Alfalfa's Aunt

Surprise! Alfalfa's Aunt is the rare example of an enjoyable MGM Our Gang short, which is sort of a miracle since it sprang from the usually unimaginative minds of writers Hal Law and Robert A. McGowan (director George Sidney undoubtedly deserves a lot of credit). This is one of the all-too-infrequent cases where MGM's production values enhance things rather than detract from the story, which is an atmospheric misunderstanding of Alfalfa's aunt Penelope (Marie Blake) letter which the gang interprets as her intention to bump her cow-licked nephew off so's to inherit the family fortune (Huh? Did anyone stop and look how the Switzer's live?). The kids set out to scare the wits out of her in order to save their pal. In the process of driving Penelope (who's an aspiring mystery writer rather than a murderer) out of the house there's a lot of inventive sight gags and creepy special effects... which conspire to make Alfalfa's Aunt one of the most watchable of the MGM years. Well done and definitely worthy of 10-minutes of your time.