One Wild Ride

Some time ago, I bought the Our Gang DVD set. Unfortunately, it only had a few of the silents--mostly because many have only been rediscovered recently due to the internet. Well, I recently discovered nearly all the silent Our Gang comedies on YouTube and was shocked by how violent and dangerous the kids' actions were compared to the later sound versions. Of course, there were a few dangerous sound films but not like the silents. In watching the silents, I've noticed a very young Farina threatening Ernie with a straight razor, kids playing with guns as well as in "One Wild Ride", the kids taking a Model T without an engine OR brakes on a trip through town. How? Well, at first they had a horse pushing it and later they got adults who were insane enough to tow them to the tops of hills...and they'd careen down them!

In this film there are a couple big problems. First, there really aren't many laughs. Second, the portion of the film where Farina goes for a long and dangerous out of control ride takes up way too much of the film....and actually got boring after a while. Not a terrible short but compared to their other silents, it is.

I must note that I love the silent 'Our Gang' series and this is not one of the best of them -- which makes it, nonetheless, an enjoyable short subject. This one is more concerned with its plot than most of them -- Mary Kornman, who would like to feel mud squish between her toes, falls in with the gang and their engineless taxicab and has a swell old time. Farina gets more than his fair share of screen time, but, as usual, makes the most of it The gag construction is topnotch and, as is usually the case with this series, believable. But as my favorites are the idylls, like A QUIET STREET, this one is a little too frenetic for my taste. But if they still made 'em like this, I'd be very happy.

One Wild Ride (1925)

*** (out of 4)

Fun our Gang short has Mickey "borrowing" his grandfather's horse so that he can push a car, which the gang are using as a taxi. After grandfather takes the horse back the kids get the bright idea of having people use their cars to drag them up this hill and once there they'll hitch a ride back down the hill. All goes as planned until Farina hooks it to a large truck and he goes on the wild ride. ONE WILD RIDE certainly lives up to its title and this turns out to be one of the better entries in the series. What makes the thing so fun is the final five or six minutes when Farina, a monkey and a talking parrot get into the car and head off on a dangerous course. The title cards of dialogue between Farina and the bird are very funny and I must admit that the ride itself was fun even if you can obviously see the back projection. The earlier stuff with the kids running the taxi service isn't nearly as fun but we do get a few good laughs including a bit with rich Mary wanting to walk in mud and Joe gets a couple good scenes.

This is another one of those good-feeling inducing silent Our Gang comedies, which are my all time favorite pre-sound era films.

Essentially, our half-pint heroes do some ingenious stuff to get out of their chores so they can go riding in their makeshift taxi (a device making a return from the previous year's classic "Tire Trouble"). After picking up rich girl and resident Rascal cutie-pie Mary Kornman, Mickey Daniels' grandpa demands they stop using his horse to pull the cab. When Farina hooks up to the truck, the title takes effect and see the rest.

Usually, the silent Gang films are amusing in a gentle way. The first half of the film is like this as we see the Gang enjoying a childhood that no longer exists as they romp in chicken coops, abandoned lots, and the actual sunny streets of suburban Los Angeles of the 1920s. Farina proves himself to be a five year old child prodigy of comedy as we enjoy his reactions to the thrilling and guffaw generating runaway car scenes that take up the second half of this enjoyable film. For obvious reasons, the scenes of the other children rebuffing Farina's attempts to play with them and enjoy a ride on the crazy car are a bit disturbing (considering his usual full-fledged status as a Rascal), but the rest of the film wipes away any nasty aftertaste over this.

The early silent Our Gang films are largely an underground cult phenomenon and hard to find. Let us pray that there wonderful films will soon get their just deserts on non-bootleg DVD.