Forgotten Babies

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 "Our Gang" short Forgotten Babies serves as a fascinating timestamp of the lack of Department of Child and Family Services' involvement on film sets, specifically for very young toddlers. The Little Rascals is a show that could never pass on today's Television, given all the outlandish stunts and dangers they included; this explains why the modern-day equivalent program, Nickelodeon's Rugrats, is animated.

Forgotten Babies is one of the most excessive displays of child endangerment I've yet to see, yet considering the time the short was made, this is hardly a surprise. Actors, particularly children and animals, didn't have the kind of rampant, around-the-clock protection like they do today, and one can just watch a short like this and quietly hope more fun was had than actual pain. The plot concerns the gang of tykes, all of whom stuck babysitting when they want to go to the local swimming pool and soak up the nice day. As a result, the gang looks towards Spanky (George McFarland) to babysit their younger infant siblings, to which he accepts.

Spanky, who himself is a toddler just like them, isn't fit to watch five children at once, so when his decision to tell them the story of Tarzan fails, he must try and stop the children from going around the home and breaking things. While one is sliding down the stairs on a pillow cushion, one is making the Leaning Tower of Pisa with fine China and another is jumping on the bed so violently the bedboard cracks and subsequently damages the floor. It's maddening chaos and Spanky runs breathlessly, tripping over his stout legs, in order to try and stop all the commotion from occurring.

Forgotten Babies is built on simple laughs and pleasures, revolving around the common, early-cinematic convention of "house-breaking," where a home is fully intact at the beginning of a short before being completely desecrated in the end. This one reminds me of Laurel and Hardy's Big Business short from 1929, involving Laurel and Hardy completely desecrating a homeowner's new home, albeit to a far greater extent than the rascals do here. Nonetheless, this short is fun because it's more-or-less a showcase of changing times and how amazingly unrestricted children were in the realm of being reckless before us for the sake of good comedy.

Directed by: Robert F. McGowan.

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.

My Mom was the baby that was glued to the floor. Murlen Christine Powers. Her name was derived from the first parts of the names of her parents - Muriel and Leonard Powers.

My guess as to why she was in the short, is that her Father (my Grandfather) was one of the early cameramen in Hollywood. He had worked with Hal Roach.

My Mom went on to become a singer, and later net my Father, John Charles Scribner.

Mom actually passed away, from Cancer and a heart attack, in a hospital in Lancaster, CA.

Her name, when she passed was Christine Murlen Poplawski. She is buried in the California City Cemetery.

JohnScribner. (Son)

This is probably the best episode made. The story that Spanky tells is timeless humor. To this day December 2021 I still don't know what he's saying but it's hilarious.