The grafting mayor of the town has starting charging money for the public swimming pool, so about eighty kids get together to throw on an imitation of the benefit show they saw last week to raise money to buy tools and dig their own pool on a vacant lot.
I don't like the trope of kids putting on a show.It was common, particularly for short subjects, but early exposure to Carl Switzer's singing in OUR GANG shorts turned me off early; the point of such movies is how bad the kids are at performing, which strikes me as ill-natured and pointless.
Some of the kids are actually pretty good in their efforts, but then the movie-makers substitute the performers they are imitating... and they are great. So we get to see halves of great vaudeville acts and wish we had the wholes.
Take a look at that cast list: unless you're a vaudeville historian, the only one you might recognize is Bill Robinson, the great Black tap dancer. His all-too-brief appearance here shows his enormous charisma, and is misshot for his dancing. Other acts are shot better, and they are very enjoyable. However, they should have forgotten the framing device and just offered us the real acts.
I don't like the trope of kids putting on a show.It was common, particularly for short subjects, but early exposure to Carl Switzer's singing in OUR GANG shorts turned me off early; the point of such movies is how bad the kids are at performing, which strikes me as ill-natured and pointless.
Some of the kids are actually pretty good in their efforts, but then the movie-makers substitute the performers they are imitating... and they are great. So we get to see halves of great vaudeville acts and wish we had the wholes.
Take a look at that cast list: unless you're a vaudeville historian, the only one you might recognize is Bill Robinson, the great Black tap dancer. His all-too-brief appearance here shows his enormous charisma, and is misshot for his dancing. Other acts are shot better, and they are very enjoyable. However, they should have forgotten the framing device and just offered us the real acts.