Our Gang Follies of 1936

This Hal Roach musical comedy short, Our Gang Follies of 1936, is the one hundred forty-first entry in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the fifty-third talkie. While Mike Fright and Beginner's Luck were comedies with music in them, this one is mostly a musical with some comedy involved. Alfalfa is still in his "drugstore cowboy" mode when he once again sings, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" at the beginning but does the first of his crooner songs when he also warbles "The Object of My Affection" to Darla on stage, of which this is Ms. Hood's OG debut though she's addressed as Cookie here. She also has a number, "I'll Never Say 'Never Again' Again", looking very cute in the process and-judging by the looks of the boys in the audience-getting some swoons! So with Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky, and now Darla, this nearly completes the Our Gang most of us are familiar with. We only have to wait for the arrival of Butch, The Woim, and Waldo to really round out the gang...So, yeah, I highly recommend Our Gang Follies of 1936. Oh, and also, this is Scotty Beckett's last regular appearance in the series though he'll return as another character in the later M-G-M-produced only entries.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

Spanky is producing the OUR GANG FOLLIES OF 1936 in the backyard barn and the rowdy neighborhood kids have all assembled for the promised entertainment. But when the featured specialty act - The Flory-Dory-Sixtet - fails to appear, Spanky must take drastic action...

Lots of music in this funny little film. Highlight: Buckwheat & the monkey. In her Rascals' debut, Darla sings `I'll Never Say Never Again'; Alfalfa warbles both `She'll Be Comin' Around The Mountain' & `The Object Of My Affection.' That's Leonard Kibrick as the mean kid on the front row.

The Our Gang puts on music and dance show. Alfalfa decides to break into the adult opera world. Of course, its absurd because his " Barber of Seville" well is not good. Alfalfa refuses to sell out with his peers. Of course, he dreams about the future where all doesn't go well. It's adorable to see Darla, Spanky, Buckwheat, and the Our Gang act like children and later as adults. If Alfalfa sells out, he could make big bucks. I love Darla playing Cupid in a musical number. Spanky is there as a club owner and the host of follies. This is a great short film. It's fun watching kids in these films. You hope they had as much fun and were treated well.

It's amazing, Hal Roach is such a genius. His only mistake was giving up the Rascals to MGM in 1938. Our Gang Follies of 1936 is one the most memorable shorts to me. The gang is putting on a show, Spanky is the stage manager, his assistants Alfalfa and Scotty(this is his final Our Gang short, except for his return in 1939 as Cousin Wilbur). The first number is the introduction by a group of little girls who tend to annoy you for a little while. The second act is the Bryan Sisters singing "How You Gonna Keep Them", which I found to be quite nice. The third act is Darla(her first Our Gang short) singing "I'll Never Say Never Again" The fourth act is suppose to be the Florie Dorie girls, but there no where in sight. So they put on the fifth act, the Ghost Dance by Spanky, Scotty, Alfalfa, Dickie, and Sid. The Florie Dorie Girls are still no where to be found, so the sixth act is Alfalfa singing "Object of my Affection" to Darla. The crown is screaming, "We want the Florie Dories!" So, Spanky and the rest of the boys dress up as the girls, Spanky says to do exactly what he does. What Spanky doesn't know is that Elmer the Monkey got inside his dress and got a hold of a needle. So during the number Spanky takes off the bottom of his dress, so do the boys, Darla drops the curtain, and Spanky sings "How's that kids, now ya gotta go, that's all there is, there ain't no more of the show." and quickly exits. The children leave with satisfaction. A definite winner!

This short, and the related short done two years later is a classic example of The Little Rascals at their most self-expressive.

Moreover, as in many of their shorts, these youngsters relied on the stretch of their imagination to put on the show. I am not sure I would have charged admission, even a penny, and since the setting was in a residential area, the Rascals probably should not have, either. Nevertheless, this is one the their 'feel-good' shorts.