High Society

This Hal Roach comedy short, High Society, is the thirtieth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. In this one, Mickey Daniels is Mickey Kelly, a poor boy who lives with his Uncle Pat. While they're broke, they're also very happy playing music and eating corned beef. Since Pat hasn't legally adopted Mickey however, Aunt Kate does so and takes him to her mansion where he clashes with her son Percy (Jackie Condon). The butler tries to make a perfect gentleman of Mickey to the point of wearing a raincoat to get him to take a bath but to no avail. When the aunt temporary leaves the house, Mickey invites his uncle and friends to come. That's when the fun really begins...From a story by Frank Capra, High Society gives us a favorite "Our Gang" theme-the clash between the have and have nots with the have nots winning! Among the gags here: Joe contrives an ingenious way to steal from the fruit stand-get a long funnel and a drainpipe and while making small talk with the owner, put the food in the funnel with Farina, Andy, and Sonny getting the results, the cop who chases them to Pat's house telling him he's going to teach them a lesson by threatening to send them to the penitentiary, Mickey's friends having a ball slipping and sliding on liquid soap on the kitchen floor, and Farina unknowingly feeding alcohol to the parrot and fish with disastrous results. The puppy love romance between Mickey and Mary is one of the sweetest scenes in this short and Pat Kelly as the uncle is a great fun-loving adult for the gang. So on that note, I highly recommend High Society.

When Mickey Daniels is adopted by a wealthy society dame, Our Gang goes to visit him.... and wreck the joint while they're at it.

It's another of the shorts in the long-0running series where Alan 'Farina' Hoskins steals the movie, just by wnadering hither and yon, doing things like pouring molasses everywhere, feeding whiskey to the parrot and finally sounding the alarm to fetch the police, the fire department and probably the Joint Chiefs of Staff while he's at it. It's not among the strongest of the shorts by any means, but there's always a good gag or two in every one of the silent Little Rascals.

This Our Gang short features Mickey Daniels--the freckle-faced star of the silent-era shorts. The film begins with his living with his VERY stereotypically Irish uncle. However, they don't know that a rich but very grouchy aunt is planning on going to court to take custody of Mickey and make a gentleman of him. But, he really misses the simple life with his friends and a good batch of corned beef and cabbage. So, the uncle brings the gang to the mansion and the kids proceed to make a huge mess of it.

There is nothing particularly brilliant about this film but it manages to be funny and worth seeing. Not among the very best of the series but still quite good.

High Society (1924)

** (out of 4)

Mickey Daniels is living with his poor uncle but the two love their lives and don't mind not having money. Soon Mickey's rich aunt gets custody of him and this doesn't sit well with the gang who decides to pay the rich folks a visit and teach them some fun. The more Our Gang shorts I watch the more I'm starting to realize that they weren't the greatest thing Hal Roach ever produced. I am rather amazed at their popularity both back in the day as well as today but so far these early entries haven't been that good. This one here once again features a fast-paced story but very few laughs. I'd also question some of the humor and wonder why it was put into a kids film. Just take a look at the scene where Mickey is upset about his aunt spanking him. We then get a scene where she's really beating the fire out of him and shaking him extremely hard. I know this is a no-no today but was this scene really funny in 1924? Once the gang shows up at the rich house we get all sorts of trouble including Farina putting whiskey in the fish bowl, the kids putting liquid soap on the kitchen floor and of course the rich cousin who was picking on Mickey is in trouble.