Good Bad Boys

Good Bad Boys (1940)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Alfalfa gets a spanking over a crime he didn't commit and after reading about Jesse James he decides to start his own gang. Spanky is against it but he decides to "protect" the gang by telling them they're going to rob a house. What's really going on is an old lady has paid Spanky to remove some items from the house. GOOD BAD BOYS is another really bad episode in the long running series. It seems most people and fans hate the MGM Our Gang shorts and it's easy to see why if they stumble across something like this. There's really not a single funny moment here and the entire film just seems rushed to the point where no one even bothered trying to come up with anything new or fresh. The scenes involving Alfalfa giving the speech about turning to a life of crime just isn't funny. Even less funny is when the boys think the cops are after them when in fact they're chasing a real crook. Again, there's really not a single laugh to be had here and it's such a shame that the young cast is so wasted.

This M-G-M comedy short, Good Bad Boys, is the one hundred ninety-third entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred fifth talkie. Spanky accepts Mrs. Wilson's offer to take some junk from her house for 25 cents. When he arrives at the clubhouse, Alfalfa is thinking of a life of crime because his father punished him for stealing an apple from a store even though Slicker was the real culprit who palmed it on Alf before the proprietor caught him. Spanky decides to let the gang think they're stealing Mrs. Wilson's things instead of simply refusing to play along. Then a real crime involving some adults happens at the same time...Okay, yes, this was another of those teach-a-lesson entries in the series but I managed to get a few laughs out of some of the climatic chase scenes that were undercranked and the mistaken identity that resulted from the two events converging. So on that note, I say Good Bad Boys is worth a look. P.S. That's Hugh Beaumont-the future Ward Cleaver-as a judge's aide bringing in Spanky and Mrs. Wilson in the courtroom.

OK, let's see.....

Mickey wants to steal a Venus De Millo statue, but Spanky says it's no good because its arms are gone (he he)

Alfalfa suggests they steal a piano. "Now, where are you gonna hide a big thing like that?!" Spanky cracks. (ho ho)

Buckwheat is so nervous as he makes off with a tambourine, he can't stop shaking it. When told to get rid of it. he throws it on the ground, with a "snip and a haircut" rhythm (ha ha)

Buckwheat is told to whistle if the cops come. He whistles at the sight of a dog. Why? "P-p-police dog!" he says. (Uh...ok)

When the Gang is hiding, an unseen skunk is nearby. When the kids smell it, they think the police are using tear gas to get them to surrender (Right! Ha!)

Well, you get the point.

Even worse than the relative lack of gags is the fact that this short is really REALLY blatant as it drives home a lesson: not just to the kids who intended to commit a crime, but to the parents for not listening to their kids. MGM has been guilty of teaching-a-lesson shorts before, but this!?

Oh, well, even the worst films have at least ONE good moment and here it is: at the end, the kids are proud to be on the straight and narrow, when all of a sudden, they hear a "police siren" headed their way, and they all run; it turned out to be a siren on a boy's bicycle zipping by. That was pretty funny (though not as funny as the kids' forced laughter would indicate).

Good Bad Boys is typical of what MGM allowed the Our Gang series to lapse into. Give me a time machine and let me go back and slap Jack Chertok around. Good Bad Boys centers around Alfalfa being unjustly accused of stealing... and without laboring with the details, suffice it to say lectures aren't funny! If Hal Roach ever saw this drivel it would've peeled the last 50 years off his life. Wasn't Our Gang supposed to be fun? There's not one gag in this one-reeler. Dismal; even below the one star I'm giving it. The only remotely interesting detail is it features a young Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont in the thankless role of the Judge's Aide... and no one's ever called Mr. Beaumont a dynamic actor.

This is another neat short, when Alfalfa is accused of stealing when he didn't do it, his father hears about it and punishes him, later, Alfalfa talks his friend Spanky and the rest of the gang into "burglarizing" Mrs. Wilson's house. However, they get mixed up with a real burglar(played by Al Hill), fortunately, the burglar gets arrested by the police. I wish "Our Gang" was back on television again.

ANOTHER NEAT SHORT!!!!!!!!!