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Post by tboneator64 on Jul 6, 2016 18:02:14 GMT -5
DOIN' THEIR BIT, AGAIN! (1944) - 2 years after the 'Our Gang's' first box office failure, DOIN' THEIR BIT (1942), the gang decide to give it another go with a sequel. Unfortunately, it's even drearier than the original, as the writers inexplicably go age inappropriate public service mode, and have the various gang members discuss the importance of G.I's reporting to Medical clinics to nip STD's (?) in the bud! Janet's constant stumbling on the pronunciation of "Gonorrhea" is especially painful to watch! Heck, she has enough trouble pronouncing "Froggy"! Mickey's mispronouncing "Syphilis" as "Isthmus" is another of this short's low lights!
Needless to say, this piece of trash was never released, and the writers were arrested for the attempted corruption of minors! This was the real reason the 'Our Gang' series was terminated!
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 11, 2016 23:23:16 GMT -5
Something Stinks (2016) - This is actually an unreleased documentary that yours truly was one of the few to see. It attempts to uncover the great 'Stinky' Mystery in the 'Our Gang' history.
From what the filmmakers were able to uncover, Stinky was based on Charles Lonson Stinkworth, Mr. Roach's favorite childhood playmate. Unfortunately, Charles got ketchup in his eye during a tomato battle in Roach's Elmira neighborhood, and died. You see, blindness, along with the common cold, were among the most common causes of death in America in those days.
Roach spent the rest of his adolescent and young adult life depressed at the loss of his dear friend, and refused to ever touch ketchup again. A new life in Hollywood brought a ray of hope for ol' Hal. In an archive interview, he said, "I just felt like Stinky was leading me there, ya know?"
One bright day in 1921, Roach was in his studio office, when he overheard a gang of ragamuffins outside. Something about sticks of lumber. Roach saw this, and chuckled to himself, "Stinky loved lumber..." Then, an epiphany! Hal decided to create a comedy film series based on his pal Stinky, and the trouble he always got the neighborhood kids into.
The name 'Our Gang' was actually referring to the gang that Hal and Stinky led when they were kids. Hal decided to put Sunshine Sammy in his own role, and a young lad named Bill Frijole in Stinky's role. Despite the Latin-sounding last name, Bill was actually Danish. Pathe used to refer to him as the 'Danish Frijole of Anerican Fun.'
Roach loved the Stinky character so much that he kept him around well into the mid-late '30s. Multiple young actors played the role over the years, including Tom N. Gerry, Albert Doyle, Bill 'Bucky' Green, and Lawrence Fredericks, Jr., son of the renown Shakespearean actor, Sir Lawrence Fredericks, Sr.
Stinky was the daredevil of the Gang - always performing crazy Keatonesque stunts, and smoking stogies. However, the character was never popular with audiences. Stinky would often pick on the other Rascals, with how much thought into how his actions affected them. Among his most memorable moments were:
- Throwing objects at Farina to make him cry - Dressing up like a crazy bearded man and chasing the others around an old abandoned house - Locking Jackie Cooper out of his own house in the middle of the night - Convincing the others to hate Miss Crabtree before actually meeting her - Telling Pennypacker and Dan's wife to take advantage of Grandma - Pushing Spud into a well - Giving booze to a novelty salesman during a train ride - Running over Marianne's doll with his father's truck - Stealing the other kids' food before their big camping trip - Taking photographs of Spanky's mother during her accident at an amateur show - Regularly talking Alfalfa into digesting inedible objects - Ruining Mr. Hood's life - Causing the majority of his fellow Gang members to mysteriously disappear
Reception to Stinky was so poor that in 1946, when Roach began redistributing the 'Our Gang' films, he had editors Bert Jordan and Richard Currier carefully cut any traces of Stinky. Some skillful editing tricks, along with animation from Roy Seawright, had to be used in Order for this to work, but they were able to pull it off - for the most part. Stinky can still frequently be spotted in crowd shots, where he's more or less passed off as an extra.
