Alfalfa's Aunt

Alfalfa's Aunt (1939)

*** (out of 4)

The seventh film in the MGM-Our Gang series turns out to be the best one so far. Alfalfa's aunt (Marie Blake) comes over for her yearly visit, which doesn't sit too well with the kid's father but there's nothing they can do. It turns out that the aunt is writing a murder-mystery but using the family member's real names. When Alfalfa reads a page about the aunt murdering him, he thinks it's real and calls the gang to help him. This here is so much better than the previous films in the series and it makes you wonder why better stories weren't created for the previous ones. If anything ALFALFA'S AUNT makes you realize that the studio could have produced much better material for the kids had they simply put more effort into it. There are many funny jokes here but the great stuff happens towards the end once the boys are running around and trying to prevent the aunt from murdering Alfalfa. There's a hilarious joke involving a statue of Alfalfa and the father even gets some pretty funny lines earlier in the picture. Blake also deserves a lot of credit as she manages to get some big laughs out of the aunt who certainly not all there in the head. It seems most Our Gang fans hate these MGM shorts but I read several reviews stating that this here is one of the best and it certainly seems like it.