I think the best way to describe this film is --you should pardon the expression-- "pedestrian." It's fairly typical of the dross that came out of the MGM film-mill.
As long as the Gang was doing its thing for the Hal Roach Studios, the quality remained high, primarily because Roach understood children and knew how to work with them. Once the transfer to the mammoth MGM complex was affected, the kids appear to have been treated as mere product themselves, which must have been demoralizing.
The stories became duller, too, and concentrated more on moralizing lessons than humor (see the ghastly "Robot Wrecks," if you doubt.) The later works simply are not funny.
Rounding-out the disaster was the loss due to natural attrition of some key figures: Spanky McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, and Tommy Bond. Froggy Laughlin and Mickey Gubitosi simply had shoes too big for them to fill, and expecting the whining Freddie "Slicker" Walburn to replace Bond was an impossibility from the outset.
This film was a part of a sad slide into oblivion for a once great comedy troupe.
As long as the Gang was doing its thing for the Hal Roach Studios, the quality remained high, primarily because Roach understood children and knew how to work with them. Once the transfer to the mammoth MGM complex was affected, the kids appear to have been treated as mere product themselves, which must have been demoralizing.
The stories became duller, too, and concentrated more on moralizing lessons than humor (see the ghastly "Robot Wrecks," if you doubt.) The later works simply are not funny.
Rounding-out the disaster was the loss due to natural attrition of some key figures: Spanky McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, and Tommy Bond. Froggy Laughlin and Mickey Gubitosi simply had shoes too big for them to fill, and expecting the whining Freddie "Slicker" Walburn to replace Bond was an impossibility from the outset.
This film was a part of a sad slide into oblivion for a once great comedy troupe.