The Little Ranger

The western movie "Fearless Bill Rides Again" has the "Our Gang" kids lining up at the cinema, and in the mood to date. Nerdy-looking Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) wants to go with pretty little Darla Hood, but she only has eyes for bad-boy Butch (Tommy Bond). After they hook up, Alfalfa reluctantly pairs up with spectacled Muggsy (Shirley Coates). While watching the movie, Alfalfa imagines the little rascals are in the story. The sequence amusingly helps him learn a lesson about potential girlfriends. "The Little Ranger" was the first "Our Gang" comedy short released by MGM, the series' new studio. We've clearly lost some of the appealing scruffiness present in earlier Hal Roach productions, but this one scores high on storytelling points.

****** The Little Ranger (8/6/38) Gordon Douglas ~ Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer, Tommy Bond, Darla Hood, Shirley Coates

THE LITTLEST RANGER was the first Our Gang film to be produced by MGM, after years oof the studio distributing the series by producer Hal Roach. It also happens to be one of the best entries ever in the series and possibly the best of all the MGMs.

Alfalfa Switzer is waiting outside the movie theater for his "date" Darla Hood to show up with their movie pass. Lovestruck Mugsy (Shirley Coates), a taller and considerably less pretty girl than Darla, unsuccessfully begs Alfalfa to go in with her on her pass. Darla suddenly shows up with her new date, bully Butch (Tommy Bond), and they stride into the theatre, leaving Alfalfa to take up Mugsy's offer of using her pass.

The dueling duos sit next to each other and watch the cowboy picture; Alfalfa soon falls asleep in the middle of the cowboy's song and dreams it's he and Darla as the screen's western sweethearts in a neat editing segment that fades from the screen couple to Alfalfa and Darla in their roles, with Alfalfa doing one of his classic song manglings as he takes over the number. But their screen/dream happiness quickly ends when villain Butch appears on the scene with his gang, kidnapping Darla and tying up Alfalfa. Walking on to the scene, Mugsy discovers Alfalfa's predicament, and he tells her to alert sheriffs Buckwheat (Billie Thomas) and Porky (Eugene Lee) to meet him at Butch's hideout. Alas, Butch's gang ties up all three good guys and leaves them at the site with a lit dynamite keg.

This is a very cute and funny little picture and it's particularly delightful for film buffs to see a phenomenon of the era being portrayed on the screen- the 1930s/1940s B western afternoon movie matinee playing to a packed house of children.

THE LITTLE RANGER was the largest and best role in the series for child actress Shirley Coates; she was only in eight Our Gang episodes, usually in fairly small parts. Although she didn't have much luck with the series, Ms. Coates was one of its more fortunate cast members in real life, one of the few to live deep into her senior years and into the 21st century. Little flirt Darla Hood is adorable in bonnets and old-fashioned garb as the inner movie's heroine playing pint-sized Scarlett O'Hara. Darla was usually Alfalfa's official girlfriend; she did occasionally play the field in the series with Butch or Waldo and sometimes made love-struck Alfalfa jump through hoops; even her fans though will enjoy seeing the little coquette for once getting her comeuppance.

This was the first MGM OUR GANG, presented as a dream of Alfalfa's that places him in the old West fighting Butch for Darla's hand. It's pretty good. I cannot figure out why it isn't on video. It certainly belongs there much more than FARM HANDS, DON'T LIE, TIME OUT FOR LESSONS and some of the other masterpieces the copyright holders have chosen to give us on tape. In fact it doesn't even seem to play on TV, and they show most of the other (mostly inferior) entries all the time. It's bizarre.

Except for the bigger MGM production values (the film within the film) this plays very much like a typical "Little Rascals" film of Roach's. Alfalfa falls asleep in the movie theater and dreams he's a cowboy hero defending Darla's honor against Butch. Porky and Buckwheat have a funny scene as sheriffs who have a unique way of conquering the bad guys. Shirley Coates is also amusing as "Muggsy", the lovesick girl after Alfalfa's affections. She wasn't used nearly enough in these shorts.

Very amusing and charming; it's a shame they couldn't keep this up for too much longer. The kids, however, would grow up, and that would be that.

This M-G-M comedy short, The Little Ranger, is the one hundred seventieth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the eighty-second talkie. Since the series by this point was only credited as "Our Gang", that's the way I'm now referring them as. Alfalfa is waiting for Darla at the movies, ignoring Muggsy's (Shirley Coates) flirting with him at the box office. Darla arrives with Butch as both couples enter the theatre. While sitting down, Alf dreams he's the cowboy hero with Darla the leading lady, Butch the villain, and Porky and Buckwheat the sheriffs. Oh, and Muggsy is the other leading lady...With Gordon Douglas continuing as director of the series, The Little Ranger is a funny enough start for M-G-M's initial foray in taking over production of the shorts from Hal Roach Studios which would only make features from this point on and switch distribution to United Artists. Besides the heading during opening credits now saying "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents", the theme song is now a medley of "London Bridge is Falling Down" and "The Farmer in the Dell", and screenplay credits are printed for the first time in the series, the authors being Hal Law-who had been one of the gag writers in the HR entries-and Robert McGowan-not the director who helmed the silent and early talkie entries but his same-named nephew who previously helmed some late silent and early talkie ones as "Anthony Mack" though the senior one's middle name was Francis while this one is-well, it's the first name of his pseudonym. Most of the eps from now on are written by them. Oh, one more thing: the song Alf partly sings is "A Melody from the Sky" which was first played in the feature The Trail of the Lonesome Pine which featured Spanky McFarland-who was still absent from this series at this point. Spank hummed this tune in that picture. So on that note, The Little Ranger was a nice start for M-G-M's run of the series.

Personal note: These were my first exposure to the Our Gang series during the mid-'70s when Buckskin Bill showed them on his weekday morning "Storyland" program or his daily afternoon "The Buckskin Bill Show". Me and my brother remember enjoying them as kids as we didn't know about the way some were presented as lessons as differed from those that weren't. But we'd soon find out when a rival station ran the earlier Hal Roach talkie entries...