Fast Freight

This Hal Roach comedy short, Fast Freight, is the eighty-fifth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. Farina and Pete the Pup are riding under a running train on hammocks on their way to California. They stop at a neighborhood where the rest of the gang reside and entices them to go with him. After some mishaps on the way, they stop at a house that seems to be haunted especially at night...Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann consider this one directed by Anthony Mack "a contrived outing that pulls every predictable gag out of the usual bag of tricks". Be that as it may, I found the whole thing hilarious from beginning to end. So on that note, I highly recommend Fast Freight.

Farina and Pete are riding a freight train to California, the former hoping for fame and fortune, the latter just trying to survive riding thousands of miles on a poorly tied hammock. They stop at "Sara Cuse," and meet the gang. Farina puts on an impromptu one-man-band show, which impresses the Gang. He tells him of his plan to go where the streets are paved with gold, and the Gang decide to tag along.

Riding the freight train (this time without hammocks) the Gang are attacked by bees in a very convoluted way. They fall off the freight train, and a storm sends them into a nearby ramshackle house. The rest of the short is just a series of haunted house gags, most of which fly pretty fast in an attempt to make you forget how illogical they are. (Why is there a phonograph with "The Ravings of John McCollough" on it? Why does Pete start it up? Who's providing the electricity to make it work in the first place?)

The kids are pretty talented, but it can't hide the fact that the short is just two half-thought-out ideas slammed together without any concerns for story. I wish they'd just kept up with Farina's quest for California glory... maybe they could have found California wasn't the dream land they expected. It would have at least made more sense. Still, the gags are fairly well-executed if completely insane, though they pull the "character has sheet fall on him and other character thinks he's a ghost" idea a little too often.

When you watch the old Our Gang comedies, sometimes you have to say to yourself "These kids are nuts....and where are their parents?!". This is definitely true in "Fast Freight"!

The story begins with Farina and Pete riding in hammocks under a fast moving freight train!! Insane? You betcha! Apparently, Farina is traveling to California where streets are paved with gold! Later, he and Pete take a break and they meet the gang. And, apparently they don't know each other and live in other parts of the country. This sort of continuity is not unusual in these comedies. For example, in "Baby Brother", Joe Cobb plays a rich kid who has never even met the gang until the middle of this film. Regardless, Farina convinces the kids that California is the place they oughta be, so they changed their clothes and took off on the next train. Will the kids make it? Will they did? Will Hal Roach Studios find folks arrested for child neglect?!

While this film is funny and has some cute moments, you probably can tell I found the plot alarming. As a parent, it did make me a bit on edge! Still, it's entertaining, albeit weird...especially when the trip takes them to a spooky old house and there's a baby aligator inside...huh?!