Via the Silent Clowns Film Series, Saturday afternoon at the movies featured Hal Roach’s Our Gang in four shorts—Firefighters (1922); Thundering Fleas (1926); Baby Clothes (1926); and Crazy House (1928). With Our Gang spanning from 1922 to 1944, we learned that once a core group was established, different kids were brought into the fold as others outgrew the films. But the Gang had a fairly set cast of characters—a freckle-faced kid, the pretty girl he has a crush on, a good-natured fat boy, and a wiseacre black kid who was usually named after cereal (thank you, Steve Massa, for your fun and informative Program Notes).
I was really surprised by the number of costumed animals in Firefighters. There was a pair of geese, several chickens, and a dog, as well as an un-costumed mule, cat, pony, and dog. And at one point toward the end of the film, all of the animals were drunk, since the fire wagon pumper that the Gang commandeered was actually a moonshine still. When attempting to put out a “fire” (really just some steam from Ma’s cook stove), the pumper was hauled by the pony, the ladder truck was pushed by the mule, and a sled was pulled by the dog, with the sled holding the driver and the fire chief (the littlest of the Gang).
Thundering Fleas managed to incorporate live action (the Gang) with animation (the star flea of a flea circus). The star flea flees, and the Gang sets out to find him, amassing many, many fleas along the way. The fleas infest the Gang in one scene and then infest a group of adults at a wedding ceremony. Every time the pastor asks the worried bridegroom whether he takes the woman as his wife, the fleas attack him and all he can do is keep shaking his head, No. Funny situations, leading to funny comedy. Funny how that works.
Baby Clothes involves an adult little person being punished for picking a fight with a kid. He has to wear baby clothes until he sees the error of his ways and he gives up fighting. Well, that’s not going to happen. Another plot twist has a couple bemoaning the fact that the $50 a month they receive from an uncle would be nice if it was more money. Of course, the uncle is sending the money for the care of their two children (which they don’t have). When it’s learned that the uncle will be making a visit, money changes hands with a hotel employee and the Gang gets pressed into service imitating an eight-year-old girl and a two-year-old baby. Well the girl is a Gang guy in drag and the baby is one of the other Gang members. Uncle arrives, different situations lead to multiple babies, including the black Gang player at the time, Farina (Allen) Hoskins, playing the baby. Uncle hauled out Farina as his surprise for the scheming couple. I don’t really remember how the zaniness ended, but there were laughs a-plenty.
Crazy House has a plot device where the adults are planning an April Fool’s Day party, so everything in a local mansion has been altered—air jets coming up from the floor, electric shocks from the piano bench, all of the food made from rubber and/or cotton wool, etc. Somehow, when the adults leave for a bit the Gang gets in and all of the craziness affects them, too. Eventually the adults come back, mayhem ensues, and at the end there is a massive balloon drop. While the police try to make some sense of the scene, the Gang manages to crawl through the adults’ legs, and get balloons attached to them, so the last sight we see is the new Balloon Gang running away down the street.
Even though for me and most of my generation, Our Gang equates to The Little Rascals television revival of the talkies Our Gang films from the end of their movie run, I was surprised at how many title cards all of the films I saw had, and how briefly each was on display. It makes me think that the original silents were geared more toward adults than to children, who probably wouldn’t be able to read the words that quickly. Then again, maybe the sight gags alone were enough to thrill the children.
As always, Ben Model did a bang-up job as the afternoon’s accompanist on the grand piano, Bruce Lawton provided the commentary at the beginning of the afternoon, and the aforementioned Mr. Massa joined them on the stage after the screenings to take questions from the enthusiastic crowd. The hall was filled almost to capacity, and this on a spring day that could have kept lots of people outdoors. The only thing missing was the popcorn (no food is allowed in the Bruno Walter Auditorium).
ConcertMeister
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