Joy Scouts

This M-G-M comedy short, Joy Scouts, is the one hundred eighty-first entry in the "Our Gang" series and the ninety-third talkie. After being turned away from the Boy Scouts leader for being too young, the gang resolves to make their own camp. Turns out the place they want to set up tents at has a geyser...Seeing this again after 35 years, I thought this was another funny short in the series though neither Leonard Maltin nor Richard W. Bann thought so judging from their review of this in their book "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang". My favorite gags were the popcorn pancakes and the geyser lifting that tent and some of the gang upwards. So on that note, I recommend Joy Scouts. P.S. This marked two debuts in the series. It was the first one directed by one Edward Cahn who did features at the beginning of the '30s before doing shorts for M-G-M by mid-decade. Most of the studio's entries in this series were helmed by him. And it marked the first appearance of Mickey Gubitosi in the gang. He later changed his name to Bobby Blake and then Robert Blake when an adult. As he later told it, "They had this little rummy that couldn't say the lines. So I said, 'I can say that.' I said it, got the job, and became a regular from that." This was only his second film appearance.

Joy Scouts (1939)

** (out of 4)

Alfalfa and the gang go to a Boy Scouts competition where they're told they're too young to join. The gang decides to prove them wrong by going camping on their own but they soon realize that it's not that easy. JOY SCOUTS really isn't a very good entry in the MGM series but it's mainly remembered today for being the series debut of Robert Blake. The film itself doesn't really have that much going for it as the majority of the jokes simply don't work, although I will admit that there were a couple that made me laugh. One was the scene where the popcorn falls into the pancake mix. The other is when they boys end up setting camp up on a geyser but think this is the just name of the man who owns the land. Everything else is pretty standard stuff as the boys try to go fishing but catch everything but a fish. We also see them put together one of their cheap tents but it's just not all that funny. As usual, the young cast actually has quite a bit of energy and they're certainly much better than the material itself. Fans of the series will probably want to check it out anyways but others should certainly look for something better.

The Boy Scouts are gathered at the park. Our Gang is also there with their baseball gears. They claim to be better than the scouts. At the Geyser Springs Camp Ground, Alfalfa wonders if they should ask Mr. Geyser. The kids start camping anyways. It's chaotic and the kid are ill-equiped. They place their camp on top of the geyser which sends them up in the air.

It has one good joke with Mr. Geyser and some physical comedy. This may be a commercial for the Boy Scouts. It makes sense for Our Gang to interact with them. I wouldn't mind if the Scouts are beautifying the park in that first encounter.

It had to happen eventually...

The MGM Our Gang shorts started out rather good....probably because director Gordon Douglas was still around making the comedies work. Plus the kids were still young enough and natural enough to lend magic to the series.

Then came Joy Scouts. You could see Alfalfa starting to age, and his singing voice ("oh, listen to the mocking bird...") wasn't as funny as it used to be (although The Big Premiere proved otherwise).

Leonard was in a scene that should have been funnier than it turned out to be. In this scene, he ate a pancake that had popping corn mixed in. Predictably, after eating it, he "popped" in the air as he was walking. The problem was, he "popped" in slow-motion, plus you see the wires in the back of his short.

Spanky wasn't bad. He's retained some of his cuteness from the Hal Roach era. Plus his lines weren't delivered in the contrived way as they would be in later shorts.

This was Mickey's first appearance. though it wasn't a particularly memorable one. He pretty much just followed Spanky around.

Porky and Buckwheat still make a good team, as can be seen in the fishing scene. I liked when Porky giggled at Buckwheat after he caught an accordion!

So what exactly went wrong with this short? It certainly wasn't the kids so much as it was the writing. There were gags that were MEANT to be funny, but they were either ineffectively done (such as the "popping" gag) or they just seemed lame, like when Alfalfa was barbecuing and the smoke kept blowing in his face no matter where he sat, resulting in a blackened face (ha ha?)

This was the beginning of the end for Our Gang. Still, the series kept trying.