Mush and Milk

Okay, we all know how good most of the Our Gang comedies are, and this this is certainly one of the best. That said, I think it's fascinating how these shorts also serve as historical documents. For example, the actress who plays Cap's wife, Louise Emmons, was born in 1852. The president at the time was Millard Fillmore! This is nine full years before Abe Lincoln was elected! He was probably still splitting logs in 1852. Just imagine sitting with Louise during lunch at the studio commissary and picking her brains.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Mush and Milk, is the one hundred twenty-third in the "Our Gang/Little Rsacals" series and the thirty-fifth talkie. The gang are at an orphanage and they don't like it what with the mean headmistress and the regular servings of the title food. But the old man who teaches them loves them and promises as soon as his pension arrives, he'll get them all out of there. I'll stop there and just say this was another hilarious short in the series with Stymie and Dickie trying to make some milk and Spanky doing some funny dialogue with James Finlayson on the other line on the phone. The amusement park scenes may have been taken from Fish Hooky a few shorts back. Tommy does a nice rendition of "Just Friends". So on that note, I highly recommend Mush and Milk. P.S. This marked the last series appearance of Dorothy DeBorba, Dickie Moore who went back to features, and Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins. Wheezer went back to private life after leaving. Unfortunately, he died during an air cadet training exercise on May 17, 1945 before he was to graduate that, or maybe the following week. He was 20. His brother, Dickie who was in Forgotten Babies, died on July 2, 1978.

Mush and Milk was one of numerous school-oriented Our Gand comedies. This particular episode had, as its setting, Bleak Hill Boarding School, which bore sign saying it offered LOWEST RATES and "MOTHER'S CARE(?)" I wonder if the Dickens novel Bleak House furnished inspiration. The "MOTHER's CARE(?) logo proved what a dump this boarding school was, with Louise Emmons portraying the disagreeable old crone who headed the school, a dasmal dame if ever there were one. "Dasmal dame" is a woman who plays DOMINEERING MOTHER. Cap was sharp contrast; he was kind and understanding; Gus Leonard was just the actor for that sort of role. (He did stellar job later in "Lucky Corner" as Scotty Becket's grandpa.) Gus did not mind the silly answers that the kids gave in class, and surely appreciated Spanky's getting up to answer the phone, when James Finlayson, as Mr. Brown of First National Bank, told Cap that his back pension had arrived, something that he had long waited for (but which the crone who ran the school SCORNED). Cap's receiving this wonderful news, and his treating the kids to day at amusement park, calls to mind recent developments in MY life, to wit, improvement in living standard after settlement of Mom's estate, in form of larger apartment, new car, etc. Surely, Mush and Milk was heartwarming, especially with Cap's confidence that things would turn out all right, something that the Little Rascals came to believe.

I remember seeing this Our Gang short as a child. It was funny then. It's even funnier now seeing it as an adult. This is a great vehicle for the Our Gang kids. A very young Spanky is a stand out. His poetry reading and phone conversation scenes steal the show. The film also makes great use of young Tommy Bond, several years before he took on the role of the gang's arch nemesis Butch. His heartfelt singing could go up against Alfalfa any day. This is a wonderful example of the fine talent and comic timing the Our Gang kids had. It's one of their best shorts.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short

It's just MUSH AND MILK for the Rascals to eat at the Bleak Hill Boarding School, which is run by a wicked old crone. Her elderly brother, Cap, loves the kids and has promised them a good life if ever his back pension arrives. Spanky, Stymie & the Gang wonder if that day will ever come...

This is a very funny little film. Highlights include Stymie & Dickie trying to milk a cow, Spanky's recitation of Mary Had A Little Lamb & Butch's crooning `Just Friends'. That's Cap Leonard as Cap, Louise Emmons as his dreadful wife and - hilariously - James Finlayson as the banker.

This was to be the last OUR GANG appearance by Dickie or Wheezer. Richard `Dickie' Moore had been with the Gang for two years and was featured in 7 of their films. He appeared in several other movies before leaving the business in the 1950's. He's now married to actress Jane Powell. Bobby `Wheezer' Hutchins had become a Rascal at the tender age of two, and now, at the ripe old age of eight, had starred in 59 shorts. He made no more films. In 1945 he died in a military plane crash - he was only 19 years old.