User Reviews

According to IMDB, this first Our Gang comedy (appropriately named "Our Gang") is a lost film. Well, you should tell YouTube that, as it IS posted there and I just saw it.

The first portion has little to do with the final portion...and the final portion of the film is best.

It begins with Jimmy trying to impress Flora (in the credits they are listed as Jackie and Mary Jane). The credits say Jimmy is 6...he looks about 10. Regardless, this is an inoffensive but relatively dull portion of the movie. What IS interesting is when a nice shopkeeper finds herself being put out of business by a grouchy man. The kids like her and decide to help...and their mule and horse help as well. This part is loaded with laughs and made me smile.

Aside from a continuity problem towards the end when the grouch loses his coat to a dog and it suddenly appears on him seconds later, this is a lovely and fun outing....and, had it not been, perhaps it would have been the first AND last Our Gang film!

This is the very first Our Gang comedy...and it's appropriately entitled "Our Gang". However, only a portion of the original film exists today and Turner Classic Movies showed this four and a half minute segment from a short that was probably originally 20 minutes more or less. Because of this, you cannot give the film a numerical score.

What you have are a variety of story elements but where they go and what it's all about, I have no idea. But it is anyone's guess where it all goes--there's the rich prissy kid who takes the girl, there are the ragamuffin gang members and some plot involving working at Mary Jane's mother's store. I did love the way the kids arranged the package delivery--using their mule. You just have to see it to believe it. Additionally, it was nice to see 'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison (Ernest Morrison) playing an important part of the film--as the Our Gang comedies were incredibly progressive for their time by having black and white kids playing together as equals.

Our Gang was the first installment produced in the long-running shorts series... to confuse things it was the third film released. Hal Road and director Fed Newmeyer shot the 2-reeler around Los Angeles in the late Spring of 1922 and previewed it in several theaters around town. Based on his belief in the concept rather than the lukewarm public reception, Roach green-lighted the series but scrapped most or all of the original footage and brought Robert McGowan in to rework it, officially releasing Our Gang on Nov. 5, 1922 (One Terrible Day was the first film to be released, followed by Fire Fighters). Sadly, Our Gang is considered a lost film. But since film historians tend to rely on production dates Our Gang, can be called the first film and that makes it significant. After all, how many film series can claim to have survive through the advent of sound across 21 years, innumerable cast changes, 2 distributors, a studio change, through 221 installments (including a feature--- not to mention that thing in the 90's)? No doubt about it: Our Gang (or The Little Rascals, if you prefer) had legs.

Most modern audiences have never seen any of the 88 silents (the transition to sound began with crude synchronized sound effects during the 1928 season, but complete conversion to talkies wouldn't occur until the following year).

Significant events: 1922: series begins as a 2-reeler (roughly 22 minutes) and distributed through the Pathe Exchange, a pioneering French film company with offices in New York City (it ironically, financed and distributed Roach's primary competitor Mack Sennett). 1922-1926: Although boasting many likable kids (Johnny Downs, "Farina" Hoskins, Joe Cobb, Jackie Condon, etc.). Mickey Daniels becomes the un-official star of the series. His departure in 1926 leaves a series void that wouldn't be filled until the arrival of Jackie Cooper in 1929's Boxing Gloves. 1927: Roach ends his association with the rapidly disintegrating Pathe Exchange (with The Smile Wins, short #66) and signs a distribution and financing deal with MGM. Technology note: MGM, despite being the stellar studio in the world, takes a long wait-and-see attitude regarding talkies (primarily due to the huge expense that parent Loew's Inc. faces in converting it's vast theater chain to sound. This stretches out 'Our Gang's part-talkie period, allowing uncoverted studios to run silent versions). 1928: Barnum & Ringling (#74) is released with synchronized sound effects. 1929: Small Talk (#89; released as a 3-reeler) is the first all-talking Our Gang short. 1929-31: Jackie Cooper becomes a major star and departs for features after 15 Our Gang shorts (ending with Bargain Day, #106). 1932: George "Spanky" Mcfarland debuts in Free Eats (#112). Dickie Moore appears in 8 shorts beginning with Hook and Ladder (#116) and leaves for a successful feature career. 1934: Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas debuts in For Pete's Sake (#127) and would remain with the series until the end. 1935: Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer debuts in Beginner's Luck (#135) and, over time, becomes a headache (his antics would end his series tenure at MGM). 1936: Roach bombs with General Spanky, a 71-minute feature (technically Our Gang #150). 1938: Roach sells the Our Gang unit to MGM and exits shorts production completely in favor of feature films. These MGM-produced entries are generally dismal. 1943: Series production ends with the 221st production, Tale of a Dog (Our Gang shorts are released into 1944).

