Small Talk

This Hal Roach comedy short, Small Talk, is the eighty-ninth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the first talkie. Yes, this was the first time movie audiences heard Our Gang speaking lines. Many of their recent previous silents had sound effects but this one was full of them whether it's the children playing instruments, various animal sounds, or the alarms of police and fire fighters. As a result, one is amused if not laughing heartily. And the story-Wheezer is adopted by a rich woman but he misses his orphanage pals especially sister Mary Ann-is perhaps a bit too maudlin for a kids comedy. Still, because of its historical status, Small Talk is at the least, worth a look. By the way, on the DVD collection I saw this on, Richard W. Bann-co-author of "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang"-does a nice intro about the series. And now all the sound Hal Roach-produced series entries I'm reviewing-that I hadn't previously-will be from this disc collection.

With the coming of sound, Hal Roach Studios equipped their stages with sound equipment in early 1929. "Small Talk" probably went before the cameras in March and was released in May, while several previously filmed "Our Gang" silent comedies were still to be issued to theaters.

The story involves Wheezer being adopted by a wealthy woman of society, leaving his sister, Mary Ann, behind at the orphanage. The Gang decide to visit Wheezer, causing their usual brand of chaos and confusion before the happy ending with Pete the Pup singing at the piano.

"Small Talk" is a curio mostly because it is the first "Our Gang" talkie. However, the personalities of the individual members come through, and they give engaging performances. This being an early talkie, the young actors (and the adults, for that matter) have yet to master how to talk naturally on camera; but the kids are so likeable, the stilted dialogue is a minor annoyance.

If you have the Blackhawk video release of this film from 1984, you can see the boom mike stationed above the kitchen table in the opening scenes. Subsequent video releases appear to have been framed differently, and you cannot see the mike. Where to place the microphone in this transitional period was one of the main challenges of the early talkies.

6 out of 10.

Small Talk (1929)

** (out of 4)

The first "Our Gang" talkie has Weezer getting adopted by a wealthy family but they leave his sister behind. The group then decides to pay Weezer a visit and chaos follows. I must admit that I didn't care too much for this short due in large part to the technical side of things but I also found the screenplay to be quite tiresome. The biggest problem is that there really aren't too many laughs as the entire movie just seems to be setting itself up for the rather stupid ending. That wouldn't be a bad thing had there been more laughs but there are very few and the only one that comes to mind is when the five runaway children think they're going to be hung for it. Being an early talkie is another problem as none of the cast members, adult or kids, know how to work their performance for sound.

