One Terrible Day

This is the fourth in the silent 'Our Gang' series which was produced by Hal Roach and supervised by Charles Parrott. The question I have to ask myself is how much of an impact did these guys have on an English audience in the mid-1980's? Was this the reason why 80's children grew up liking all things American?

The public knows them today as The Little Rascals. But until producer Hal Roach sold the package of his popular movie series on a group of rambunctious kids to television, the shorts were simply called "Our Gang." From 1922 until its conclusion in 1944 involving a revolving door of childhood actors, the "Our Gang" series was one of Hollywood's more successful and financial profitable enterprises. And it all began when Roach was sitting in his office across from a lumber yard watching several children battle each other over the largest stick. He had just auditioned a girl for an upcoming film he felt was too prepared and wearing heavy make-up, one of the many artificial children he had worked with throughout his movie career.

The contrast between the fighting and laughing kids outside and those he worked with inside the film studios was too stark to ignore. He had a lightning bulb moment to produce a series displaying happy and normal kids being themselves. Roach at first thought a combination of 'kids-and-pets' would be ideal, but once seeing one studio director's effort, he turned to a former Denver fireman-turned director who he knew was great with children to reshape the pilot film. The producer liked what he saw come out of director Robert McGowan's editing room. Roach, seeing McGowan's magic, proceeded to make three more two-reelers over the summer to show at local Los Angeles movie theaters to get both audience members' and film critics' assessments. The reception was very positive.

Roach selected the best of the four films and released "One Terrible Day" in September 1922 nationwide. The initial cast of kids included some of Roach studio employees' and family friends' children. The selected premier was perfect in its frenetic display of the gang's mischievous activity. A socialite decides to sponsor a picnic at the park for what started out as five boys, expanding as she and her chauffeur were ready to leave her house in a car. Mayhem ensues, especially with a pet monkey and a golden retriever running amok.

This is a rather charming and amusing little story of a rich lady who takes the original Our Gang kids to a picnic near a farm. Filled with the expected scenes of the gang making a mess of things, this film is also filled with charming moments. The rich lady's pet monkey is the source for a lot of good gags, but there are several moments where the "plot" (slim as it is) stops to linger on the gang playing with a spare tire, horsing around with the animals on the farm (including Farina's encounter with some geese), a quickly thwarted bullfight ("we Spaniards are Hot-blooded" says Mickey Daniels), and the gang gleefully throwing each other in a water fountain. These moments are not chock-full of knee-slapping guffaws, but they are wonderful to watch because they show the gang doing what kids SHOULD do- playing outdoors, using their imagination, and enjoying their childhoods. Too bad this is seldom seen or done today. This was the 4th Our Gang comedy made, but the first to be released to the public. Good choice.

Perhaps it's the poor video quality of the print that can be seen on Youtube, but there are many far better Our Gang films out there. H.M. Walker's titles are great, as usual, and the kids are fun to watch. Mickey Daniels exudes his usual enthusiasm, Jackie Condon is perfect as usual in the role of the unwanted tagalong, and Farina is cute as the toddler fascinated with geese. But there aren't many jokes here, just cute goings-on. Perhaps some frames are missing from the print I saw; the timing of many of the gags was thrown off by poor splicing (I'm sure that the original film was not edited so haphazardly). I'm just guessing, but my guess is that at this point, the producers knew they had struck gold, but hadn't quite figured out the best way to present these kids to the public.

This Hal Roach comedy short, One Terrible Day, is the fourth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. It's also the first to see general release. It couldn't have been a more suitable outing to start this classic comedy series with the public as it's the one of the first four that fully uses the kids as the source of trouble with their adult superiors, rich society types in particular. In this one, a society woman-in wanting to one-up a rival who had a nice time with her invited kids-ends up having Our Gang for a picnic. What could go wrong? Well, everything as she has to contend not only with them but a big dog, a monkey, and some stowaway kids who weren't invited. Oh, and wait till you see how they mess up the back yard with various geese, horses, a "bull", and the water fountain! I'll just say that this was quite an early hilarious outing for Our Gang with special mention going to Mickey Daniels, Ernie "Booker T. Bacon" Morrison, Jackie Condon, and Allen "Farina" Hoskins keeping one in stitches throughout. So on that note, I highly recommend One Terrible Day.