The best part of the documentary was when all of the surviving Stinkys got together and compared notes about their 'Our Gang' days. Bill remembered nearly falling to his death during the skyscraper scenes in "The Old Wallop." Lawrence remembered the day Alfalfa set his pants on fire - while he was still wearing them. Tom recalled when Marvin Hatley let him conduct the orchestra for the first recording of Laurel and Hardy's "Dance if the Cuckoos." Albert remembered how glad he was when Jackie Cooper left the Gang. "Guess I'll be the star now," he thought. Unfortunately, puberty had already crept up on Albert, leading him to be let go around the same time. Like Cooper and Donald Haines, Albert was partially played by a stand-in for "Bargain Day."
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Post by tboneator64 on Jul 12, 2016 23:40:11 GMT -5
THE "HAPPY" RANGER (1944) - By now, the MGM 'Our Gang' series had been pretty much run into the ground. Nevertheless, in one last desperate bid to save the long running series, the script for the very successful first MGM entry THE LITTLE RANGER (1938) was reworked.
Of course, with Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer having long since departed the series, it was decided that Bill "Froggy" Laughlin's brother, Happy would star, instead. The trouble was, Happy really didn't live up to his nickname, and possessed the charisma of a snow pea! That the gang really no longer had a resident bully character in their cast also didn't help matters! When the short ends with a female minor (Janet Burston, who was bespectacled in a pathetic attempt to make her look like Shirley "Muggsy" Coates!) walking off arm in arm with the middle aged Theater Usher, you know there are very serious script (Among other!) problems!
In short, this no longer extant (Fortunately, in this case!) mess was never released, as it failed to meet even MGM's usual meager standard for these final shorts!
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 15, 2016 20:28:32 GMT -5
Not a 'Worst Episode,' but a 'Worst Home Video Release.'
"The Very, Very Best of the Litttle (sic) Rascals" was released on VHS by the long-defunct company, Shiddeo, in the late 1980s. First off, the cover art is pretty lousy - somebody attempted to draw the Rascals based off of the model sheets from the Hanna-Barbera series. The box cover promises that we'll be seeing "the very, very best moments of Spanky, Alfalfalf (sic), Buckwheat, Darla, Mickey McGuire, Stinky, and Philip MacMahon."
After a lot of video noise and a loud test pattern, we're shown a childish title card, reading "The Very, Very Best of the Little Rascals." A Bozo the Clown knockoff, wearing some extremely ugly make-up, enters the scene, telling us viewers (whom he refers to as "kiddies") about what we'll be seeing. I don't mind clowns, but this fellow was clearly just on board for a paycheck.
Anyhow, we get the usual public domain shorts, all from Blackhawk Films. A very bad Mickey McGuire talkie - in which the gang raids a watermelon patch as a birthday present for Hambone - is also thrown in. The picture and sound quality on this print is so awful, I had to do an intense Google search to figure out the film's plot.
The tape ends with an 'all new Rascals cartoon.' It's actually just that clown host playing with finger puppets for ten minutes. Lame.
At least the box didn't completely lie. There was a "Stinky" on this tape, albeit in the McGuire short.
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Post by RJH on Jul 19, 2016 22:02:08 GMT -5
The Third Alarm (1926) - While the fire department is away, a nearby home catches on fire and the gang tries to put it out. Unfortunately, Farina and Scooter get concussions when they fall back on their heads when Mary pulls a small rug out from under them, a spark catches the large target of Jackie's hair and sets his hair on fire, Joe breaks through a weakened floorboard and gets many nasty splinters, and Johnny drops a fire extinguisher breaking his toe, and the foam gets into Mary's eyes and Jay's nose, but does put out Jackie's hair. They stagger out of the house, which burns down, and then the fire station burns down before the department gets back. The penultimate scene shows all the gang in hospital beds. The final shot is a notice reading: "Fires are dangerous: leave fire fighting to the professionals."
Rumor has it that Mickey was a major contributor to the script, wanting films to look bad after he was kicked out of the gang.
The Fifth Alarm (1926) - In a rewrite, the gang attacks the fire with lots of fire extinguishes. They succeed in putting out the house fire, but the extinguishers remain stuck on open. Most of the gang then gets out, but Farina and Scooter are dazed after the rug was pulled out from under them, and get locked in as the foam rises. Farina jumps on a table, but Scooter pulls him off trying to get on also. (Possible wardrobe issues, but nothing improper is seen due to the rising foam.) Farina and Scooter then embark on an all-out slugfest, oblivious to the fire extinguisher foam until it is several inches over their heads. The next ten minutes shows them trying not to drown by pushing the foam away. Eventually the extinguishers run out, but the duo is not rescued for six hours when they are noticed missing for dinner.
