Forgotten Babies

This is one of the all-time great "Our Gang" shorts. Spanky is at his very cutest and funniest, and the babies that he get's left to babysit are also hilarious. Tiny Spanky is coerced by the gang into watching all their little siblings. The opening shot of them all in baby carriages, being entertained by various things hung by the gang from fishing poles is a beautiful gag.

Spanky's appearance wearing his huge toy knife when asked to babysit by the older fellows is priceless, as is his response --"Hey, where do you get that stuff -- I don't take care of no babies!" The tiny fellow saying "remarkable" throughout the film, all the beautiful sight gags, and Spanky telling the babies "all about Tarzan" add up to make this one of the best "Our Gang"'s you'll ever see.

This is an unusual 'Our Gang' as it completely centers around Spanky McFarland. Luckily, he is one of the few 'rascals' who can handle the lone spotlight. The children he is supposed to babysit are little more than props in this one man show. Spanky's retelling of Tarzan is hilarious. What struck me most about his performance, especially his reactions to things, is the similarity to the work of fellow Roach actor Oliver Hardy. Spanky dealing with the babies reminds you of a small Hardy battling several young Laurels.

This is a really great short from Hal Roach. This is because of two main reasons: The littlest kids in the short are among the cutest to have ever been on film and the plot has so many funny and well-written elements.

As for the littlest of the Little Rascals, I honestly can't think of a cuter kid than Spanky at about age four. Despite being a rather chubby and unattractive kid in later years, he was just precious here. And, placing the little tiny boy in charge of babysitting the even younger kids was not only funny, but once again high on the cute factor.

After the older kids blackmail Spanky into doing this awful babysitting job, all kinds of funny mayhem breaks loose. The gags are pretty effective and well-done for the time--with an accidental crank call involving a murder and a final scene where Spanky FINALLY gets control of the little ones being the most memorable. I haven't seen these shorts in many decades and I am glad I gave this one a chance.

The greatest Our Gang short ever. 4 year old Spanky gets stuck babysitting with 6 toddlers - need I say more? It's nothing short of miraculous how Robert McGowan was able to get this on film. Included are scenes like a two-year-old standing on a table between two teetering towers of china, putting a china cup on one, watching it fall, then saying "Remarkable" on cue as the other one falls. This all in one take without any special effects or trick photography. Or how about Spanky's near-perfect retelling of a Tarzan movie, with one baby's random reaction of falling head-first off a chair and getting up unfazed. You couldn't film this today even if you had McGowan's genius. Remarkable!!

This Hal Roach comedy short, Forgotten Babies, is the one hundred twenty-first in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the thirty-third talkie. The gang-after temporarily watching their infant and toddler siblings outside-decide to go on their own for some play and leave Spanky-a toddler himself-to watch those little kids. They're all at his house while he spins his own Tarzan story but they're bored so the house becomes quite a mess! And it gets messier when a phone is off the hook while a mystery program is playing on the radio...This was a fine showcase for Spanky in not only doing a free-form monologue but also in his constant running around trying to take care of many kids not much younger than himself without losing control. Of note is the appearance of Spanky's actual younger brother, Tommy McFarland, jumping on the bed and wrecking it and also, Wheezer's younger sibling Dickie Hutchins being the one saying "Remarkable!" constantly! Oh, and this short also marked the first appearance of one Tommy Bond, years before becoming Butch! So on that note, I highly recommend Forgotten Babies.