Barnum & Ringling, Inc.

This is one of three silent Our Gang comedies that were included on the huge Our Gang mega-set consisting of eight DVDs. It's a darn shame more silents aren't included, as Hal Roach Studios made a ton of them--both silent and sound.

The kids decide to put on a circus at the local hotel. Seeing various pets and other domestic animals dressed up like circus animals was very cute--particularly the dachshund dressed as a seal! However, the animals all get loose and terrorize the hotel guests--including a drunk played by Oliver Hardy. None of this is especially deep but it is quite funny, cute and engaging. Well worth seeing. The only negative is the girl who likes sticking people with pins--an odd and unfunny sort of bit. Also, while not listed in credits, it sure looks as if Chubby Chaney (later a regular in the films) appears to be in this one--sporting a huge wig and playing a girl. See the film and see if you agree.

The copy I saw was a nice amber-toned version with what claimed to be the original synchronized sound track and effects. Our Gang is in a hotel, where they have decided to set up a circus. This is the sort of thing they did throughout the years, resulting in the usual frenetic chaos. Doubtless the decision by series runner Bob McGowan to locate the action in a high-toned hotel seemed like a funny one. Animals running amok! I'm afraid that, despite my fondness for the Little Rascals, the set-up looks forced and un-natural, and the kids were always best just being natural, or at least looking natural. There's a word for that: verisimilitude. That's what's lacking here.

Jean Darling does some more of her poor-little-rich-girl shtick, where she's oh, so sweet, and oh, so annoying. Here she likes to stick pins into people. For those of you who like to play spot the star, hang around until the end for Oliver Hardy. It's the last time for a decade you'd see him without Stan Laurel' Other than that, it's an amusing entry in the series that you won't need to look at again

This Hal Roach comedy short, Barnum & Ringling, Inc., is the seventy-fourth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. The kids are residents of a posh hotel where they run freely around though not without some less-than-friendly encounters with the adult authority figures. In this one, they plan a circus inside the lobby with various animals dressed as some of the more wild ones seen in jungles. When they all scatter around, watch out! Quite funny especially when Oliver Hardy, who was already teaming with Stan Laurel in many shorts by this point though they had yet to star in their own official series, encounters one of those animals while taking a drink! So on that note, I highly recommend Barnum & Ringling, Inc. P.S. The DVD I saw this on had an option of playing it with commentary by one Richard Lewis Ward, author of the book "A History of the Hal Roach Studios". And the print I watched was a Blackhawk Films one with organ score by Gaylord Carter. Update: 10/3/14-I just now watched the version on YouTube with the (presumably) original music score and sound effects. The children's laughter, ladies' screams, and animal sounds add a little to the fun.

The gang usually played middle class or poor kids, but in this one, they're all guests in a posh hotel (except for Farina, who's a bellboy). They still plan mischief, however, and decide to stage a full scale circus with a menagerie of "authentic" wild animals.

The wild animals--cats, dogs, etc, made up to look like various exotic species--is a major part of this short, and though a lot of them are funny, the montage of them goes on a bit long. There are some odd choices as well. Why dress up a parrot as a turtle, or an ostrich as a Zebra? Aren't they exotic enough as is? Well, that's the gang for you.

Of course, they get caught and the hotel is soon full of guests being spooked by weirdly dressed kids and animals.

And yes, Oliver Hardy plays a drunk. I'm not sure if this was a star cameo or whether he was just doing his bit as a Hal Roach contract player.

The print I saw was in great condition, and has the real appeal of all classic Our Gang Comedies, which is watching kids misbehave and having the time of their lives in the process.

The Little Rascals organise a circus in the hotel in which they work, but the wild animals on display are actually domestic pets disguised to look more fearsome. This might have been kind of funny if many of the animals hadn't been so clearly distressed/bewildered.