Shivering Shakespeare

I'm an Our Gang/Little Rascals fan, and I enjoy this episode immensely, I never tire of it. "Shivering Shakespeare" is about the kids acting in an adaptation of "Quo Vadis" made by Mrs Kennedy, who is conveniently hiding behind the curtains to help out the kids with the classic and a bit too complicated dialogue. The best thing about this episode is watching the kids act as kids; they have a natural grace that is fortunately not ruined by the fact that they are kid actors; you would say that they are just being themselves and practically unaware of the cameras.

Some of the best gags have Chubby as a protagonist -not having learned his dialogue well, he has taken notes on his robe, only to find out he's put on the robe inside out. There's also the gang of the kids who aren't in a play and have decided to turn it into a pie-throwing fest. 'Farina' is also at his best, scolding the teacher for "talking too much" when she's helping the kids with the forgotten dialogue. Very enjoyable is also Mary Ann Jackson, the leading lady, cheeky and adorable!

"Shivering Shakespeare" could be considered the first classic of the "Our Gang" talkie era. By now, Hal Roach Studios began to hit their stride in making talking pictures, and "Shakespeare" is the happy result.

The Gang is appearing in a version of Quo Vadis produced by Kennedy the Cop's wife. The kids don't find the play very fun to be in and are distracted by people in the theatre and cannot remember their lines. Among the funniest bits are Kennedy the Cop as the giant, who pulls off his makeup to fight an overzealous man in a bull costume; and the terrible dancing girl (played by director Bob McGowan's daughter.)

Several filmographies mention that "Shakespeare" has the first pie fight in a talkie. This may be true, seeing as they tried different speeds with the film during the fight. Buster Keaton's brother Harry is at the receiving end of one of the pies. Very funny and an early Gang talkie classic. 9 out of 10.

This installment was a disappointment. The dialogue suffers from very poor sound quality. Normally that wouldn't detract, but this episode is almost all talk. Some of the gags seem a bit corny even by 1930 standards. On the other hand, the performances are typically good. Chubby proves once again that he was one of the most wooden actors of his time-- which only adds to his appeal, of course. The pie fight sequence is the highlight of the film. I enjoyed the slow-motion shots, which must have been a bit experimental in their day. Definitely not the greatest "Our Gang" short.

This one had me laughing until the pie fight at the end. I was sorry to see it end that way. I thought the adult participation was very amusing and expressed the way the people would really feel about each other if this had been produced in real life. It was very natural and personal. You don't see natural man to man interactions any more. The scenes with the men dressed as animals were irresistible. The children acted like children would at that time, too - it was all very believable. And the lady in charge of this drama was the perfect spinster librarian type everyone liked to ridicule, only no more nor less than she, too, would have been in real life. The mothers were also very motherly and warm and attached to their children. I could relate to them - far more than I can relate to the mothers I meet today, most of whom seem to feel very little for their children. I feel a very warm affection for the time when family love was still so much a part of people's lives.

The early sound shorts in the Our Gang series were scattershot, quality-wise, depending on which director was handling the episode at hand. Full-time director Bob McGowan saw the new era through to its maturity. Other early sound-era episodes, like "When the Wind Blows" (L&H director James W. Hornes' one-shot Rascals short), and series co-director Anthony Mack's efforts (Mack was really Robert Anthony McGowan, nephew of Bob), were a few times good, but mostly misfires.

Mack was a semi-skilled director at best: the man just didn't latch onto how to pace and shape a film. But the present episode presents an ingenious compromise: being merely a semi-skilled director, Anthony Mack proves just about the ideal choice to direct an episode with this plot: the gradeschooler kids are supposed to be players in the cast of a small-town production of "Quo Vadis" which quickly becomes one big joke by means of forgotten lines, a harried and loud and pretentious schoolmarm, and an extended pie-throwing melee to cap things off. Norman "Chubby" Chaney shines in his attempt to be Nero, The result is an episode that cuts the mustard, at least in this reviewer's opinion. Some of the punchlines fail to come off, but a hearty good time generally.

A large, hilarious supporting cast help put this one over the edge.