The Spanking Age

I stumbled onto this on Youtube looking a film from 1928 that I couldn't find, so thought I'd watch this one instead. I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, a time when they showed Our Gang on TV everyday for the kids. They never showed the silent ones for good reason, not many kids would watch them, but I found this story to be similar to the later made Birthday Blues. In this one the step mother is abusive, in Birthday Blues the father is abusive to the kid's mother. In the end it got pretty laugh out loud funny when the party guests arrive and I did find Mary and Wheezer very cute (and young). While I would rate Birthday Blues a 10, it's one of the most memorable films they made, I rate The Spanking Age just a 5. The kids do get spanked, more then once and when the kids are left alone (at ages 5 and 3), they set upon hitting each other, as well as Pete the dog, who they expands the violence to the poor house cat. BTW, spanking is frowned upon now but when I was growing up I was hit a lot as a kid, this was unpleasant to watch. Also, the ingredients she made the cake with can cause death in children, yikes.

5 of 10, the party ending did make me laugh.

This one has Mary Ann Jackson and Wheezer dealing with Evil Stepmother Lyle Tayo. She takes her own daughter, Jean Darling, to a swell party, leaving the others to mind the house and answer the door. So the three of them -- did I mention Pete the Pup? -- decide to throw a party and invite the Gang.

I always find the episodes in the series where the kids are just being kids the most enjoyable, and in this one, watching Mary Ann and Wheezer go about their nonsensical business in a perfectly serious manner is a lot of fun Mary Ann had come to Roach from the Sennett studio, where she was the child in the Smith Family series (a couple would be released after this short). Bobby 'Wheezer' Hutchins, on the other hand, was a Roach veteran, having been a member of the Rascals since the age of 2 -- that was 1927, the year before this movie, and he had been the star of THE OLD WALLOP. So they were both seasoned veterans.

And Pete? Pete was the best dog on the movie screen. Enjoy.

This Hal Roach comedy short, The Spanking Age, is the eightieth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. Mary Ann and little brother Wheezer are not welcomed in their stepmother's house whose daughter Jean also doesn't think much of them. Their father is trying to get a patent for his latest invention so all they have is each other and Pete the Pup for company. To cheer themselves up, they plan a party for their gang friends. Can you guess how this turns out? For a long time, this was a lost film until 1990. Reviews at the time of release were glowing and I can now say how much I agree with them having just seen this on YouTube. Robert F. McGowan should also get kudos for having the adults be seen only from the waist down the whole time as this added to the fun. So on that note, I most highly recommend The Spanking Age. P.S. What a wonderful surprise to hear Laurel & Hardy's "The Cuckoo Song (Dance of the Cuckoos)" among the selections in the organ score!

"The Spanking Age" is a re-working of "Cinderella"...with quite a few changes. One of the changes for the worse is that they made the step-mother a physically abusive monster. She spanks her step-kids, Mary Ann and Wheezer, for no reason AND she beats the stuffing out of her husband (he was a widower)! She clearly is a monster. While everything works out in the end, I really think having her be so violent was a big mistake as domestic violence isn't exactly comedy gold!

In the story, Mary Ann and Wheezer are being bad....but as the intertitle says, they'll get hit either way...so why not be bad?! At the same time, their step-mother has a horrid little girl who is doted upon and who is incredibly spoiled. After this brat goes off to a party...leaving the other two at home, Mary Ann decides to throw her own party and she spends much of the short film making food for the party. Now considering she's 6 years-old, you can expect the food to be god-awful...and it is. Is there any reprieve for these kids from the terrible step-mom? Watch it and seen.

While everything worked out fine in the end, this is a rather dark short and as a result, it's not one I recommend except to the most ardent fans of the series.