Mike Fright

....the man working the sound room! How come nobody mentioned the man who's hat keeps flying off every time one of the Gang causes a blown circuit. I'm no technical expert, so I'm not sure what problems the Rascals actually cause, but damn it's great stuff! The look on his face and that head of hair! This episode probably gets more laughs out of me than most (and that's saying a lot). The Gang is at their best, and all the great character actors involved work so well together. Hal Roach was a magician who's comedy, no matter how slapstick it was, still attained a gentle touch. This stuff is good clean harmless fun that will always stand the test of time. How often can one say that?

That's what the gang has put together, a make shift, bizarre band of instruments and gadgets that competes against some other kids in an amateur radio show contest. Hal Roach favorite James C. Morton is a hoot as the befuddled MC. This is a truly fun episode as the kids strut their stuff, hoping to get their big break on the airwaves. There's lots of singing and dancing and you can tell they had a terrific time putting this all together. Best line: "Lemons are good for freckles!" Watch the crazy radio engineer who resembles Larry from THE THREE STOOGES! What made OUR GANG/ THE LITTLE RASCALS a classic series.

In 'Mike Fright' Spanky, Stymie and gang try to get on a radio amateur show as The International Silver String Submarine Band. They compete against a variety of different children, all groomed to perfection by unseen stage mothers. One has to think that 'Mike Fright' was, in a way, Hal Roach's revenge. One can only imagine the countless stage mother's and obnoxious children he had to deal with. Of course, the kids Roach made a part of his gang were not these kind of primped and polished little munchkins. He always went for just plain kids who loved to have fun. That's what makes the Our Gang shorts so great. Seeing the gang up against their exact opposites in this short makes for some great comedy. My favorite scene features Tommy Bond and Alvin Buckelew sabotaging Leonard Kibrick's trumpet performance by eating a lemon. Interesting to note that Bond and Kibrick would be partner's in crime as Butch and The Woim in later Our Gang Shorts.

In my opinion, it is not so much that the rascals are in some competition with slick little performers, but as is pointed out in the film, a young dancer who is dressed in a suit, and has fancy moves, in how he may sway his arms in time with a beat when he dances, which are strictly visual, cannot possibly be appreciated by a radio audience. The same is true of cute little girls dressed up in Hawaiian outfits, who are winking on cue while they dance the hula in a procession around the sound stage. That would mean nothing to a radio listener who can't see what is going on, which makes the whole idea of the non-"our gang" participants so funny; not that they are slick or perfect while the gang is not, but that the gang had prepared a song to perform, and performed it well, which is what a radio listener can really appreciate, no matter how the performer is dressed, rag tag or not, and no matter what their instruments look like, which to a radio audience, can't possibly matter. Not realizing this, (as Maltin didn't either, according to his spoken review of this film on the newly released video), Spanky throws his arms up and declares, "Well, that's that!" thinking the gang lost the contest to a dancer before the gang even tried out. But the joke is, while the dancer was very good, who can see a dancer on their radio? This is why the more visual acts were a "fright" for the "mike" (or microphone). A radio microphone only picks up sound. The gag or joke is not slick kids compared to our rag tag heroes, but the content of the act being suitable to radio, which only the rascals got right, despite their appearance. Now that's funny! It seems that Hal Roach pulled the wool over quite a few eyes when making this film. The highlight in "Mike Fright" for me, is the rare, early appearance, in fact his first, of one of Hollywood's most talented young stars of the 30's and early 40's, Billy Lee, who, at age 4, does quite an impressive tap routine for his age.

This is not one of the deeper Our Gang comedies--and that's not necessarily that a bad thing. So, despite having a rather simple plot, it's full of the sorts of shenanigans you'd expect from such a film.

Tommy (Tommy Bond--who later played the villainous 'Butch' in the Our Gang comedies) is going to the local radio station to participate in a talent contest. He tells the gang and they decide to participate as well--even though they don't seem to have any discernible talent. At the studio, the kids pretty much make a mess of things and end up destroying the show AND the sound man's ears! None of it is especially plot-driven--just lots of gags thrown in rather randomly. Enjoyable and undemanding--while it's not one of the best films (I think many of the early ones are better), it's worth seeing.