Best Performance as a Member of the Opposite Gender

[RJH]

It's too depressing to see a whole month go by without a post. The best idea for another poll I could think of was rating performances when wearing clothes for the opposite gender, typically for one scene in the corresponding films. I'm omitting all those occasions where Farina's gender changed from film to film. I'm sure I missed some.

Or comment on worst such performance.

[rascalstooge]

I voted for Spanky and Alfalfa in "Rushin' Ballet". My least favorite was Mary Ann in "Boxing Gloves".

[myhomeo]

I voted for Alfalfa in 'Mail And Female.' After all, he managed to fool the He-Man Woman Haters.

[mtw12055]

Other. Surely I'm not the only one who once thought Farina was a girl.
(Okay, I know that technically doesn't count, but come on!)

[Deleted]

While Buckwheat dressed as Juliet in "Pay As You Exit" isn't the most convincing, it's definitely one of the funniest Our Gang moments, as well as the whole Alfalfa's onion breath situation.

[RJH]

Jan 10, 2018 19:29:45 GMT -5 mtw12055 said:

Other. Surely I'm not the only one who once thought Farina was a girl.
(Okay, I know that technically doesn't count, but come on!)

I saw Farina first in early talkies, and then read about the gender issue before seeing any of the silents. But one film that does qualify is "Election Day" where he, along with Pleurisy, tries to pass as a Spring Dancer. I'm afraid that wasn't among the most convincing.

[Buppster]

I voted 'Other.' There are different ways for a male to dress up as a girl.

He can try to be convincing and fool people that he's really female.

He can become a caricature, an exaggerated female in the way drag artists tend to behave.

He can play it for laughs.

Or he can simply be himself, wearing female clothing. That's the way Sherwood Bailey played it in Choo Choo. He wasn't a sissy, as has been suggested, in fact he got annoyed at Brisbane when he called him one and started fighting him.



That's also the way Harry Spear played it in Crazy House. He was so nonchalant about it, as if wearing a dress was of absolutely no consequence at all that the rest of the gang simply accepted it without comment and carried on as normal.



I'll award them an honorable draw, as I can't decide which of them carried it off most naturally.

[myhomeo]

Re: Sherwood. The way the character was handled in some shorts was weird. I think they may have been thinking about making him a 'sissy' character but for one reason or another, it never worked out.

The bit in CHOO-CHOO is bizarre in that Sherwood seems initially to be thrilled about wearing girls' clothes, not really connecting it with being a 'sissy' until he gets teased. Similarly, in SPANKY, he's really looking forward to performing a role in drag in Brisbaine's show. The implication is that he's a budding transvestite but it seems incredibly unlikely they'd do jokes about that, not the least because it's unlikely anyone in the Roach Studios in the early 30's would have known what that was.

[Buppster]

Yes, Sherwood's character was a bit odd, he was definitely a bit of a sissy when he played Wheezer's stepbrother in Dogs Is Dogs and when he recited poetry in Readin' And Writin' but in Choo Choo he was simply an ordinary poor kid who was pleased to have earned a whole dollar simply for swapping clothes with a girl, and after all the clothes swap was her idea, not his. That also seemed to have been the driving force behind Harry's clothes swap with Jean, he simply went along with her idea in exchange for getting his hands on a load of loot. I don't think for a moment that he was harboring secret transgender tendencies. He certainly wore a dress and a lot of 'bling' but did he come across as feminine or a sissy? I think not.

[Buppster]

As a somewhat ironic addition, Sherwood Bailey appeared alongside Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney in a 1936 movie called The Devil Is A Sissy but the supposed sissy in question was not Sherwood but a well brought up English boy, played by Freddie Bartholomew.

IMDb: The Devil Is A Sissy (1936)

[malaria]

Linda Hunt, The Year Of Living Dangerously.   

Stunning film, made from an ever better book.

Sorry for moving outside the Rascalsphere, but this was an astoundingly great performance.