Seein' Things

Seein' Things (1924)

** (out of 4)

Here's yet another rather weak Our Gang short, although this one here is certainly worth viewing if you like strange movies. At the start we learn that Farina is suffering nightmares each time he eats meat. His mom tells him to stay away from the stuff but he loves it so much he sneaks out of the house and ends up eating several chickens. That night she puts him to bed and sure enough he begins to have nightmares that the other kids are chasing him. Basing a kids comedy around one kid having nightmares and being stalked by other kids might seem rather bizarre but this was 1924 we're talking about. I can't say I enjoyed this film since it didn't once make me laugh but at the same time it's simply so bizarre that you can't help keep your eyes glued to your television just wondering where it's going to go next. The first fifteen-minutes are rather bland without much going on but the ending is when things really start to pick up. You can tell that Hal Roach was trying to capture the Harold Lloyd style of "thrill" comedies because a lot of the action has Farina hanging off the side of a building or in danger of falling. None of it comes close to what Lloyd was able to do because of how fake the effects look. Other strange things have Farina at the bottom of the ocean with a large fish.

"Seein' Things" is an unusual Our Gang comedy because most of the short stars one of the kids, tiny Farina. However, oddly, at one point they called Farina a girl (common in many early films) and yet he dressed like a boy throughout...and sported a tux in the funny dream sequence.

When the story begins, the kids are making a barbecue. When Farina sees it, he/she is hungry and expects to eat, too. But the other kids are mean and shoo him away...and he ruins their barbecue out of spite. The other kids give chase but Farina hides in the back of a truck. Soon the truck leaves and accidentally dumps Farina AND a lot of food out of the back. Farina tries to call to the driver but he can't hear him, so Farina is forced to eat all the food! Soon, his stomach is HUGE and he waddles home.

Unfortunately, eating all that food causes Farina to have a nightmare...and that is when the film REALLY gets good! At first, the other kids are all giants and they chase him about a tiny set. Later, the film becomes a parody of Harold Lloyd's famous "Safety Last" and Farina is chased up the side of a skyscraper....and the gang give chase. What's next? See the film.

THe dream sequence is marvelous....funny, well done and clever. I also suspect the guy who pushes the plunger to detonate the dynamite is either Charley Chase or his brother, Paul Parrot (they both looked VERY similar and both worked for Hal Roach). Well worth your time and cute.

This 1924 which gave a rare opportunity for the African Americans in the Our Gang cast to have an episode almost to themselves. Farina is at one and the same time in trouble with the gang (even brother Ernie) who chase her away from their barb-b-q and with her mother (alas we do not seem to know who the actress was) for eating too much meat which is giving her nightmares (strictly Farina is supposed to be a girl though played of course by a boy). Then, as a sort of pre-vision of the dream sequence to come, we have an elegant dance performance in the street in top hat and tails by Ernest Morrison Sr. which will later be replayed with Hoskins/Farina as the top-hatted dancer with Ernie's sister Dorothy as the female interest.

The dream itself comes a little later after Farina has consumed the contents of several picnic-hampers that have fallen from a lorry.

The other part of the dream has Farina being chased by giant versions of the gang (all dressed as cooks as they are at the bar-b-q) and a chase across the rooftops which provides a delightful spoof-version of the supposed "daredevil" antics that by this time absolutely all comedians (even Snooky the chimp) were engaging in and had been started back in 1918 by Larry Semon rather than by Harold Lloyd even if the later played an important role in popularising them) Altogether a charming piece of surreal fantasy with a certain poetry to it (increasingly, as he got older, Hoskins' role in the series) rather different from the usual slapstick and which Hoskins carries off with great poise and style right up to the splendid punch-line.

It wasn't eating a whole ham that gave Farina nightmares about a bear. It was eating the canvas it came wrapped in. Now a carnivore, Farina shoves away mush and goes in search of more hearty fare. After eating a whole chicken and five pounds of butter, he (or she) has nightmares like you wouldn't believe.

Alan Hoskins, who played Farina in more than 200 episodes of Our Gang, was born in 1920, so he was pretty young when this came out. He was also Hal Roach's personal favorite of the kids, because he was a natural comic. His last contract with Roach called for him to receive a princely $350 a week, far more than the others. After he grew too old for the series, he tried to get other work, but there wasn't much call for him. During the Second World War, he joined the Army and eventually became a sergeant. Later, he moved to North Carolina, married, and worked in rehabilitation. As he explained, "I preferred a job where I could eat regular."

Not like this movie! Alan 'Farina' Hoskins died in 1980, a couple of weeks shy of his 60th birthday.