Railroadin'

There are plenty of hair-raising thrills and spills in this second Little Rascals sound film. The orphanage from which they came is now left far behind, and we see none of the adoptive mothers in this film either. The film takes place entirely in a rail yard and along the rail tracks leading from it. The film begins with Farina and Harry playing on a railway turntable in the rail yard. Then the little fat boy Joe, and a new friend of his who is also a little fat boy, Chubby (though we do not hear his name mentioned, played by Norman Chaney), bringing sandwiches in their metal lunch boxes to their fathers (Joe's being adoptive) who are railway engineers who operate a locomotive. Joe's father invites the boys up into the locomotive to see all the levers and controls, and permits Joe to blow the horn. They all then leave the locomotive and go to a bench where the men sit and eat their lunch. Meanwhile, the other five Little Rascals plus Pete the Dog are also playing in the rail yard. They have put together an elaborate den for themselves in an empty rail freight car which has no roof. It rests on a side track, far behind and not attached to the resting locomotive. Mischief begins when Joe and Chubby leave their fathers and go back to the train and climb up into the locomotive again. They fiddle a bit with some controls, but do not know how to start the train. The rail yard has been plagued for some time by a former rail worker who has gone mad, and who hangs around leering at people. He spots the boys in the locomotive and climbs in with them. He starts the locomotive for them and then leaps out. The only lever Joe knows how to control is one which causes the train to reverse its direction. The train moves ominously forward and in panic, Joe reverses its direction, so that it begins to go backwards towards the freight car where the other Rascals are playing. Joe reverses direction just before crashing into them. Meanwhile Farina has caught his foot in a switch and is sitting on the track helplessly in front of the oncoming locomotive. He sees it coming, puts his hands together in prayer and says 'Now I lay me down to sleep …' Then he leans back flat and the locomotive passes over him, leaving him unharmed. Joe reverses again and it passes over Farina in the other direction, and this happens several times. Harry comes to free his foot and says: 'How come the locomotive passed right over you and you ain't dead?' And then Joe fails to reverse in time and the locomotive does collide with the freight car, so that it becomes attached to the locomotive, with the children in it. Then he successfully reverses and begins to move forward at increasing speed, and they go through the town and into the countryside on the wild runaway train, with numerous cars and even a streetcar narrowly missing them at crossings. Then another trains carrying passengers is coming straight at them and disaster is narrowly averted by a quick-thinking signalman who pulls a switch for the passenger train to divert it at the last second. All of these goings-on are very much in the tradition of the silent films, such as Buster Keaton's, with split-second escapes and terrifying near misses. Eventually the locomotive is brought under control and the Rascals are returned to the rail yard, which they say they will avoid in the future. Farina then has some further adventures of his own, for which the viewer must remain in suspense, but I will give one cue: what comes first, the chicken or the egg? It is not always possible to make out what the children are saying in this film, the most difficult to understand being Harry and occasionally Farina. Pete the Dog is a passive participant in this episode, suffering the indignities of collisions with his commendable canine passivity. Truly, he was the Marguerite Dumont of the cinema dog world. This film is only 20 minutes long, five minutes shorter than its predecessor, SMALL TALK.

It's been noted that the sound track of "Railroadin' " is difficult to hear. I FINALLY figured out what Farina said after the gang had finished admiring all of the locomotives at the roundhouse. This is early in the film. What he had to say was quite a statement on the prospects of what kind a job a young, black kid might find. His white companions stated something to the effect, I'm going to be an engineer and drive that" Farina, on the other hand, declared, "Well, I'm gonna change my name to GEORGE and be a porter!" ALL porters on the railroad in those days were referred to as "George".

Fascinating little film being a railroad fan and employee. AT&SF RR historians will like seeing the Santa Fe equipment. (They tried to cover over the names.)

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

While playing in the train yard, Fat Joe Cobb, Farina & the Gang go RAILROADIN' in a runaway train, which none of them knows how to stop...

A funny little early talkie. Due to its age, some of the dialogue is difficult to hear. Highlight: Farina on the tracks. Fat Joe & Chubby are so obese it's painful to watch them.

The second talkie in the long-run "Our Gang" series really kicks into high gear when the train a few of the kids are running goes out of control, speeding down the tracks. This dramatic "runaway train" segment comprises the second half of this 21-minute film.

During the train-out-control segment, Farina gets "run over" about a half-dozen times. Actually, and it shows this, he lies down flat just before the train arrives, so it passes over the top of him each time.

In all, in what starts off as a leisurely-paced story of kids learning about trains, turns into a dramatic story in which the kids - and passengers of on coming train - nearly lose their lives.

For those who love trains, there are some great closeup shots of these fantastic machines. This turned out to be a very entertaining early Our Gang short.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Railroadin', is the ninetieth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the second talkie. This one is a partial remake of the silent The Sun Down Limited with Joe and Chubby-newcomer Norman Chaney-at the controls this time with Harry and Farina in tow, but not before Farina once again gets himself stuck on the tracks with the train once again almost flattening him several times! Since this was early in the talkie era, the sound seems mostly live except when obvious undercranking is used and there's no music score-which might have helped make this a little more funny-except when "The End" shows on print. As a result, this isn't very funny but it's still interesting to watch especially when the camera dollies across the scenery at a steady speed. So on that note, Railroadin' is worth a look. P.S. These first two talkie shorts had as the series title, "Hal Roach presents His Rascals' Voices".