Railroadin'

Railroadin' (1929)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The second "Our Gang" short has an adult letting the kids play on the train, which isn't good when a bum starts the train up and the kids get stuck on its alone. Whereas the first short was unfunny but cute this one here is just downright unfunny and in its own way kind of ugly but more on that in a minute. Once again the technical difficulties of the early sound era plays a big part in this short as none of the actors seem that comfortable with sound. It also doesn't help but the sound discs were considered lost for quite sometime and this leaves a lot to be desired in the audio department. The biggest problem is once again the screenplay, which really doesn't have too many funny lines as not much happens. We see the train go back and forth and crash into a few things but none of it is funny. The film also has a rather ugly moment when the train keeps running over Farina who has his foot stuck in the rails. I'm guessing this was meant to be funny back in 1929 but it's comes off quite unpleasant today and that's not even getting into a debate on why this joke was played on the black kid.

This is the second Our Gang film shot with sound. However, the sound quality is much worse than the first--and it's often tough to hear exactly what the kids are saying. It's a darn shame that the DVD set did NOT include captions--they really needed it on this one.

This film was a bit unusual in that it added a second incredibly obese kid to the mix. In addition to the long-time member of the Gang, Joe Cobb, this film marks the introduction of Chubby Chaney--who plays Joe's brother.

The kids are all playing around the railroad yard (the dynamite factory and acid vats at the nearby chemical plants must have been closed). Joe and Chubby's father is an engineer and with all the railroad noise I had no idea what was being said much of the time. Joe begins bragging and pretends that he knows everything about trains--and even invites some of the kids aboard the engine. However, an evil hobo comes along and deliberately sets the train in motion--and it's soon out of control. At this point, the film gets a bit stupid--and the train keeps nearly killing poor Farina. Who thought all this was funny?! Plus, the special effects were pretty poor--and almost none of this looked very convincing. You'd have to see all this to know what I am talking about here. However, after all these close calls around the rail yard, the train takes off on a trip through the Los Angeles countryside--and they miraculously survived. It's all very diverting but the effects sure could have been improved--even for 1929 they were weak.

The morals of this story seem to be that Joe and Chubby have the worst father in history AND you shouldn't trust crazy hobos! Also, I didn't rate this one any higher as it's essentially a remake of the Our Gang silent film "The Sun Down Limited"--which starred Joe and Mickey Daniels are the INSANE kids to take a train joy-riding.

The second talkie in the long-run "Our Gang" series really kicks into high gear when the train a few of the kids are running goes out of control, speeding down the tracks. This dramatic "runaway train" segment comprises the second half of this 21-minute film.

During the train-out-control segment, Farina gets "run over" about a half-dozen times. Actually, and it shows this, he lies down flat just before the train arrives, so it passes over the top of him each time.

In all, in what starts off as a leisurely-paced story of kids learning about trains, turns into a dramatic story in which the kids - and passengers of on coming train - nearly lose their lives.

For those who love trains, there are some great closeup shots of these fantastic machines. This turned out to be a very entertaining early Our Gang short.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Railroadin', is the ninetieth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the second talkie. This one is a partial remake of the silent The Sun Down Limited with Joe and Chubby-newcomer Norman Chaney-at the controls this time with Harry and Farina in tow, but not before Farina once again gets himself stuck on the tracks with the train once again almost flattening him several times! Since this was early in the talkie era, the sound seems mostly live except when obvious undercranking is used and there's no music score-which might have helped make this a little more funny-except when "The End" shows on print. As a result, this isn't very funny but it's still interesting to watch especially when the camera dollies across the scenery at a steady speed. So on that note, Railroadin' is worth a look. P.S. These first two talkie shorts had as the series title, "Hal Roach presents His Rascals' Voices".

It's been noted that the sound track of "Railroadin' " is difficult to hear. I FINALLY figured out what Farina said after the gang had finished admiring all of the locomotives at the roundhouse. This is early in the film. What he had to say was quite a statement on the prospects of what kind a job a young, black kid might find. His white companions stated something to the effect, I'm going to be an engineer and drive that" Farina, on the other hand, declared, "Well, I'm gonna change my name to GEORGE and be a porter!" ALL porters on the railroad in those days were referred to as "George".

Fascinating little film being a railroad fan and employee. AT&SF RR historians will like seeing the Santa Fe equipment. (They tried to cover over the names.)