Buried Treasure

This Hal Roach comedy short, Buried Treasure, is the forty-seventh in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. Inspired by reading Treasure Island, the gang go on a boat of their own in search of buried treasure on an island. Where they go to, coincidentally, has a film crew making a movie about cannibals and game hunters! I'll stop there and just say that I found most of this very funny with the gang seemingly not knowing what's going on but playing along and getting their own fun out of it! Scenes with Farina and a chimp are among the best but seeing the rest of the gang also dealing with various wild "animals" was also a hoot! So on that note, I highly recommend Buried Treasure.

Buried Treasure (1926)

** (out of 4)

A rather flat one-reeler from Hal Roach's Our Gang series. The group, as the title pretty much says, heads off after copying a map, which is suppose to lead to Captain Kidd's treasure. Once on the island the kids start looking for the treasure while Farina gets harassed by a chimp. BURIED TREASURE is certainly a lesser entry in the series as there's not a single laugh to be had and most of the action is pretty tame as well. This thankfully runs just a short 14-minutes but even at that length the film seems way too long. I think the one good thing the film has going for it are the scenes between Farina and the chimp. The two play around a little bit and it appears Farina is having some fun. The rest of the film is rather flat as it feels rushed and there's just nothing entertaining about it. We see the kids dig and then get attacked by the bad guys. Even the earlier stuff on the boat doesn't have any laughs or anything else going for it.