Lazy Days

This is the third Little Rascals sound film, and it is wonderfully whimsical and amusing. The cast has expanded for this one, both of children and of animals. The film opens with Farina lying prostrate with heat and laziness in a makeshift rocking chair in a small farmyard. He has acquired a friend, a little black girl from next door, whose name is Trellis, played by the six year-old actress Jannie Hoskins. She started appearing in films as a one year-old infant. She had appeared in 22 Little Rascals silent films before this, under three different names: Mango, Arnica, and Zuccini. (Her real life nickname was Zuchini, known in France and Britain as a courgette.) After this, she would appear in only one more Little Rascals film, six years later, TEACHER'S BEAU (1935), and then she would retire from the screen at the great age of 12. (She lived to be 72.) Here, she is rushing back and forth fetching things for the lazy Farina and tending to him as he keeps asking her to do things for him because he is too lazy to get up. Finally, when she refuses one thing, he drolly states: ' Then I ain't gonna marry you when I get big.' The animal cast includes a goat, a donkey, a cat, Pete the Dog (who rocks a baby in a cradle by running back and forth in an ingenious device), hens and chicks, a rooster prostrated with heat, and even a pet monkey belonging to a neighbour. Oh yes, and I must not forget to mention the most important zoological star of all in this film, a bee, whose main interest in life seems to be threatening to sting the Little Rascals. After the extended scenes between Farina and Trellis, we see Joe reading a circular for a 'grand baby contest', and he decides that he and the rest of the gang will take their baby brothers and sisters to enter the contest for Most Beautiful Baby, Fattest Baby, Biggest Baby, etc., and win lots of money for the prizes. However, there are not enough babies, so they fabricate two of them. Mary dresses up three year-old Wheezer as a baby, and Joe stuffs Chubby into large baby clothes to try for the prize of Fattest Baby. Off they go, pushing all their real and pretend babies in prams. Farina's pram collapses on the way and he goes to lie down in the shade of a large tree. He comforts himself by saying hat he would only have won a quarter (25 cents) anyway, then pulls one out of his pocket, and says: 'I've got a quarter anyway, and I'm too lazy even to spend this one.' Farina's baby brother, Thermos, is played by Junior Allen, who is a genuine infant in a cot. He never appears in any other film, so that this is the only time we see him. In preparing him for the contest, Farina had given him a bath in a zinc tub in the yard, fetching the water from a filthy duck pool. A frog appears in the tub and squirts water in Farina's face several times. As usual, the Little Rascals engage in complete childish anarchy. What fun! Robert F. McGowan directs, as always.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Lazy Days, is the ninety-second in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the fourth talkie. It begins with Farina just laying under the tree with sis Janine doing his every command. Oh, and Pete the Pup also serves a function here: he runs back and forth in some kind of see-saw contraption which not only swings Farina's hammock but also his baby brother's rocking bed! Elsewhere, the rest of the gang discover a baby contest notice and Joe decides to pass Chubby off as the "fattest baby" (Joe should be familiar with that one as he himself was passed off as such in the silent Cradle Robbers). I'll stop there and just say this was one of the most dreary of the early Our Gang talkies-despite some of what I just described-with a slow pace throughout. So on that note, Lazy Days is only worth a look once.

Lazy Days (1929)

BOMB (out of 4)

The gang is sitting around bored out of their minds until Joe sees that a baby contest is being held. The gang gather up their younger brothers and sisters and enter the contest. This third short from the gang is without a doubt the worst I've seen and I might even take it further by saying this is one of the worst films ever made. I didn't find the previous two shorts funny but this one here is just beyond bad in its attempt for humor. I should restate that because there's really no attempt at humor because it appears the screenwriters found torturing a baby to be funny. There's a sequence where Farina has to give his baby brother a bath and as soon as the baby is put into the tub he starts screaming and crying in terror. Do they cut the scene? No they make it worst by putting water on him and then dragging him around the rest of the film. Screaming and crying is the baby the entire time. Is the torturing of this kid funny in 1929 because it's happening to a black kid? I'm really not sure where to stand on the racial issues of this back in 1929 but the scene is incredibly ugly and brutal and to me ranks as one of the nastiest things I've seen in any movie. Even without this scene the movie wouldn't fair any better as the jokes are lame (Chubby as a baby) and the film drawn out.

This was a slow moving short picture. The general theme is lazy days of summer, but the film just plods along. It was only okay. There were some scenes that should have changed that could have helped the film along. The crying baby was annoying and the director should have reassured the baby so that the child wouldn't be crying so much. I'm sure a parent was on the site so the dad or mom was likely there to have assisted. Farina got the most screen time and did okay with what he was given. All the kids just had to do was act out being tired in the hot summer day and it made you tired watching it. The contraption that the Farina family invented for rocking the baby, rocking Farina, fanning Farina and playing music was clever.

One part was fun to see. In the background of the last quarter of the film, the kids are out near a public area and fairly close to a regular gas station and street and you can see the traffic going by. It was nice to see all the old autos and trucks going about their business unawares as this was being filmed on the next block. That road is probably a big 6 lane road now.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

It's LAZY DAYS for Farina, who is so tired laying in the shade that the least amount of effort is a bother to him. Only Fat Joe Cobb's plan to make money by entering the Gang's younger siblings in a baby contest can get Farina on his feet.

An amusing little film, with some good laughs. Chubby makes a unique 'baby', to say the least. Highlight: Farina washing his little brother, with help from a bee, frog & monkey.