Our Gang Follies of 1938

Alfalfa tries to get a recording contract with an honest to goodness company. The adults there have fun with him and give him a contract--for 20 years in the future! Alfalfa thinks this means he'll be a star and soon dreams of great fame--singing songs like "The Barber of Seville" and the like. And, interestingly, in his dream he is 20 years older--but looks exactly like he does back in 1937. The dream, however, turns out to be a nightmare.

With the addition of Alfalfa and Darla to the cast of regulars came a marked change in the types of shorts made by Hal Roach. Instead of focusing exclusively on laughs, the newer ones often had singing and dancing. To make it worse, Alfalfa's horrible singing, while initially a passable gag, was featured too often--trying to generate cheap laughs. I am sure that the popularity drop of these kids can be attributed, in part, to the studio losing sight of what made the films popular in the first place--the kids acted like kids. No sane child acts like Alfalfa, that's for sure!! And as for Darla, but I always thought she looked plasticized--and a bit creepy--not a real child in any way.

This is the second Our Gang Follies film--the first being "Our Gang Follies of 1936". While this one has a bit more plot than the last, it is essentially chock full of singing and dancing. I can't see how children in the movie theaters would enjoy all this singing and dancing--but the parts of the film without that are pretty cute. Unfortunately, the momentum is constantly derailed by the insane need to do all the show tunes and wriggling--yuck! Pretty tough going in this one.

If you ever want to see an Our Gang/ Little rascals short, this is the one to see. A big-budget musical short that features a floor show in snazzy Club Spanky (thanks to the convenient plot device of having Alfalfa dream the whole thing), "Our Gang Follies of 1938" was the last truly great film in the Our Gang series and the last two-reel comedy Hal Roach would ever produce. This short is incredibly enjoyable, it's dialogue and gags instantly quotable, its songs are insanely catchy...and Buckwheat (excuse me, "CAB" Buckwheat) is the band leader. A winner by all accounts.

Interestingly enough, when MGM bought Our Gang from Hal Roach not six months after this short was produced, they tried a number of time to produce a short to match this one ("Ye Old Minstrels," "Melodies Old and New," "Calling All Kids," etc.) but it never happened.

Who are the African-American children that were tap dancing? They were fantastic; great routine, choreography, presnetation, enthusiasm, etc. Did they come from a dance school? I hate that this scene was deleted from the television packages supposedly due to racism, which I disagree. I am African-American and I was not offended seeing them dressed as maids and bellhops. This type of work that African-Americans did sent many of their children to college. Today a lot are unemployed and would love to work in this industry. I am also a musician. These talented children were the highight of the film.

Hal Roach was getting out of the short subject business when this movie was being made. He had fired Charley Chase, Laurel and Hardy were doing features only and he was negotiating to sell 'Our Gang' to MGM, where the shorts would continue to be produced for another nine years.

In the meantime, Roach was trying to produce longer Our Gang pieces, short features, or increase the production value by other means to get a higher price for his product. This is the result: Alfalfa sings in that annoying voice of his that people obviously considered cute. And there is a major 'night club' sequence, populated with the rascals. The problem is that Our Gang kids were chosen to be, well, kids, and the results here -- watching six year olds screech swing versions of "Loch Lomond" is pretty aggravating.

The classic "I'm The Barber of Seville" episode. As far as I am concerned this is the crowning achievement of the Rascals' career. The story is simple and funny, while the music is just plain entertaining. The director of the show Alfalfa goes to see and later in his dream throws him out into the street to sing is Henry Brandon. You may recognize Henry Brandon as "Barnaby" the heartless landlord in the classic Laurel and Hardy movie "The March of The Wooden Soldiers". This is just a great episode and seeing it in color was a pleasure ...