The Big Premiere

After thoroughly disrupting the opening of a new Hollywood movie, the Gang decides to make their own film, The Misterryus Mistery. At THE BIG PREMIERE, with the neighbor kids in attendance, cinematic chaos ensues...

Few real laughs in this otherwise innocuous little film. Made after MGM got direct control of the Gang, and with the kids themselves noticeably growing up, it bears scant resemblance to the Rascals' classics of yesteryear.

Spanky, Mickey, Buckwheat, Alfalfa and Darla are chased out of a movie premiere through some not-terribly-adept slapstick. Undeterred, they shoot their own movie with Waldo's camera and make a premiere of their own.

It's like they have all the elements of a good comedy but the pacing is all off. Buckwheat tries to put his feet in cement and ends up stuck. While this has the possibility for amusing consequences, it just lays there as a joke. The kids' movie itself is somewhat amusing, as the kids combine Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe and Cinderella into an incomprehensible story, and Robert Blake is actually cute when he isn't shoving kids aside to stay on camera. The kids' acting is also not as forced, but it certainly isn't as natural as it used to be. And the punchline, though not great, is acceptable. So it's not a complete waste of time, but no one could ever point to it as a how-to of comedy.

It's nice to see the Gang on familiar grounds: seeing a real-life event with adults, and then trying to imitate it. It worked in "Robot Wrecks," and to a certain extent, it works in this short.

Just as in the adult premiere, several of the Gang members proudly make their entrance in the "big premiere" the kids plan. Buckwheat even tries to make "star footprints" by stepping into some gloppy cement which dries instantly ("Hey, I'm stuck!") What's rather funny is how he begins to doze off...which his feet still in the hard cement!

As for the movie the Gang makes, it's slightly funny at best...though there is one particularly amusing scene in which Darla proclaims, "Here comes my hero now, isn't he handsome?" expecting Alfalfa to enter on cue; instead, an errant goat wanders onto the set!

Finally, this short relies on the can't-miss gimmick of Alfalfa's unforgettably bad singing. This would be an otherwise ordinary scene, except that a hen roosted above, drops an egg in Alfalfa's mouth. After he swallows it, "cheep cheep" is heard through the rest of his song, followed by an animated chick coming out of his mouth. Probably one of the most ingenious comic scenes MGM delivered in an Our Gang film.

One of the few MGM shorts worth watching more than once!

Maybe I've been living in ignorance for decades, but I never knew an "Our Gang" short was the origin/genesis for the "Where's Waldo" craze or fad or what you will. But here he is, complete with striped shirt and round horn-rimmed glasses!

The Big Premiere (1940)

** (out of 4)

The gang travels to a big movie premiere where they see a famous actresses getting to put her feet in concrete so that future generations will be able to see it. The kids decide that they want to have their own premiere but first they need to make a movie. THE BIG PREMIERE pretty much re-works an earlier Our Gang picture and while there are a couple cute moments here you still have to consider this another disappointment for the MGM series. I think the film works best when the kids are at the real premiere and keep pestering a cop who doesn't have all the answers that they're wanting. This includes a cowboy star showing up at the premiere but without his horse. The second half of the picture has the kids inviting the neighborhood over so that they can see the movie and in order for there to be sound, the kids must stand behind the screen and speak the parts. Again, there are a couple funny moments here but the overall feel of the film is pretty weak as there's just never any real energy to pick things up. It's too bad because this material could have been handled much better.