Love My Dog

This is an excellent later silent Our Gang comedy, if you're fortunate enough to find a complete print as I did. This is the story of Farina (Allen Hoskins, the Gang's early African-American star) trying to save his beloved pooch from being gassed to death by the dogcatcher. With some modifications, this was remade with Matthew "Stymie" Beard (Farina's successor) and Spanky as "The Pooch" in 1932.

This film has it's amusing moments, as the gang disguises their dogs to keep the dogcatchers away. Scooter Lowry gives his dog an outrageous outfit and when the dogcatcher wonders what gives, Scooter says, "Don't you know a swiss goat when you see one?" Some Harold Lloyd moments occur when the dog tries to rescue a baby from a skyscraper ledge. But it's mostly Farina's show. There is an amazing moment when the dogcatcher catches Farina's hound and the camera stays to catch the impending horror on Farina's face for about three minutes. This is perhaps one of the greatest moments of real acting in the history of the silent our gangs and one of the many reasons film fans need to seek out (and DVD manufacturers need to get on the ball) the silent Our Gang comedies.

Love My Dog (1927)

*** (out of 4)

Our Gang short has Farina befriending an elderly dog but things turn more grim when the dog catchers announce that there's a disease going around and all dogs will be gassed unless they can get vaccinated. The men eventually catch Farina's dog so he and the gang must try and get five dollars to save him. On many levels this is a very cute short but at the same time you can't help but wonder about a story aimed at kids that deals with killing dogs with gas. It's somewhat interested to see how the dog catchers are looked at because they really are played as being pure evil. Quit often they laugh at the kids crying over their dogs and they're extremely abusive to the kids. Some of the dialogue goes even further in making them to be evil and it's a rather interest portrayal for this type of movie. The final few minutes has the dog in the gas chamber and how it plays out contains some nice drama. The film is a must-see thanks in large part to the dog and Farina. Poor Farina gives it his all and actually delivers a great performance, which is something I don't often say about any of the kids. I think Farina did a terrific job playing up the tears and this is especially true once the dog first gets taken. Another great comic bit as a rich kid paying the gang a quarter each time they let him punch them in the nose. LOVE MY DOG has a few questionable dark moments but it's still one of the best in the series.