Free Wheeling

Another of my personal favorites.Free Wheelin' makes you laugh.Stymie is the voices on the taxi-cab radio,as well as the floating power!Spanky shakes down an organ grinder's monkey for cab fare,and Dickie's stiff neck gets cured!All thanks to a wild down hill ride that provides plenty of excitement!Stymie and Spanky are exceptionally good in this one,as they often were.

"Free Wheeling" is one of the best Little Rascals films. It's loaded with the sight gags and exaggerated sound effects that make films from Hal Roach Studios so funny. A whole variety of hilarious things happen in "Free Wheeling," from a mule that gets drunk to a traffic cop jumping 12 feet in the air. A must see for any Little Rascals fan!

The gang operate a donkey-powered taxi service in this fun Our Gang entry. The taxi itself is a marvel of ingenuity that has to be seen to be believed.

I recently bought a collection of Little Rascals shorts on DVD for my 3 year old daughter...needless to say she loves these pieces more than anything on TV today...she's memorized many of the lines in them and will quip off at will at any time around the house... This particular episode serves as a sterling example of the Little Rascals at their best...not only the kids but the adult team of McGowan, Roach, and Walker. Their direction and writing are fantastic, and create humor that is enjoyable and timeless... 70 years later we still find ourselves in stitches watching the gang's adventures.

This episode features Dickie Moore and Stymie Beard, along with Spanky, Kendall McComas (Brisbane), and Dorothy (DeBorba)... The premise of the sick rich kid wanting to "rough it up a bit" with the "street urchins" is refreshing to this day...color of skin was no barrier. The taxi contraption is ingenious and hilarious to watch in action. Spanky provides priceless comic relief going up against the poor little monkey. In the end, every issue is resolved and it even seems Dickie's (rich kid) parents view Stymie (street urchin) as a hero! Look for Stymie's real-life mother in a brief cameo...

Could you imagine how much fun it would be if we could watch one of these shorts in a theater before the main attraction (instead of all the commercial advertising)like the old days? Imagine what a treat people who've never heard of this series would be in for!

This Hal Roach comedy short, Free Wheeling, is the one hundred seventeenth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the twenty-ninth talkie. This is also the first short to only have "Our Gang" as the series title with no "Hal Roach presents His Rascals" heading. It would remain this way for the rest of the series' theatrical run. (On television, however, the Hal Roach-produced talkie entries will be renamed "The Little Rascals" since only M-G-M owns the "Our Gang" title.) Dickie has been wearing a neck brace since, well, forever. The latest doctor says take it off and let him play with the rest of the gang but his over protective mother won't hear of it. When Stymie comes into Dickie's room, he lets him pay for a ride in the gang's mule-pushed taxi. He's not the only passenger on it, however-little Spanky and Jacquie also come along for the ride...This was another funny Our Gang comedy which climaxes with quite a thrilling ride though it's not too convincing since an obvious rear projection screen is used for the climax. No matter as there's enough humorous lines and scenes to keep one entertained throughout. So on that note, Free Wheeling is recommended.