This early sound film was to turn out to be historic. It would commence a lengthy series of delightful and often hilarious short sound films called the Little Rascals series and afterwards the Our Gang series. The project was originated by the brilliant producer, Hal Roach. The opening credits of this film describe it as 'Hal Roach's Rascals' Voices'. The emphasis on the word 'voices' was because this was the first year of sound films. It is typical of Roach that the title of this film was an amusing pun, for as all the main characters were very small, their conversation must all be 'small talk'. Geddit? The Rascals films had originally started in the silent days of 1922. Six children appear in this first sound film, the characters Joe, Jean, Farina, Wheezer, Mary Ann, and Harry, along with Pete the Dog, and a talking parrot as well. And oh yes, some grownups appear too, but they don't count. Many of the characters later to be famous in the series, such as Buckwheat, Darla, and Alfalfa, do not yet appear. Indeed, Darla Hood who was to play Darla and Billie Thomas who was to play Buckwheat would both not even be born until two years after this film came out, and Alfalfa was at this time only two years old. Their chance would come later. In the meantime, there is plenty of fun to be had with the original cast of children for the commencement of the sound films. Joe Cobb who plays Joe is a very obese little boy (who despite that lived to be 85) who starts the film by doing what sounds like a Jimmy Cagney imitation. Jean Darling who plays Jean is a fey little blonde girl who would much later play Jane Eyre as a child in the 1934 film JANE EYRE and live to be 93. Allen Hoskins who plays the little black boy called Farina is the only member of the cast who had been in the Rascals films from the beginning in 1922, when he was only two years old. He therefore had a considerable amount of camera experience by this time, aged nine. Bobby Hutchins who plays Wheezer is adorable at the age of four. He would later be tragically killed in an Air Force plane crash in 1945, aged only 20. I am particularly keen on Wheezer because my wife and I once had a black Persian cat called alternatively Wheezer or Weeza. Mary Ann Jackson who plays Mary lived to be 80 but quit the screen in 1941, aged only 18. She had actually commenced her screen career aged 2 in a 1925 silent film and by the time she became a Hal Roach Rascal for the first time in 1928, in a film which was still a silent (SCHOOL BEGINS), she had already appeared in 23 short films. No wonder she retired early, as by the age of five she was already such a veteran, and she must have been exhausted (and when did she have time for school?) Harry Spear who plays Harry was eight years old and had commenced acting in silent films at the age of five and joined the Rascals at the age of six. He 'retired from the screen' at the age of nine in 1929, having during that year made eight Rascals sound films. He lived to be 84 but never appeared in films for the last 73 years of his life. As for Pete the Dog, his original name had been Pal. He began his film career in 1924 and died in 1946, having appeared in 95 films. Although in the Rascal's films, he later became Spanky's dog, in this film he is Wheezer and Mary's dog. His wonderful ability to be a straight man (sorry, dog) in scene after scene of the Rascals films, to pull pranks and be the butt of jokes, helped make the series so hilarious. In this film, he sits on a piano stool watching a player piano and wondering how it works, and then joins in by howling with it. He was a true star, never to be forgotten. As for the parrot in this film, he remains in the ignominy of oblivion, as his name is not recorded, though his comment: 'Give me a biscuit' is forever memorable. And as for the dead canary, he too is unnamed, but perhaps he inspired the famous Dead Parrot Sketch of the Monty Python team decades later. This film starts by showing the six children in a small house called Mr Brown's Children's Home. Later in the film it is referred to as an orphanage and also as an orphan asylum (the latter hardly being accurate, as the six children were the only orphans there). An affluent childless woman (played by Helen Eddy) comes to adopt little Wheezer, leaving behind Wheezer's older sister Mary. Mary cries and cries and the five remaining orphans all band together to track down Wheezer's new home and visit him. They arrive during a large social reception and climb into the house through an open window, along with Pete the Dog of course. All kinds of mayhem then ensues. It would spoil viewers' fun to say much more and describe the resolution of the separated siblings. This film runs for 25 minutes, far longer than the later Rascals films. It is a delight from start to finish. We cannot take our leave of this film without paying tribute to the inspired direction of this and other Rascals films, as well as Laurel and Hardy and other comedies, by Robert F. McGowan. He was an old pro who started directing in 1916 and made no less than 120 films in his lifetime (he died in 1955 aged 72), and essentially retired in 1940. Never again after the Little Rascals and Our Gang would humour with kids on screen rise so high.

Directors filming silent movies had the luxury of yelling instructions to their actors while the cameras were cranking away. Actors were taught to avoid eye contact with the directors while following their verbal guidance as the scenes played out. Rehearsals were conducted before filming, but when the directors noticed nuances needed corrections, they were there off frame barking their commands.

The Hal Roach series Our Gang consisted of children with little acting experience. The kids relied on their directors to guide them on the set since many of their scenes were improvised. When microphone recordings arrived, it became apparent these young actors required some extra preparations before they were comfortable speaking their dialogue. Our Gang's first talkie, and its 86th overall episode, was May 1929's "Small Talk."

The Robert McGowan co-written and directed plot involves Weezer as the lone gang member adopted from their orphanage. Weezer gets pretty lonely in his new digs. It's not long, however, when his friends leave the orphanage to visit him, causing all sorts of commotion.

The Rascals' first talking assignment was much more difficult for the veteran director McGowan than his silent efforts with the kids. They had trouble delivering their lines in a natural way. The twelve shooting days it took to make the 25-minute short, almost double the gang's normal production days, was largely due to the excessive retakes it took to get their lines delivered. As the production of each episode took place, the childhood actors eventually became comfortable talking in front of the camera.

Roach was able to spend the large amount of money to outfit his studio with expensive audio equipment by inking a new distribution contract with MGM after he ended his relationship with Pathe. The larger movie company not only gave Roach a more lucrative production budget, but the tie-in with MGM allowed Our Gang shorts to play in front of a greater amount of movie goers through the Loews' theater chain.