Football Romeo

Football Romeo (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

With a big football game coming up, the gang makes Alfalfa think that Darla has fallen in love with Butch. The plan is for this to inspire Alfalfa to play harder in the game but instead it turns him into a heartbroken soul who doesn't want to play. FOOTBALL ROMEO is certainly a step up from the previous films in the MGM series. I think a lot of credit has to go to Alfalfa who manages to make you believe that he has really given up the sport since he can't have his girl. There's really not too much happens but the way Alfalfa walks away from the game was actually pretty funny as is the scene where he's pretty much forced back into the game after writing a poem and expressing his emotions. The football game itself is also fun to watch as Butch just can't seem to figure out what's happened and why Alfalfa is going nuts on the field. Fans of the Our Gang shorts should really enjoy this one even though it's certainly far from a classic. It's also interesting that when Alfalfa catches a football he runs through the open gate in the field much like Mr. Gump would do decades later.

This M-G-M comedy short, Football Romeo, is the one hundred seventy-fourth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the eighty-sixth talkie. Alfalfa feels sad because he sees his crush Darla walking around with Butch not knowing the girl is trying to get him jealous in order to defeat the bully in the upcoming football game. His mom knows about this and writes a note telling her son Darla will reveal his poem he wrote to her in front of the audience if he doesn't show up for the game. Well, Alf now has some motivation...This short shows Alfie really lovelorn over who his girl picked over him. This is a real nice dramatic turn for Carl Switzer when he shows this side. But by the time of the game, some of the more typical funny gags are put to good use and I also liked those twins-who I believe were first shown in Party Fever-doing the play-by-play announcing. So on that note, Football Romeo was a sweet short all around in the Our Gang series.

In 1937, Our Gang, then working for Hal Roach, made a short called "The Pigskin Palooka" which used a similar Alfalfa-as-Footbal-Star theme. But the differences between that film and this, an MGM production, are night and day. This film makes Alfalfa a genuine star, using a broken romance to bring him to his senses and win the day and the girl. The earlier film had Alfalfa as the braggart who has never played being forced into the "big game" with a rival team. That film is more in keeping with the Alfalfa personality we all know, and is frankly much funnier. This one could have starred Jack Okie and Ann Southern and been the same picture.

Darla is walking around the block hanging onto Butch's arm. She is trying to make Alfalfa jealous so that he gets extra motivated to play the big football game against Butch's team. It has the opposite effect. Alfalfa turns melancholy and writes a poem to Darla. He quits football. Darla threatens to read his poem out loud to the crowd if he doesn't play.

It is a fun concept to have Darla making Alfalfa jealous. It makes less sense that he is a football star player. They could make it something different like a foot race. I can believe that Alfalfa runs fast especially if he is running scared.