Aladdin's Lantern

The last of Gordon Douglas's two shorts for MGM, alas.

MGM would soon populate every fourth short with a musical extravaganza, but at this stage things still looked creaky and homemade, even if it's unlikely that Spanky could have coaxed all those talented child dancers to come and do an elaborate number for an iffy Arabian Nights play. Meanwhile, Porky and Buckwheat are continually stealing the show (literally and meta-literally) doing their version of "While Strolling Through The Park One Day." Though why is Buckwheat shirtless? It's a little odd.

So it's a fairly fun short, though the laugh factor of Alfalfa's off-key warbling is debatable. And the Gang Member in drag bit was done better in "Pay As You Exit." Recommended, though, just because Porky and Buckwheat are an adorable team.

Hal Roach sold the OUR GANG series lock, stock and cow-lick to MGM (Roach's distributor) in May, 1938. The story goes he saw the death of the short subject upon the advent of the double feature--- but you have to wonder why he'd think this when major studios (one of RKO's very last releases was a short subject!) would continue to grind out 1-reelers into the mid-50's. His longtime distributor, MGM was owned by the largest theatrical chain in the world, Loew's Inc. Granted, part of the reason I think Roach became hooked on the idea after the success of Laurel & Hardy features, TOPPER (and it's two lesser sequels), 1-MILLION YEARS B.C. (the #1 film of 1940!), and his first class production of OF MICE AND MEN. His stab at an OUR GANG feature in 1936 with the ill-conceived GENERAL SPANKY was a notable failure... and after 15+ years in shorts production, he was looking for an excuse to move on. But there's more to the story folks! In the mid-1930's Roach had horrified MGM/Leow's Inc. by announcing plans to enter in a studio/production business with Benito Mussolini (Roach hosted Il Duce's son's 21st birthday bash in Hollywood) and quietly sought to end their relationship. Metro bought the profitable Our Gang series lock stock and barrel--- in retrospect a rather odd property. Unfortunately MGM could do almost anything well except comedy and OUR GANG would suffer mightily in the process. ALADDIN'S LANTERN is one of the few good all-around MGM entries, probably a direct result of the talented Gordon Douglas' direction--- he'd direct only two of the MGM versions before pulling up stakes and returning to Roach (who'd signed with United Artists as a producer in the interim). ALADDIN'S LANTERN is a throwback to the Roach 'the Gang puts on a show' stories and has a well done magic carpet sequence along with Porky & Buckwheat desperately trying to crash into the show. These later OUR GANG's typically have terrible scripts but have MGM production values. This is one of the better of the 51 MGM entries as scripts go. Unfortunately they became fewer and increasingly farther between.

...is a pleasant but undistinguished addition to the series' mini-musicals (which I have never wholeheartedly appreciated). I liked the tap-dance solo to "Your Broadway and My Broadway," the stage effects, and all of Porky and Buckwheat's scenes, but all in all I agree that this film isn't original enough.

Aladdin's Lantern (1938)

** (out of 4)

The third film in MGM's Our Gang series is pretty forgettable. Alfalfa is putting on a show, which of course sells out to the local kids. Once the show starts, however, he sees that Porky and Buckwheat keep stealing the spotlight with their take on "While Strolling Through the Park One Day." ALADDIN'S LANTERN is a pretty forgettable effect, which is a shame because the early days of the group managed to pull off several entertaining films dealing with the gang putting on shows for the local kids. There are many problems here but I think the biggest is the rather lazy screenplay, which seems to resort to hoping people remember the earlier, better shorts and perhaps they'll overlook the various flaws here. The biggest flaw is the fact that there's just nothing all that funny going on here. There's a sequence with Alfalfa singing and not knowing (at first) that there's a fire going on under him. I will say that Porky and Buckwheat steal the picture but one wishes Alfalfa would have just gotten knocked out so that they could have finished their song. I'm sure fans of the series will still want to check this out but it's a pretty mediocre entry.

Spanky and Alfalfa "co precent Alladin and his Magic Lamp". Porky and Buckwheat start it off with a song. The neighborhood kids show up to watch the chaotic production.

It's Our Gang AKA The Little Rascals as produced by MGM. It's the kids in a 10min short. It's fine. It has its fun. Darla has a bunch of chorus girls. The big gag is Alfalfa getting hot butt. Hot butt is fun.