Our Gang

I've actually seen this film (or at least all that currently exists of it). It's pretty funny. After a few amusing bits involving a boy trying to win over Mary Jane's love through chivalry and Ernie (Sunshine Sammy) Morrison's efforts to find clothes while his mother washes what appears to be his only wardrobe, we get into the storyline about Mary Jane's mother's store being threatened by a crooked businessman.

There is a good deal of funny stuff in the film. A really clever gag involves the kids putting dental cream on the dog's mouths and yelling "Mad dog" to cause people to faint and land in a wheelchair so Sammy could wheel them into Mary Jane's mother's store (not to be confused with Mary Kornman). However, the 12 minutes that survives of the film does not leave you missing what's left. It tells a good story on its own so we could be thankful for what remains. Judging from this, Our Gang was off to a great start.

Although there was no Freckles officially, many people called Mickey Daniels Freckles also Joe Cobb was called Fatty unofficially. This added to confusion of the actual characters. A number of individuals claimed to have been certain characters that did not exist such as smelly, fatso etc.

I'd just like to comment that THERE NEVER WAS A FRECKLES ON OUR GANG!!! I have the book and it states clearly that there was never a Freckles. But other than that I loved the Little Rascals and I own 21 volumes of their movies. I also have some of the rare old silent Little Rascals and they are the best! Kudos to Hal Roach and the rest of the gang for bringing entertainment to my home!

After reading the review in Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann's 1992 "Little Rascals" book of this very first "Our Gang" film, I can only hope someone will locate and restore the film, and ultimately put it on DVD. It sounds like "Our Gang" at its best and funniest (I wonder what that surviving fragment of "Our Gang" Maltin and Bann cited was like?). For that matter, it would be nice to see some of these early silents, period, since some of them were the "blueprints" for the more commonly seen (sound) episodes. I wonder what kind of "show" the kids and their pets put on to win the widow's much-needed business? Maybe a makeshift circus?....

An earlier comment by suzyq19651 asked who Robert Blake played as a member of Our Gang. Robert Blake did not appear in the group of shorts commonly referred to as The Little Rascals, with such as Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky and Darla. Blake appeared later on after Hal Roach sold his franchise to MGM. MGM recast the series with a group of younger children, although Spanky did appear in some of these as an older and much larger fellow. Blake was a member of this later group and played the character of Mickey Gubitosi, which was his actual birth name. This was in keeping with the Our Gang format in which most characters used their real names, though usually with a nickname such as Spanky or Butch. Froggy was also a part of this later group, which as a group simply did not measure up to prior ones.