Monkey Business

Monkey Business (1926)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

An abused monkey runs away from his owner the same time Farina plans on running away due to the kids beating him up as well as his parents always fighting. The monkey and Farina eventually meet up and decide to take on the bullies. This one-reeler from Hal Roach is a pretty good entry in the Our Gang series, although I'm sure some are going to object to the "abuse" Farina's parents put him through. One scene has Farina's father spanking him extremely hard when the monkey goes on the attack and beats the fire out of him. Later we see the monkey going after Mickey and whooping him. The final few minutes of the flick has the kids trying to track the monkey down who is running all around town beating everyone up including a funny bit with a cop. If you like violence then this short is going to give you quite a bit of it. There's nothing overly funny here but there are several scenes that will at least put a smile on your face. The teaming of Farina and the monkey actually works as they're cute together.

One of the few episodes I didn't really like. I want to watch the kids. Not a monkey. The monkey was the star of this one.