Anna Mae Bilson did NOT play the widow in this film. She played "Mary Jane," the widow's daughter. This was filmed in 1922. In 1921, she played "Dolly," or as listed here at IMDb,"the girl" in Harold Lloyd's "Now Or Never." You don't play a 4-year old one year and a widow the next year. That makes no sense. I have seen both films (at least what has been found of "Our Gang") and it is without a doubt the same girl. Besides having blonde hair, Anna Mae Bilson bears no resemblance to Mary Kornman. Mary Kornman was NOT in this film. Only about half of this film has been discovered, and it would be great if the rest would turn up somewhere so we can view the complete film, as viewed in 1922.

I've actually seen this film (or at least all that currently exists of it). It's pretty funny. After a few amusing bits involving a boy trying to win over Mary Jane's love through chivalry and Ernie (Sunshine Sammy) Morrison's efforts to find clothes while his mother washes what appears to be his only wardrobe, we get into the storyline about Mary Jane's mother's store being threatened by a crooked businessman.

There is a good deal of funny stuff in the film. A really clever gag involves the kids putting dental cream on the dog's mouths and yelling "Mad dog" to cause people to faint and land in a wheelchair so Sammy could wheel them into Mary Jane's mother's store (not to be confused with Mary Kornman). However, the 12 minutes that survives of the film does not leave you missing what's left. It tells a good story on its own so we could be thankful for what remains. Judging from this, Our Gang was off to a great start.

I'd just like to comment that THERE NEVER WAS A FRECKLES ON OUR GANG!!! I have the book and it states clearly that there was never a Freckles. But other than that I loved the Little Rascals and I own 21 volumes of their movies. I also have some of the rare old silent Little Rascals and they are the best! Kudos to Hal Roach and the rest of the gang for bringing entertainment to my home!

When producer Hal Roach realized the great reception at the box office his first nationwide showing of "One Terrible Day" was, he released three other shorts that were made a few months before, one month at a time. By November 1922, the very first movie that was filmed back in the spring was released under the name of "Our Gang." One reel survives today of the initial effort, but it does introduce several of the kids who would have interesting futures.

Peggy Cartwright appeared in the first four, only to have her doctor father uproot his family back to Canada so she could get a decent college scholarship; Jackie Condon stuck with the gang until 1928, and had always wanted to act, but ended working for Rockwell International; freckle-faced Mickey Daniels left in 1928, and eventually became a cab driver in San Diego; Jack Davis, brother of actress Mildred Davis who married Harold Lloyd, stuck with it for only one year, becoming a cardiologist in Los Angeles; Allen 'Farina' Hoskins, who plays the two-year-old, remained with the gang until 1931, saw action in the Pacific Campaign of World War Two, and operated a rehabilitation business in Oakland; Sunshine Sammy Morrison left in early 1925 over a pay raise, became a quality control inspector for an aerospace company; and the Doty twins, who appeared in "One Terrible Day," ended their lives in tragedy during a double date when they were caught up in a flash flood leaving a party in their car in Montrose, California, and washed away. The storm killed 40 in the communty, including the twins.

McGowan, who was familiar with the adage that "children make the best comedians," received the green light to produce more "Our Gang" shorts, he began a unique working relationship with the young actors throughout his 11 years directing the series. He would explain to those children who weren't old enough to read what they should do for each scene, encouraging them to improvise as they went along.

Today's viewers are familiar with the "Our Gang" kids by the title "The Little Rascals." Roach, who sold the franchise to MGM Studios in 1938, bought the entire Our Gang catalogue in 1948. A year later, the producer repackage 79 out of 80 shorts for television and called the series 'The Little Rascals.'

