapes and terrifying near misses. Eventually the locomotive is brought under control and the Rascals are returned to the rail yard, which they say they will avoid in the future. Farina then has some further adventures of his own, for which the viewer must remain in suspense, but I will give one cue: what comes first, the chicken or the egg? It is not always possible to make out what the children are saying in this film, the most difficult to understand being Harry and occasionally Farina. Pete the Dog is a passive participant in this episode, suffering the indignities of collisions with his commendable canine passivity. Truly, he was the Marguerite Dumont of the cinema dog world. This film is only 20 minutes long, five minutes shorter than its predecessor, SMALL TALK.

"Railroadin'", the second "Our Gang" talkie, was believed to exist only in silent form prior to the late 1970s. In 1929, sound on disc, rather than sound on film, was the more widely accepted method of making talking pictures. As a result, many early talkies suffer from the hiss and scratches and pops associated with sound discs. Also, over time, these sound discs could be broken or lost, resulting in the talkie becoming a silent film forever. For almost fifty years, the sound discs to "Railroadin'" were believed to have met this fate.

Happily, this was not to be the case with "Railroadin'." Blackhawk had prepared a silent version with titles for home movie use, but in the late 1970s, a "Railroadin'" sound disc was discovered and synched with the film by Blackhawk, and later released on video.

"Railroadin's" sound disc does show the wear and tear of time, and some of the dialogue is difficult to discern. That does not deter from the enjoyment of the film, however. "Railroadin'" is thoroughly enjoyable and its fun to watch the kids cavort in a railroad roundhouse.

What is amazing about "Railroadin'" is that in some scenes, the train seems to actually run over Farina! In distance shots a dummy was used, but in the close ups it's really Farina. These scenes were probably filmed with the train moving over him very slowly, and Farina was probably in a small pit. The scenes, though, are very realistic.

"Railroadin'" is as good as the 1929-30 talkie "Our Gang" films get. Solid and clean entertainment for the whole family. 8 out of 10.