It's a Bear

It's a Bear (1924)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This Our Gang short is better than average but there still aren't enough laughs to make it a complete success. The story is pretty simple as the kids pretend to be hunting a variety of animals when they're invited to a farm where they try to capture real game. This gets boring after a while so they decide to try and track a bear but soon it's the bear stalking them. This Hal Roach comedy only contains a few laughs but there are a few notable scenes in its 20-minute running time. The highlight of the film has to be a scene where the kids are playing with a bow and arrow when a farm hand gets poked a couple times and goes after Joe who was the last one with it. Joe also has another memorable moment in a non-PC way. He looks up to one of the adults at the farm who just happens to be smoking a cigarette. Later in the film Joe tries to imitate him by smoking a cigarette and ends up getting sick from it. The final five-minutes is when the bear finally joins the action and this here features a lot of running around by the kids as they try to avoid the small creature. Joe and Farina get a couple good scenes here but just don't expect many big laughs.

Well, you're not, when Our Gang visits a farm and encounters not one bear, but two.... a man in a bear costume to give them a fright, and a real bear that wants the wild honey the kids locate.

That's the central issue of this entry in the long-running series, but there's plenty of room for miscellaneous gags, like Joe Cobb being impressed by a farmhand who rolls his own, and tries it himself, and Ernie Morrison telling Farina to "act like a lady"..... another in the long series of gender identity issues that the character has. Another in the examples of why the series was so popular for so long, and still a lot of fun.

This Hal Roach comedy short, It's a Bear, is the twenty-seventh in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. The gang go to the woods to hunt game. But first, Mickey is delivering some milk with his dog carrying the bottles as well as accepting pay. Jackie pretends to hunt with his friend Dick playing the animals. Ernie has his bow and arrow with Farina carrying the rest of the equipment. Joe has been practicing his shooting while a blacksmith nearby pounds on his anvil which may have fooled Joe into thinking he's shot some a few times. I'll stop there and just say that I found quite a few funny scenes in this short but this short takes its own sweet time in presenting those jokes. So on that note, I recommend It's a Bear. P.S. Dick was played by an 18-year-old little person.

Joe shooting everything with an air gun.

Mickey delivering milk with dog smokin' joe mickey's farm.

Guy in bear suit and real bear.

"It's a Bear" is a silent Our Gang comedy that was remade as "Bear Shooters" during the talking era.

When the story begins, Joe has an air rifle and is pretty much shooting everyone and everything around him. After shooting Mickey's horse, he and the other kids are invited out to Mickey's farm so they can shoot some wild animals. Unfortunately, eventually a REAL bear shows up* and the boys seem to have gone after big game that is just too big!

Like so many of the silent Our Gang comedies, these kids are no angels. Joe is a budding sociopath and the others all are a bit bloodthirsty! Still, it's all good fun...especially when the bear shows. No major laughs but enjoyable nonsense.

*In some scenes, they obviously are using a real black bear. In others, it's obviously some guy in a bear suit!