This Hal Roach comedy short, Our Gang, is the first of what would be a popular series from The Lot of Fun. The series title was originally called Hal Roach's Rascals but after the trade press and motion picture exhibitors saw the preview of this, they asked for "lots more of those Our Gang comedies". So it would be also known as "Our Gang Comedies". In this one, leading lady Mary Jane (Anna Mae Bilson) is the object of desire for two boys, one of whom is a rich kid with curls played by John Hatton. This was their only Our Gang appearance. Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison seems to be more of the lead here as his character gets involved in most of the gags concerning many animals, mostly involving Dinah the Mule. Mickey Daniels and Jackie Condon have small parts here. The second plot involves Mary Jane and her mother whose store is not doing well and may lose to a next-door rival who'd love to get rid of them. If you're familiar with many of the Rascals' subsequent films, you know that rival won't last long and he doesn't! Long thought lost, the version I saw on YouTube seemed to have some scenes missing but it was mostly enjoyable for what it was. Robert Francis McGowan was the right director for this particular series as his rapport with children was playful during the most of the series' run. All in all, whatever I saw of Our Gang was a good start for the eventual classic series.

After reading the review in Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann's 1992 "Little Rascals" book of this very first "Our Gang" film, I can only hope someone will locate and restore the film, and ultimately put it on DVD. It sounds like "Our Gang" at its best and funniest (I wonder what that surviving fragment of "Our Gang" Maltin and Bann cited was like?). For that matter, it would be nice to see some of these early silents, period, since some of them were the "blueprints" for the more commonly seen (sound) episodes. I wonder what kind of "show" the kids and their pets put on to win the widow's much-needed business? Maybe a makeshift circus?....

Although there was no Freckles officially, many people called Mickey Daniels Freckles also Joe Cobb was called Fatty unofficially. This added to confusion of the actual characters. A number of individuals claimed to have been certain characters that did not exist such as smelly, fatso etc.

I find it somewhat odd that no one has seen the old silent versions of "Our Gang," and that it is supposed to be lost except for fragments. In the 1960's there was a series for children called "The Mischief Makers." This was a syndicated series featuring the silent "Our Gang" movies with an added sound track of Wurlitzer organ music and child commentators who were a boy and a girl, "Bobby and Bonnie." I used to see it as a child on L.A.'s Channel 9 in about the years 1964-65. There is currently on U-Tube a clip of the animated opening and closing of the program produced by Gene Deitch in 1960. Now I have heard that some silent comedies that were put on TV as similar series in the '60's had mostly clips that were used and that the dastardly editors of the time would destroy the rest of the silent film. I hope this is not the case with Our Gang/The Mischief Makers. But I do remember the series and the characters well.

An earlier comment by suzyq19651 asked who Robert Blake played as a member of Our Gang. Robert Blake did not appear in the group of shorts commonly referred to as The Little Rascals, with such as Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky and Darla. Blake appeared later on after Hal Roach sold his franchise to MGM. MGM recast the series with a group of younger children, although Spanky did appear in some of these as an older and much larger fellow. Blake was a member of this later group and played the character of Mickey Gubitosi, which was his actual birth name. This was in keeping with the Our Gang format in which most characters used their real names, though usually with a nickname such as Spanky or Butch. Froggy was also a part of this later group, which as a group simply did not measure up to prior ones.

I don't know who Robert Blake played or which years that he played him? I recently received an e-mail saying that these "Our Gang" characters grew up to do this and that such as Alfalfa was shot to death at age 31,Norman Chaney "Chubby" died at age 22 after an operation weighing 300 lb.s,and Mathew Bear "Stymie" led a life crime and drugs. He died of a stroke at the age of 56.Darla Hood contacted Hepatitis and died at the age of 47.William Thomas "Buckwheat" died at the age of 56 of a heart attack. Scotty Beckett died at the age of 38 after a brutal beating,and one was "Spanky" played by Robert Blake,but I don't think that was correct information.Spanky was played by George McFarland. Does anybody know who Robert Blake's character was? Was it Porky?