Choo-Choo!

Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals) is an American comedy series created by television producer, director, actor and studio executive, Hal Roach. The Hal Roach studios were well respected by industry critics and loyal audiences in the early 1900s until the studio sadly filed for bankruptcy and was eventually closed in 1959.

Nevertheless, in better times the Hal Roach studios launched the extremely successful films of Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Harold Lloyd, Will Rogers, Harry Langdon, ZaSu Pitts, Max Davidson, Thelma Todd, Lupe Velez, Patsy Kelly, and of course, Our Gang.

The Our Gang short films featured a revolving group of poor children and their adventures (and just as often their misadventures) filmed and distributed from 1922 to 1944. The Our Gang series was adored by audiences throughout the world, and featured young children behaving naturally and seemingly unfettered by their unique circumstances. This exceptional film series bravely ignored many of the prevailing and shameful attitudes of the era. Our Gang featured white and black children as integrated equals, a theme not particularly popular during the Jim Crow era of American racial segregation.

Choo-Choo! (1932) places the Gang (this time as Orphans) on a train headed for Chicago. The Gang's hilariously physical interactions aboard the speeding locomotive with Travelers Aid Attendant, Mr. Henderson (impeccably played by Dell Henderson), capture some of most memorable Our Gang/Little Rascals scenes in the series.

No spoilers here as usual, but I will reveal that this was 3-year old child actor George "Spanky" McFarland's 2nd appearance in the Our Gang series, and it is apparent even in the opening credits that producer Hal Roach has identified his little "rising child star" by giving him the most screen time and best lines of dialogue.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Choo-Choo!, is the one hundred fourteenth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the twenty-sixth talkie. An almost-exact remake of the silent A Pleasant Journey, the gang once again switch places with some orphans at a train stop and constantly bother the man in charge of taking them to their new home. I'll stop there and just mention if you only saw these on TV during the '70s-'80s, you probably only saw the King World Productions prints which only had the opening credits with the company name, followed by the series title "The Little Rascals in" before the episode title then showed. Fortunately, a video cassette company named Cabin Fever issued the original M-G-M/Hal Roach prints with those original credits as seen in theatres during their time of release. As a result, not only do those credits-which during that time started to have more creative artwork in them-appear in their original form, they're in the clearest prints possible! And also-as also happened with the next ep, The Pooch-you get to see Spanky, in only his third short, have an insert before the production credits saying "Hello, folks!" before laughing! This is also on the DVD collection I bought a few years ago and it's where I just watched this short. Anyway, Choo-Choo! is hilarious so that's definitely a recommendation.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

Disguised as orphans, six of the Rascals take a chaotic CHOO-CHOO train trip under the disgusted guidance of railway employee & first-rate nellie, Mr. Henderson.

A funny little film, with the turmoil slowly building for the poor train passengers as the Rascals run amuck.

This one is one of the best.With the rascals trading places with some orphans on a train.The Mr.Henderson character is hilarious trying to handle the boys!The scene where he smiles at the women on the train with his hair piece standing up is priceless.Spanky punching him in the nose is funny,but tires quickly.Dorothy contends with Spud pulling her hair,by first almost tearing his out!Then later chasing him out of the car and switching clothes with him!Mr.Henderson mistakingly sends Spud to Dorothy's seat,while shuffling her into his booth.Her mother freaks out after discovering Spud in her daughter's clothes,and blames poor Henderson!From there they wake the entire train with fireworks,and animals they let loose!There's also a cameo by Oliver Hardy.

Without a doubt, CHOO-CHOO has to be one of the finest LITTLE RASCALS ever made. During a stopover, some orphans convince the gang to take their place on the train that's taking them to their new home. The gang manages to make the train ride a living hell for the prissy, child-hating Mr. Henderson, (played by Del Henderson) who is assigned the unenviable task of shepherding the "orphans" to their final destination. There is enough mayhem here to rival any 3 Stooges short-perhaps this was inspired by the Stooges themselves who were as popular during this period. There is not one wasted performance here-Wheezer, Stymie, Sherwood, and Breezy, and of course Spanky, who steals the show without a single word of dialog, socking Henderson in the nose. Henderson's response ("Nice boys don't do that!") earns him another bop in the face. The mayhem accelerates as a drunken novelty salesman passes out noisemakers to the gang in the sleeper car. Things then go from bad to worse when Stymie and a monkey in the freight car release a menagerie of animals into the sleeper section of the train. One can tell that everyone involved in the making of CHOO-CHOO must have had a great time doing it-and it shows.

Rating: ***** stars out of *****

Just a little sidenote- sometime ago, Cabin Fever Entertainment released the Little Rascals series on video, digitally remastered in their original, uncut format as they were meant to be seen. Fortunately, this does not include the post-Hal Roach OUR GANG comedies featuring Mickey, Froggy, and Janet Burston. This was when the series went way downhill, a far cry from TEACHER'S PET, DOGS IS DOGS, FREE WHEELING, etc.