Practical Jokers

Hal Roach is on record as stating he sold off the venerable Our Gang series to his distributor, MGM, in May, 1938 due to the shorts format being squeezed of the screen theatrically. Hmmm... the true story is vastly different. Roach became enamored with Benito Mussolini (going so far as to host Il Duce's son's 21 birthday bash) and announced plans to form a Mussolini-Roach film studio (for the ultimate irony see the trivia section for Quo Vadis) and distribution alliance in 1937. Oye! Roach's dalliance with Mediterranean fascism horrified MGM/Leow's Inc., his distributor. Oddly, MGM bought the series in 1938 and Roach made a hop, skip and possibly goose-step over to UA (I don't mean to imply Hal was a Nazi--- his studio was ground zero for U.S. training film production during WW2--- the guy just liked Mussolini on a personal level--- he kept a warmly signed photo of the dictator proudly on display at his home the rest of his life... but talk about a guy who can overlook a friend's character flaws). Back to Our Gang: The long running shorts had been in production since 1922 and Roach had seen the future as features enjoying big hits with Laurel & Hardy, Topper and (hugely) with 1-Million Years B.C. (the #1 film of 1940) along with the prestige production of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. His lone attempt at "featurizing" Our Gang failed miserably with the poorly conceived General Spanky (1936; lessee... put the Gang in the Civil War? Brilliant concept!) probably confirmed Roach's decision to sell the series off and sign a feature distribution deal with United Artists. Anyhow, Practical Jokers is the 6th MGM production (out of an eventual 52 entries) and marks the first sign that the studio was clueless as to comedy. This entry centers around the gang's plot to sabotage the evil Butch's birthday party with an improvised explosive device. Unfortunately they also let Alfalfa warble a song. Practically excruciating. Even more unfortunately, things would soon get even worse.

It's Our Gang. Butch had been playing practical jokes on the gang. Everybody is frustrated after being hit. They want revenge. They decide to sabotage Butch's birthday cake, but his mother has another surprise and derails their prank.

I like the simple premise and the kids. I like where the story goes and its resolution. It's a simple comedy short. Alfalfa's singing is endearing and funny. I would change it the ending a little. Alfalfa could be trying to get rid of the cake while the other kids want nothing to do with it. They would get into a shoving match. They do need to get rid of the table for that gag to work.

I don't think this is as bad as later MGM shorts. The kids still have their personality and seem very natural. The problem with this short is there doesn't seem to be anything IN it. Alfalfa and Spanky have revenge on practical-joking Butch by putting an explosive candle in his cake (which doesn't make THAT much of an explosion). That's it. A plot like this could take two minutes, but this takes ten, and pads out its running time by having Alfalfa (again) warble off-key for two minutes.

I did find some amusement in Tommy Bond's Durante impression, and Buckwheat's prank. So the short is not bad, not good, just not... anything. A basic time-killer.

You could do worse with your time, and you could do better.

This M-G-M comedy short, Practical Jokers, is the one hundred seventy-fifth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the eighty-seventh talkie. The gang has found out Butch has been playing pranks on them the last two weeks, so during his birthday party, Spanky puts a firecracker in his birthday cake. Unfortunately, Alfalfa has to carry said cake while singing his song...Most of the plot of this short was what I just described and not much happens that would be considered funny or worthy of even the 10 minute running time. And Alf's off-key singing is starting to really get irritating at this point. Still, it's a nice enough entry in the series and at least there's no lessons being preached yet. So Practical Jokers is worth a look for any Our Gang completists out there. P.S. The bully was previously identified in the series as Butch Rafferty or Butch McGann. Here, it's definitely Tommy "Butch" Bond as seen on a package for him.

Practical Jokers (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The gang discovers that Butch has been playing all sorts of jokes on them for two weeks so at his birthday party they come up with a way to get even. PRACTICAL JOKERS certainly isn't a masterpiece but considering how weak some of the earlier episodes were in this series, it's actually a breathe of fresh air. The film starts off with a couple nice jokes being played on the gang but things really pick up at the birthday party when they put a small stick of dynamite in Butch's birthday cake. What works so well during this sequence isn't that it's funny but that the thing is actually pretty dramatic because Alfalfa is forced to sing a song while holding the cake and you're just waiting to see what happens. In a good change of pace, the entire supporting cast are actually given something good to do and they help keep the film moving at a nice pace. This includes Buckwheat and Porky who get a couple nice scenes. Even Darla comes off pretty good here as she walks her baby cat around. And yes, Butch is every bit the bully that we've come to expect and manages to get some laughs.