Washee Ironee

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

Rich kid Waldo is supposed to be practicing his violin, but he's actually playing football with the Gang on the vacant lot next door. But chaos is assured when his friends (and Pete the dog) invade his mother's Ladies' Club card party.

A funny little film. Highlights: Spanky as a football referee; Pete & the monkey. The title WASHEE IRONEE refers to the kid from the Chinese Laundry Spanky enlists to deal with Waldo's soiled (and shrunken) clothes. That's Tiny Sandford as the hapless traffic cop; Billy Gilbert dubbed the Butler's sneeze.

In fact up until the climax it's unusually bad for an Our Gang from this period. The Chinese stuff is unpleasant, the bit where the girls peep on Wally is just weird, and most of all, every time the kids all have to express unscripted eagerness and enthusiasm, it's a horrible, horrible, fake cacophony of "Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!" until you want to kick every one of them through the goal posts. The chaos at the society party partially redeems it -- you can't do much to screw up monkeys throwing cream puffs at stuck-up society dames.

Here, here! Fun for all, and all for fun!

This magnificent picture features the gang in their latest wacky mixup. When rich kid Waldo gets his suit muddied whilst playing with the gang, all hilarity ensues.

Enough praise cannot be spoken for the talents of this cast -- in particular, the young Gene Reynolds. Often overlooked, Gene's acting career really took off in the 1930s. He was a strapping young lad, and quite the sex symbol in his day. If you're a die-hard Gene fan like myself, you'll also want to check out his Oscar-worthy performance in "Junior G-Men of the Air" (1942). Huzzah!

In 'Washee Ironee,' rich kid Waldo longs to join Spanky and the gang in a game of mud football rather than play his violin for his mother's fancy bridge party. When he sneaks away to join the gang, he ends up covered in mud, which means that gang needs to help him get cleaned up before his mother finds out. I remember watching this short on TV as a kid and thinking how great it would be to get mixed up in something like this. This short is lots of fun and is still very funny to this day. Of course, many of the best bits belong to Spanky. Look closely for an early appearance by Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas, though not as Buckwheat. Buckwheat is played by a girl in this one. Also watch out for edited versions. The cut I saw on TV as a kid had an entire sequence missing involving Spanky going to a laundromat for help from a young Asian boy. The scene where the gang tries to communicate with this boy is certainly not politicly correct, but I'd still rather see the film in it's original form.

Obviously, this is not the most politically correct title--a comment about the way folks referred to Chinese back in the old days. But if you can get past this, it's a pretty good Our Gang short.

This film was directed by James Parrott--a man who used to be a comic for Hal Roach Studios and guy who directed a lot of films for the studio (including films of Laurel & Hardy). He also was the brother of Charley Chase--the wonderful comic who seems to be gaining more attention in recent years due to his shorts being shown on Turner Classic Movies as well as the release of several nice DVD sets.

Waldo plays a rich kid who desperately wants to play with the Gang. But, his snooty mother wants him to stay home and practice his violin. Unlike some rich kids in these shorts, Waldo is a nice kid and you feel sorry for him. When the kids see him watching, they invite him to play--and Waldo gets REALLY filthy. Not wanting him to get in trouble, the kids decide to help him clean up--with predictable results.

The best thing about the short was the ambulance gag, but there were lots of nice moments in the film. I especially like how nice all the kids were--very accepting and decent. Well worth seeing.