Rainy Days

This Hal Roach comedy short, Rainy Days, is the seventy-second of the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. After his mom leaves the house, Jay is in charge of watching little brother Wheezer as well as sisters Jean and Mildred and the dog Pete. They've already caused some trouble at the breakfast table so Jay doesn't want any more trouble from them. But he leaves them alone to see the rest of the gang at the clubhouse for a few minutes and guess what happens? I'll stop there and just say that I found this very hilarious especially when the gang helps in trying to "fix" the house mess that results after what I mentioned in the synopsis. Anthony Mack, nephew of original director Robert McGowan, is the credited helmer but he had help from uncredited Charles Oelze, who provided the great visual gags that ended this short. So on that note, I highly recommend Rainy Days. P.S. The organ score was a nice mix of various '20s tunes including some I recognized as George Gershwin songs. And I also liked some of the sound effects like the sneezes of Joe and others.

Chaotic comedy which sees the Little Rascals gang trashing their home when left to their own devices one rainy day. Some genuinely funny and inventive moments makes this one of the better entries in the series.

During this rainy day, Jay's mother leaves him in charge of Wheezer....proving she's an incredibly irresponsible mother since Wheezer is practically the Anti-Christ in this one!! The little human tornado keeps finding things to destroy and he spends most of this time drawing all over the walls....and his mother blames Jay! Later, Wheezer goes nuts (or, perhaps his demons let loose their full fury) and the house is a huge mess. The gang offer to help and most of their efforts make everything far, far wose! All during which Wheezer and his demons are running amok!

Aside from beinga guide to crappy parenting, this is a pretty funny installment of the Our Gang comedies. Not among the best but with enough moments to make it worth your time.

This is a pleasant but undistinguished Our Gang comedy made toward the end of the silent era, after several of the first crop of kids had outgrown the series but before the first generation of "talkie" kids had been recruited. For my taste, the series' funniest silent films were produced early on, along about 1923-25. By the late '20s, it would appear, inspiration was flagging a bit. Although the kids themselves are as charming as ever, the gags feel a little tired in Rainy Days. In retrospect it looks like the series was simply marking time until the microphones were installed.

Here's what I mean by uninspired material: this film begins with a prolonged sequence at the breakfast table, during which little Wheezer (who is not supposed to eat sausages) attempts to trick his older brother Jay out of his portion. Pete the Pup, meanwhile, is also trying to steal sausages. Jay finally soaks one of the sausages in Tabasco sauce and allows Wheezer to get it. Wheezer bites into it, reacts, runs around and around the room in under-cranked fast motion, then rushes to the kitchen and gulps so much water he bloats (thanks to a balloon- like prop concealed under his nightshirt). Pete the Pup eats the remainder of the Tabasco-soaked sausage, reacts, then rushes to the bathroom, where he drinks the dirty bathwater (Yuck!!) and accidentally swallows a bar of soap. When Pete hiccups, bubbles float from his mouth. This last gag is pretty well animated, by the way, but repeated until the humor has worn thin.

After the boys' mother steps out for the afternoon, warning them not to get into any more mischief, the gang invades their home and trashes the place thoroughly. The rest of the film consists of their efforts to clean up before she gets back. (Hmm . . . I wonder if Dr. Seuss drew upon memories of this movie when he wrote "The Cat in the Hat"?) Most of the comedy is comparable to the sausage business in terms of wit, with much of the running time devoted to that venerable fall-back, messy gags involving the hanging of wallpaper. The best moment involves a clever animated image of paper strips rolling back and forth wildly on the walls.

For the undemanding viewer Rainy Days isn't a bad way to spend twenty minutes or so, in fact I rather enjoyed it over all, but connoisseurs in search of the very best Our Gang comedies will need to look elsewhere.