This version also fared poorly before a test audience. "I thought what this series needed was Farina and Scooter duking it out. We never had an interaction between those two like that before. What do we have to do to make this good?" asked one writer. "Maybe we ought to put an exclamation point in the title," responded a second.
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Post by mtw12055 on Jul 20, 2016 20:33:36 GMT -5
Porky (1935) - In this remake of 1932's SPANKY, the kids' stage production of "Birth of a Nation" is constantly interrupted by Spanky's younger brother Porky eating the props. What's crazy is that none of the props are edible. Things get really hectic when Porky decides to auction off his father's 35mm prints of the silent 'Our Gang' shorts to the rambunctious kiddie audience members.
Mickey (1939) - In yet another remake of SPANKY, the Gang's production of "The Wizard of Oz" is constantly interrupted by Mickey Gubitosi standing up on stage and crying about... oh, I don't know, his parents' gas bill, or the outlawing of sit-down strikes, or something. This initially frustrates the big kids, until Leonard Landy pipes up for once and gives them a lecture on freedom of speech. Mickey's complaints prove to be the hit of the show, and the neighborhood kids all agree that he should be the star. Everyone cheers for Mickey, who displays a forced smile as the film fades to black.
Happy (1943) - *Sigh* Yet another remake of SPANKY. The Gang's reenactment of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is constantly interrupted by Happy... doing something. I'm not really sure what. In fact, it almost seems as though the kids are complaining for no reason. In a rare shining moment for the forgettable Rascal with the ironic name, Happy finds Adolf Hitler's written plans to bomb France, and uses them to keep the flames in a campfire going. The frustrated Fuhrer (what's he doing in Greenpoint?) has a nervous breakdown, much to the amusement of the neighborhood children.
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rascalstooge
Full Member
10 years this coming November.
Posts: 238
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Post by rascalstooge on Jul 25, 2016 13:36:14 GMT -5
"The Little Rascals: An Affectionate Tribute To Our Gang"-Hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford, this special focused only on the 1929-38 Roach talkies while paying only lip service to the silent period and completely ignoring the MGM post-Roach era. Emphasizing the Spanky-Alfalfa-Darla-Buckwheat-Porky-Butch shorts at the expense of the earlier players like Jackie [Cooper], Farina, Stymie, Wheezer, Dorothy, Chubby, etc. Never made it to broadcast due to a contract dispute between KLG and the producers.
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Post by myhomeo on Jul 25, 2016 16:05:13 GMT -5
'Fuhrer Furor' - Unbeknownst to most historians, MGM made alternate Pro-Nazi shorts, just in case. In this one, Mickey, Froggy, and Janet are initially dismayed to learn about the changes coming to Greenpoint but a few helpful incidents convince them it's all for the best. They resolve to write Buckwheat soon and see how he's doing at camp.
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Post by myhomeo on Jul 26, 2016 15:05:42 GMT -5
'Hi, Hitler!' - Another of the "Just In Case" pro-Nazi shorts. In this one, the Gang is again upset and dismayed by the New Order but their kindly school principal Mister Swenson helps them understand how it's all really for the best and Froggy willingly reports to the local doctor to be sterilized for the good of The Coming Race.
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Post by tboneator64 on Aug 8, 2016 11:14:06 GMT -5
GREENPOINT, GROUND ZERO! (1944) - In the final short of the "Just In Case" pro-Nazi trilogy, it's decided that the best place to strike America is at its weakest link. Upon having discovered that Greenpoint was the town that nearly went into a huge tizzy over a Dog named Smallpox, Hitler and Mussolini decide that this is the place to invade. There you have the "Real" reason the 'Our Gang' series came to a grinding halt - Ya Vole!
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Post by mtw12055 on Aug 12, 2016 17:53:27 GMT -5
GREENPOINT RFD (1944) - An effort at continuing 'Our Gang' without the Gang. The focus is instead on bit players Frank Lester Ward ("boy, this surprise party sure is full of surprises!!!") and Dickie Hall ("hooray, it's Decoration Day!!!"). Big Shot acts as the token black characters, and the ever kid-friendly Valerie "Marilyn" Lee plays the leading lady.
