Benjamin Franklin, Jr.

This M-G-M comedy short, Benjamin Franklin, Jr., is the two hundred twelfth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred twenty-fourth talkie. Mickey's been reading "Poor Richard's Almanac" so when he arrives late at the clubhouse meeting where the audience has been complaining about the war shortages, he and the rest of the gang have been picked to decide what to do about them. So they present a play with Mickey as Ben Franklin, the author of that book he's been reading. Well, this was probably the worst of the teach-a-lesson eps of this long-running series made even worse by the acting performances now that leader Spanky was gone. The acting was really just atrocious with Janet, in particular, just obnoxiously annoying. So that's not a recommendation of Benjamin Franklin, Jr. P.S. Barbara Bedford, previously Alfalfa's mother in the M-G-M-only entries, is now Janet's. And Froggy's brother, Mickey Laughlin, makes his series debut as Happy.

I've been a huge Our Gang fan since childhood, and at 47 years of age, I still am. Some of their films are small masterpieces of comedy. But by 1943 when this short was cranked out, all the elements that made the series a success had long been abandoned. More than just embarrassingly unfunny, this short is sad to watch. Making wartime sacrifices isn't a humorous subject to begin with, and throwing in uninspired writing and dreadfully delivered dialog from the kids is just sickening to watch. It's hard to fathom why the powers at MGM would allow this classic series to degenerate into trash like this! You can't even classify this in the "it's so bad it's good" category! This is again, nothing but sad.

This MGM Our Gang short is so bad, it's good. Mickey "Baretta" Gubitosi is home reading Poor Richard's Almanac, which inspires him to such a great length that he'll dress up in a Dee Snider wig and a frock coat to lecture the rest of the kids (and "the Our Gang," as the four main characters are known) on how similar the American Revolution and the current war are.

Huh? Yes, this is MGM lecturing America again, but completely ineptly. I sincerely wonder how much a rubber mouse is going to help the war effort. Poor Buckwheat can't get more than two teaspoons of sugar in his oatmeal because sugar is being rationed. (The war is making you healthy, America.) And frankly, because none of the kids can act (even poor Buckwheat's gone downhill) I can't even make out WHAT the relevance of the play is supposed to be. Remember, Hitler and Tojo are best defeated by INCOHERENT SHORT SUBJECTS, so do your part!

This is one of the few times I agree wholeheartedly with film critic Leonard Maltin. This film "is so bad, it's embarrassing."

I'm not even sure if one can accurately call this short a comedy. There's one faintly comic scene. When Froggy is forced to wear a moon patch on his ripped pants, he gets "razzed" for it.

Otherwise, this film isn't funny at all. So what went wrong?

First of all, the story itself isn't comically inspiring. All the kids are loudly and obnoxiously whining about war-time sacrifices, and they spend the whole first half of the film doing it. Then the Gang tries to boost morale by putting on a play (how original!) where Mickey dresses as Benjamin Franklin to give a work-hard-for-what-little-you-can-get pep talk. Does this sound funny to anybody yet?

My theory is that Spanky's exit affected the brains of the writers, and the result was this piece of garbage!