Railroadin'

This Hal Roach comedy short, Railroadin', is the ninetieth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the second talkie. This one is a partial remake of the silent The Sun Down Limited with Joe and Chubby-newcomer Norman Chaney-at the controls this time with Harry and Farina in tow, but not before Farina once again gets himself stuck on the tracks with the train once again almost flattening him several times! Since this was early in the talkie era, the sound seems mostly live except when obvious undercranking is used and there's no music score-which might have helped make this a little more funny-except when "The End" shows on print. As a result, this isn't very funny but it's still interesting to watch especially when the camera dollies across the scenery at a steady speed. So on that note, Railroadin' is worth a look. P.S. These first two talkie shorts had as the series title, "Hal Roach presents His Rascals' Voices".

Railroadin' (1929)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The second "Our Gang" short has an adult letting the kids play on the train, which isn't good when a bum starts the train up and the kids get stuck on its alone. Whereas the first short was unfunny but cute this one here is just downright unfunny and in its own way kind of ugly but more on that in a minute. Once again the technical difficulties of the early sound era plays a big part in this short as none of the actors seem that comfortable with sound. It also doesn't help but the sound discs were considered lost for quite sometime and this leaves a lot to be desired in the audio department. The biggest problem is once again the screenplay, which really doesn't have too many funny lines as not much happens. We see the train go back and forth and crash into a few things but none of it is funny. The film also has a rather ugly moment when the train keeps running over Farina who has his foot stuck in the rails. I'm guessing this was meant to be funny back in 1929 but it's comes off quite unpleasant today and that's not even getting into a debate on why this joke was played on the black kid.

Joe tries to impress the boys by taking them aboard a locomotive. A lunatic hobo arrives and sets the train in motion, which literally runs OVER Farina. Eventually, they leave the rail yard and careen out of control through city and country.

I was enthralled by the location filming of this two-reeler. It gives some interesting glimpses of 1929 Los Angeles. It's also one of the first "Our Gang" comedies with sound, so some of the dialogue is a little hard to understand above the background noise-- but that hardly detracts from the genius of this great short.

This episode is another example of why I feel Farina was the heart and soul of the "Gang." Hal Roach often gave him the most memorable scenes, and for good reason.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

While playing in the train yard, Fat Joe Cobb, Farina & the Gang go RAILROADIN' in a runaway train, which none of them knows how to stop...

A funny little early talkie. Due to its age, some of the dialogue is difficult to hear. Highlight: Farina on the tracks. Fat Joe & Chubby are so obese it's painful to watch them.

It's been noted that the sound track of "Railroadin' " is difficult to hear. I FINALLY figured out what Farina said after the gang had finished admiring all of the locomotives at the roundhouse. This is early in the film. What he had to say was quite a statement on the prospects of what kind a job a young, black kid might find. His white companions stated something to the effect, I'm going to be an engineer and drive that" Farina, on the other hand, declared, "Well, I'm gonna change my name to GEORGE and be a porter!" ALL porters on the railroad in those days were referred to as "George".

Fascinating little film being a railroad fan and employee. AT&SF RR historians will like seeing the Santa Fe equipment. (They tried to cover over the names.)