Mickey and Joe manage to climb into the engine car in the railyards and cause all sorts of mischief until they are thrown out.... so they build their own railroad! Far more elaborate and far-fetched than this sweet-natured series usually is, once again, it works because of the playfulness and reality of the kids.
7 Reviews
Dumb But Cute
Glen_and_Glenda19 March 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Not exactly a masterpiece of silent cinema, but still fairly enjoyable. The kiddies like trains so they ride one. However, while the crew are on a break, the kiddies start driving the train themselves, almost running over a little black girl. However, the fun all ends when the adults find out. The kiddies then build their own train (very unrealistic), powered by a dog trying to chase a cat! "Toughie", a bad kid, ruins the fun by first making a wooden wall which the kiddie-made train crashes into, then by breaking the track, causing the kiddie-made train to crash down a long street! All in all it's good clean fun, nobody in it is taking themselves seriously and it's pleasant, escapist fun. Worth checking out for scenes of 1920's lifestyles.
The Sun Down Limited was another amusing Our Gang short
tavm24 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This Hal Roach comedy short, The Sun Down Limited, is the thirty-first in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. In this one, Mickey and Joe are in the engineer's room of the train with the rest of the gang in the back car. Of course, the actual operators are with the two boys. Then those men take a break and tell them not to do anything on the train till they're back. Of course, Mickey and Joe do not listen and get Farina in trouble when that toddler gets stuck on the tracks as they keep going back and forth operating the controls while Farina keeps ducking the train. So after the engineers find out, they're thrown out and form their own train. But now a bully named Toughy is after them since he has his own train and doesn't like his business taken from him...This was quite an amusing short and fulfills a childhood fantasy of being in charge of a vehicle meant to stay on tracks. The chaos that results seems real enough at the actual locations. I really liked this one so on that note, I recommend The Sun Down Limited.
Fun Our Gang Short
Michael_Elliott24 January 2011
Sun Down Limited, The (1924)
*** (out of 4)
Up to this point in the series there's no doubt that this film was the highlight of the Our Gang series. Mickey and Joe are playing at the railroad station when they're kicked out for causing too much trouble. The kids decide to get together and create their own train and railroad station, which they do but soon a neighborhood bully tries to cause havoc. This certainly isn't the greatest film ever made and no one will mistake it for a masterpiece but I think for the series it's the best I've seen up to this point. There's not too many great laughs but there are enough interesting visuals to make it worth viewing. The first nine-minutes have the kids playing on a train and of course Mickey and Joe end up starting it up and taking off on their own. Farina gets his food caught in the center of the tracks and ends up getting ran over several times which is the "joke" of this portion of the film. The second half has the kids building up their train and eventually taking it out for a spin. I must admit that I loved the look of the train because it really does seem like something these kids would be able to put together. I thought the imagination was quite high and especially how the used the dog to make the train run. This short runs 26-minutes, which was longer than your normal time but it never seems boring and certainly makes for some nice entertainment.
*** (out of 4)
Up to this point in the series there's no doubt that this film was the highlight of the Our Gang series. Mickey and Joe are playing at the railroad station when they're kicked out for causing too much trouble. The kids decide to get together and create their own train and railroad station, which they do but soon a neighborhood bully tries to cause havoc. This certainly isn't the greatest film ever made and no one will mistake it for a masterpiece but I think for the series it's the best I've seen up to this point. There's not too many great laughs but there are enough interesting visuals to make it worth viewing. The first nine-minutes have the kids playing on a train and of course Mickey and Joe end up starting it up and taking off on their own. Farina gets his food caught in the center of the tracks and ends up getting ran over several times which is the "joke" of this portion of the film. The second half has the kids building up their train and eventually taking it out for a spin. I must admit that I loved the look of the train because it really does seem like something these kids would be able to put together. I thought the imagination was quite high and especially how the used the dog to make the train run. This short runs 26-minutes, which was longer than your normal time but it never seems boring and certainly makes for some nice entertainment.
Racist film offerings from the infamous "Lyin' Den" . . .
pixrox128 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
. . . (aka, the Millionaire Gentlemen's Movie company) did NOT begin with this same deplorable outfit's infamous bladder-busting Snooze Fest, GONE WITH THE WIND. As early as the 1920s, these malingering lame-brains were foisting off such "comedy" shorts as THE SUN DOWN LIMITED upon the American Public in support of the divisive "Jim Crow" South. A Black kid named "Farina" gets a foot caught between the rails of a switchyard track six minutes into SUN DOWN. Ha Ha. Soon two White boys steal a real, full-size locomotive with which to terrorize Farina. This pair of Racist thugs endeavor to race the train back and forth over the beleaguered child not once, not twice, not thrice--but FOUR times during the next 80 seconds of cinematic "hijinks." It's less a case of "Boys will be boys" than "Racist rats will be rapacious rodents." Farina is later intentionally blasted with "steam" across the eyes, nose, and mouth--resulting in a case of "White Face"--and winds up a day of misadventures abandoned by the White gang members in the wreckage of their miniature train. You cannot convince me "It's all in good fun."
Not terrible, not great, but highly interesting shooting locations
pithecanthropus-650169 September 2015
This is an early silent Our Gang comedy whose cast will likely be entirely unfamiliar to the generation that remembers watching Spanky, Darla, and Alfalfa on after school TV. It isn't one of the best Rascal films out there.
On the other hand, this film is absolutely fascinating for both historical railroad enthusiasts and Los Angeles history buffs. There are numerous sequences showing heavy steam locomotives and Pacific Electric (the old Red Car system) rolling stock. There is a brief shot of the Palms P.E./S.P. station, about 100 yards west of the new Palms LACMTA Metro station.
Other segments are centered on or near the intersection of Motor Avenue and National Boulevard, where a good deal of period architecture still exists. The 1915 building on the SE corner of Motor and National figures prominently in a scene near the end.
On the other hand, this film is absolutely fascinating for both historical railroad enthusiasts and Los Angeles history buffs. There are numerous sequences showing heavy steam locomotives and Pacific Electric (the old Red Car system) rolling stock. There is a brief shot of the Palms P.E./S.P. station, about 100 yards west of the new Palms LACMTA Metro station.
Other segments are centered on or near the intersection of Motor Avenue and National Boulevard, where a good deal of period architecture still exists. The 1915 building on the SE corner of Motor and National figures prominently in a scene near the end.
This film is essentially "Railroadin'" but without sound.
planktonrules28 February 2012
The second Our Gang comedy to feature sound was "Railroadin'"--and it wasn't a particularly good film. It featured some insane parenting, poor sound and was in no way an improvement over this original picture. While "The Sun Down Limited" isn't a very good film, it is a bit better than the remake.
The film begins with Mickey Daniels and Joe Cobb hopping rides with two railroad engineers on their trains. However, when the two engineers leave the train to take a quick break, Joe and Mickey hop aboard and take the train for a spin!! In the process, they nearly run over a black member of the gang--who seems to be a bit of a racist cliché (with pickininny braids flying up in the air when the kid is frightened). It all seems pretty limp but might be of some interest to fans of silents and those determined to see each and every one of these Hal Roach Productions!
The film begins with Mickey Daniels and Joe Cobb hopping rides with two railroad engineers on their trains. However, when the two engineers leave the train to take a quick break, Joe and Mickey hop aboard and take the train for a spin!! In the process, they nearly run over a black member of the gang--who seems to be a bit of a racist cliché (with pickininny braids flying up in the air when the kid is frightened). It all seems pretty limp but might be of some interest to fans of silents and those determined to see each and every one of these Hal Roach Productions!
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