Our Gang

An earlier comment by suzyq19651 asked who Robert Blake played as a member of Our Gang. Robert Blake did not appear in the group of shorts commonly referred to as The Little Rascals, with such as Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky and Darla. Blake appeared later on after Hal Roach sold his franchise to MGM. MGM recast the series with a group of younger children, although Spanky did appear in some of these as an older and much larger fellow. Blake was a member of this later group and played the character of Mickey Gubitosi, which was his actual birth name. This was in keeping with the Our Gang format in which most characters used their real names, though usually with a nickname such as Spanky or Butch. Froggy was also a part of this later group, which as a group simply did not measure up to prior ones.

This is the very first Our Gang comedy...and it's appropriately entitled "Our Gang". However, only a portion of the original film exists today and Turner Classic Movies showed this four and a half minute segment from a short that was probably originally 20 minutes more or less. Because of this, you cannot give the film a numerical score.

What you have are a variety of story elements but where they go and what it's all about, I have no idea. But it is anyone's guess where it all goes--there's the rich prissy kid who takes the girl, there are the ragamuffin gang members and some plot involving working at Mary Jane's mother's store. I did love the way the kids arranged the package delivery--using their mule. You just have to see it to believe it. Additionally, it was nice to see 'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison (Ernest Morrison) playing an important part of the film--as the Our Gang comedies were incredibly progressive for their time by having black and white kids playing together as equals.

I find it somewhat odd that no one has seen the old silent versions of "Our Gang," and that it is supposed to be lost except for fragments. In the 1960's there was a series for children called "The Mischief Makers." This was a syndicated series featuring the silent "Our Gang" movies with an added sound track of Wurlitzer organ music and child commentators who were a boy and a girl, "Bobby and Bonnie." I used to see it as a child on L.A.'s Channel 9 in about the years 1964-65. There is currently on U-Tube a clip of the animated opening and closing of the program produced by Gene Deitch in 1960. Now I have heard that some silent comedies that were put on TV as similar series in the '60's had mostly clips that were used and that the dastardly editors of the time would destroy the rest of the silent film. I hope this is not the case with Our Gang/The Mischief Makers. But I do remember the series and the characters well.

Although there was no Freckles officially, many people called Mickey Daniels Freckles also Joe Cobb was called Fatty unofficially. This added to confusion of the actual characters. A number of individuals claimed to have been certain characters that did not exist such as smelly, fatso etc.

Anna Mae Bilson did NOT play the widow in this film. She played "Mary Jane," the widow's daughter. This was filmed in 1922. In 1921, she played "Dolly," or as listed here at IMDb,"the girl" in Harold Lloyd's "Now Or Never." You don't play a 4-year old one year and a widow the next year. That makes no sense. I have seen both films (at least what has been found of "Our Gang") and it is without a doubt the same girl. Besides having blonde hair, Anna Mae Bilson bears no resemblance to Mary Kornman. Mary Kornman was NOT in this film. Only about half of this film has been discovered, and it would be great if the rest would turn up somewhere so we can view the complete film, as viewed in 1922.