Small Talk

This first of the Hal Roach "Our Gang" talkies sure looks and sounds dated, dialog-wise, with the first character on screen somebody I never remember seeing. It was Joe Cobb playing "Joe." Cobb was a huge kid, bigger than "Spanky." A little research here at IMDb shows he was in a lot of the "Our Gang" silent films and appears to be in a few of the early talkies and then, perhaps, just got too old for the part. Whatever, he certainly has an interesting face for a kid.

Actually, for those (like me) who just remember "Our Gang" for Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, etc., this early "gang" is new. Names like, "Wheezer, Mary Ann, Harry, Chubby and Jean" are probably not familiar ones to many of us. Mary Ann's face, with all the freckles,looked familiar and Mary Ann Jackson was a good actress, too - at least better than most of the gang. The worst was little "Weezer" who looked at the director a lot more than he looked at whom he was talking to on screen.

Anyway, this is a story of the kids getting adopted. They all belong to an orphanage and one of them, Wheezer, is adopted by a nice lady. Even though his new parents are rich and give him expensive toys, Wheezer gets lonely for his orphanage pals. Things are kind of dull until the halfway point of this 25-minute film when the Gang visits Wheezer. How they knew where he lived is beyond me but they show up at this mansion and then humorous things begin to happen.

Their reaction to mechanical toys in the mansion are funny. Farina (who obviously pre-dated Buckwheat) has encounters with dead birds who sing and statues who whistle, both of which freak him out. Wheezer's lonesomeness is cured when kind-hearted Mary shows up. Soon, they all want to be adopted and the ending is a sweet one....a feel-good one.

There are funny moments in here and overall it's "cute" but more of curiosity-piece. I saw this on the 2008 DVD set titled, "The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection." The transfers are excellent, by the way, so kudos to "Genius Products" for putting out a first-class DVD package.