Gas House Kids Go West

Well, this Gas House Kids entry (the only ep of the three-picture series I managed to find online) has quite a reunion of the Our Gang cast and crew-besides both Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and Tommy "Butch" Bond appearing, among the writers are Sam Baerwitz (who also produced) and Robert A. McGowan-the nephew of regular OG director Robert F. McGowan. He not only co-wrote many entries for M-G-M, he also directed many late silent and early talkie entries as Anthony Mack. Anyway, this was quite a funny one starting with a funny basketball game with one of the opponents being a ballet dancer and some hilarious horse riding lessons before the plot involving a stolen car takes hold. Oh, and Alfalfa sings a couple of songs of which the first one has Tommy insulting his singing and the second is too long to be completely funny! Still, this was a mostly enjoyable entry in the series especially when I recognized the lone American Indian as Jay Silverheels a few years before he became Tonto on "The Lone Ranger" TV series.

There currently is one other review for "Gas House Kids Go West" and it was so positive about the film I decided to give it a watch. Well, suffice to say I was NOT so enamored by the film...in fact, I hated it. It was rather dumb...like a third-rate copy of the Bowery Boys...which is saying a lot because the Bowery Boys weren't all that good either!

When the film begins, the gang beat up on a really annoying guy because they don't like 'sissies' who danced about in a ballet costume. As for the victim, he really turns out to be annoying...so annoying I actually wanted to see them beat the snot out of him. However, when they play a big basketball game, it really gets dumb....and you just have to see it to believe how dumb it and the same ballet guy could be!

Soon after this travesty of American film (i.e., the god-awful basketball game), the gang take their money and buy a piece of crap car so they can drive to California. However, instead the dealer offers them an incredible offer...incredible because this free car ride actually gets them mixed up with a stolen car. Somehow they avoid being arrested and end up on a ranch...where they seem ill- suited since they are all morons. There, they discover that the car was stolen and the gang saves the day.

Overall, this film looks like someone thought "let's get some ugly ex-stars from the Our Gang films (Alfalfa Switzer and Tommy Bond) and scripts so bad that Monogram Pictures wouldn't be caught dead making them and see what happens". Not particularly enjoyable but it was nice to see a young Jay Silverheels in a small role in his pre-Lone Ranger days. They made two other films for PRC (possibly the worst studio in Hollywood history)...though I can't for the life of me imagine I'd ever watch them.