The pilot film involves Frank being challenged by tough kid Gerald to water ski over a shark. Frank is initially afraid, until he learns for himself that the shark can talk. Frank tries to convince the other kids, but they just laugh at him, and make some lame topical joke about him being dumber than Hitler.
Frank cries because the others compared him to a dictator, or something. I wasn't really paying attention at this point. The water skiing contest never happens, by the way. The shorts department didn't have the budget for it. Instead, the film ends with the shark lecturing the other kids on believing people when they're telling the truth. I don't who would believe a shark can talk, but okay.
THE OUR GANG ARMS (1944) - Another proposed continuation of 'Our Gang' in which Janet moves into a hotel and earns her keep by performing for the guests, and... No, no more. I can't take anymore
THE LAUGHLINS (1944) - Yet another continuation is 'Our Gang,' but with the focus on Froggy and his family. Billy Bletcher plays dad, and also dubs mom (Margaret Bert)'s voice. Beverly Hudson plays Froggy's older sister. They didn't have anyone dub her voice, believe it or not. The pilot finds the family forming a music group in order to entertain Uncle Sam. We watch the Laughlins as they desperately try to make their show as perfect as possible, all the while becoming closer as a family. Blech! The punchline? The family actually has an Uncle Sam, who stops by for a visit. Lame.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2016 19:30:12 GMT -5
Boyz N' the Darla Hood (2016) - In light of the huge popularity of (c)rap music which a lot of older people hate, in this new animated episode, Darla wants to start dating a new student in school who loves hip-hop music. Alfalfa is rejected, and the boys decide to try to win back Darla's affections by forming a rap group. Alfalfa served as the lead rapper, and was involved in a duel competing with their rap music. Towards the end, Darla learned that the boy she had started dating was being detained by the police forr petty larceny, and she regained her interest in Alfalfa, even though she claimed his off-key rap music was awful.
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Post by myhomeo on Aug 18, 2016 16:23:05 GMT -5
'Donkey Hokey' - In light of the popularity of 'Honkey Donkey,' Algebra the Mule was going to be revived for another short. In this one, Stymie is the presumptive owner of the animal, who becomes a local hero after saving a little girl from drowning. People start talking about Stymie's 'great ass,' causing the Gang to follow him around trying to verify this and making him nervous with their staring.
Obviously, the joke ran into problems with the Hays Office...
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Post by mtw12055 on Aug 18, 2016 16:53:12 GMT -5
'Donkey Hokey' - In light of the popularity of 'Honkey Donkey,' Algebra the Mule was going to be revived for another short. In this one, Stymie is the presumptive owner of the animal, who becomes a local hero after saving a little girl from drowning. People start talking about Stymie's 'great ass,' causing the Gang to follow him around trying to verify this and making him nervous with their staring. Obviously, the joke ran into problems with the Hays Office... That made my day!
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Post by myhomeo on Aug 23, 2016 15:32:52 GMT -5
'The Return of Cousin Wilbur' - A proposed third appearance of Scotty Beckett as the prissy Cousin Wilbur, inspired in part by WASHEE IRONEE. In this one, Wilbur and Alfalfa are drafted by Alf's aunt, Wilbur's mother, to assist in a lemonade social. The rest of the Gang find themselves dragooned into helping as well. While the house is being prepared, the Gang persuades Wilbur to join them at the swimmin' hole, where it's customary to swim in the raw. While they skinny-dip, a goat eats their clothes, leaving them in serious trouble when they emerge. They manage to get home without being seen but when Alf's aunt spies them peeping over the fence, she orders them to get to work serving the lemonade to the ladies, immediately. With no other option, they do so.
We then jump to a few days later with the Gang stopping by to apologize to Alfalfa and Cousin Wilbur for getting them in trouble. Wilbur admits finding the whole adventure 'dismaying but also rather exhilarating,' albeit with some painful consequences. We get a notion of said consequences when we see he has a pillow tied to the seat of his trousers.
Ultimately, poor audience response to Cousin Wilbur prompted MGM to decide against using the character again.
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