Kiddie Kure

This M-G-M comedy short, Kiddie Kure, is the one hundred ninety-fifth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred seventh talkie. The gang inadvertently break the window of rich hypochondriac Mr. Morton (Thurston Hall) while playing baseball. After the doctor gives him his "prescription", Mr. Morton overhears the doc tell his wife about adopting children to cure him. So when the gang arrive to talk about compensation, Mr. Morton tells his butler about doing crazy things to discourage his wife after she comes back from shopping as well as scare the gang...This was perhaps the funniest of the M-G-M entries, so refreshing in not having any lessons to teach or any seriously dramatic moments! So on that note, Kiddie Kure is highly recommended. P.S. This was Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer's final appearance in the series. He'd continue to appear in both major-like my favorite one, It's a Wonderful Life-and minor movies throughout his life with his final one being The Defiant Ones. But, offscreen, he'd continue to have troubles culminating in that fateful night on January 21, 1959 when someone he once worked with shot him after he allegedly threatened him with a pocketknife. To best sum up Alf's appeal, here's the line he gave Spanky in Sprucin' Up when Spank asked how he managed to get in the same house they both were in in order to charm the girl that resided in it: "Personality, boy, personality."

Out of the 52 MGM-produced shorts from 1938-43 there might be 5 worthy of spending your time on--- and this is one of them. It's also significant as being the last of 61 appearances Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer made in the series. He was 13 and was well-known for causing expensive pranks on studio grounds and speculation among film historians tends to lean to him being more trouble than he was worth. But he went out on a high note... Kiddie Kure is one of the best scripted and acted entries of the overwhelmingly dismal MGM years. The plot centers around a hypochondriac (nicely acted by veteran character actor Thurston Hall) who's out to sabotage the gang's scheme to retrieve a baseball that they've crashed through his window. During a wild chase through his home he discovers the pills his doctor has been describing, apparently for years, are candies... because Alfalfa's younger brothers have eaten them. It's a little sad that more of the MGM Our Gangs weren't as enjoyable as this one... the studio had all the marbles but didn't know how to use them when it came to comedies. Fluke or not, Kiddie Kure proves it could be done.

Despite the mannered performances of both the kids and the adults, this Our Gang short proves that with a little extra effort, the cronies at MGM could produce a short worthy of the Our Gang legacy. With no morals or wartime propaganda to contend with, this mostly funny film centers on action, and lots of it! Alfalfa was a teenager by now, and this was his final Our Gang short. He was responsible for lots of laughs during his five year tenure with the series, and it's a shame his career never really took off after this, but at least he went out on an up note. The real mystery is why MGM couldn't see the advantages of films like this over their preachy "I'm gonna teach these kids a lesson." nightmares that eventually led to the series' demise.

Thurston Hall plays a hypochondriac who becomes annoyed when his doctor suggests to his wife adopting children. To discourage such an idea, he invites Our Gang to lunch while his wife is out. It's then when the craziness breaks out, culminating in Alfalfa's twin brothers swallowing the candy "pills" the doctor had been prescribing for him.

The adults carry the short, stiff as they are in the MGM fashion, and the kids do pretty well. Alfalfa's age and Mickey's bad acting aren't noticeable in the farcical shenanigans, as the actors spend most of their time running back and forth. Froggy also gets a proper introduction as one of the gang just as Alfalfa is leaving.

All in all, it's ten minutes of fun and ranks as one of the better MGM shorts. Not a bad way for Alfalfa to bow out.