User Reviews

When I was a kid, i was certain that there was a character named Miss McGillicuddy, certain that Our Gang was a continuing story surrounding the various eras of children and the adults in their lives. Boy what a lesson I learned when I discovered that most of the entries were self contained stories involving unrelated characters from episode to episode with a few story archs here and there, mostly involving June Marlowe's character. As the lovely new school teacher, Miss Crabtree is amused to learn from the hitchhiking Jackie of what they intend to do to the new teacher whom he assumes is a hag. Boy will he be surprised, not only by who Miss Crabtree is and what her intentions are. It's a practically perfect set-up, a combination of sweetness and light slapstick, and a trip down memory lane of anybody who ever had a grade school teacher whom they adored.

A wonderful Our Gang short that certainly deserves the accolades heaped upon it throughout the years. A warm, heartfelt, humorous look at a boyhood crush between student and teacher. Jackie Cooper shines as the young student smitten by new teacher Miss Crabtree. June Marlowe, while not a great actress, is endearing and lovely as the new teacher. A well told and well acted short that is rightly looked at as one of Our Gang's best.

As much as this short is noted for introducing Marlowe and Matthew Beard to audiences as well as being one of three shorts to use spoken word opening credits and for introducing the "Good Old Days" opening theme, what is equally important is it's recognition as a time capsule. A wonderful look at the more simple times that have longed since passed. The dirt road leading to school. The beautiful eucalyptus trees lining the road. The one room school house. A snap shot of more simple days. What also helps this short is how it was filmed. A soft focus, almost haze-like approach that really conveys the feeling of a warm, late summer day when school was back in session. Classic!

" . . . and tan (your butt)?" MGM film star Jackie Cooper asks a young female school teacher a couple minutes into this expose on misogyny and woman-hating up in Canadia. That so-called nation (aka, America's Northern Threat) is infamous for having a college system in which failing engineering dudes grab the nearest military-style assault rifle and go A-Huntin' for the Ladies. TEACHER'S PET, the 13th in a series of "Little Rascals" documentary shorts meant to alert the world to the serious dangers posed by gangs of juvenile delinquent thugs from Canadia, probably inspired Today's shooters more than dissuaded them. This TEACHER'S PET episode, in fact, features a whole raft of gratuitous gun violence references which turned out to be self-fulfilling prophecies. And Jack is not alone in dreaming up sadistic tortures for poor Ms. Crabtree's posterior. Jack's pal Chub anticipates the scene with jars of stinging wasps affixed to writing unclothed nuns depicted in the later feature film THE DEVILS (which takes place somewhere in Canadia, if I'm not mistaken): Chub gets stinging ants into Ms. C's pants (about the worst he could do here, since documentary shorts are not eligible to be released with the NC-17 rating).

First of all, I hope all of you, regardless of age, had a great Summer and for those of you going back to school (either to study or to teach), good luck! My next Our Gang review will be Teacher's Pet, co-written, directed and produced by Robert McGowan (with Hal Roach as co-producer and H.M. Walker as co-writer). It was released in October, 1930 (almost 90 years ago) and featured Jackie Cooper, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Allen "Farina" Huskins, Matthew "Hercules" Beard (later known as Stymie), Norman "Chubby" Chaney, Dorothy "the Echo" DeBorba, Mary Ann Jackson and Buddy McDonald. It marked the debut of June Marlowe as Miss Crabtree and also a new theme by Leroy Shield, The Good Ol' Days, which would be used for 8 years. Instead of a title card with credits, 2 female twins would verbally read you the credits and close with "We thank you!" Plot synopsis: On the 1st day of school, the Gang mourns their former beloved teacher Miss McGillicuddy (who's just gotten married and retired from teaching). The name Crabtree doesn't sound all that attractive and Mary Ann does a comedy impression of her. Jackie, Chubby and Farina coach their younger siblings as to what to say. Wheezer is supposed to wait for Jackie to blow his nose and say "Jackie's gotta come home. She's gonna shoot Papa!" "Nah, that's too strong," Jackie says "Tell them it's important business!" So Wheezer repeats "portin bizness." Chubby tells Dorothy to say "Mama cut off her finger." "Hey, wait a minute," Chubby corrects her "Only cut off one finger!" And Dorothy repeats it 3 times, much to Chubby's exasperation. Farina has an excuse for little brother Hercules to give. Meanwhile, Miss Crabtree orders cake and ice cream for her students as she wants to make a good impression. She sees Jackie on the road walking to school who smiles bashfully at her and offers him a ride. Jackie shares they have a new teacher and she's probably a "mean battle-axe and I ain't gonna like her." He shares Buddy is going to give her a white rat, Farina is going to give her sneezing powder and Chubby is going to give her a bottle of ants. "Then we're all going swimming!" Before driving off, Jackie admits the lady is pretty and he wishes she was her teacher "all except in her nose." "Even with my nose?," she asks knowingly. Jackie bashfully admits "You ain't got such a bad nose!" He waves goodbye and little does he know it, but Wheezer has been riding in the spare tire! As Jackie joins his buddies at school, he tells her about the pretty woman he got a ride from. Chubby doesn't believe she's a match for Miss McGillicuddy. "She's what my Dad calls a pip!" And the school bell rings and the words Crab Tree, previously written in the dirt, are crossed out. When Jackie realizes the pip who gave him the ride and Miss Crabtree are one and the same, he feels embarrassed. Farina asks "What's the matter, belly ache?" "No, that's the Pip who gave me the ride! And did I tell her everything, oh boy!" She calls him to the front and he wears a mask. She shows him and the class a picture Jackie drew "of the new teacher." Then she asks him to collect all the "presents" from Chubby, Farina and Buddy. The sneezing powder makes the whole class sneeze and the ants bite both Chubby and Miss Crabtree, who throws the bottle of ants our the window! Then she announces she has ice cream and cake for the class and it'll be like a holiday. Then the younger siblings come in and share their excuses why Jackie, Chubby and Farina must be excused. So she excuses all 3 including Buddy, who've changed their minds and want to stay for her party. "My pal!," shouts Farina. "Yeah, what a tattletale he turned he out to be!" Jackie says in his defense if he knew that was Miss Crabtree, he wouldn't have told her his plan. So Farina, Chubby and Buddy go back and apologize so they can "get in on that ice cream!" Jackie stays outside, ashamed, and starts to cry. Miss Crabtree sneaks outside, knowing her little friend is still out there, and offers him some ice cream and cake! Trivia: June Marlowe was really a brunette but had to wear a blonde wig in order to match Jackie Cooper's blond hair. Also, in order to make Jackie's crying at the end more authentic, the director threatened to shoot his dog! What I liked: I liked the way the Gang is, with something up each of their sleeves! Their younger siblings seem happy to "help out." You can see Jackie is smitten by Miss Crabtree, understandably so. Even the caterer admits "I wish I could go to school again!" Also, the rural scenes are fun to watch. If you've ever lived in the country or near there, you can appreciate them. Also, Jackie proves to be a good actor, as he shows happiness with the "Pip who gave me the ride," anger with his kid brother Wheezer for spilling the beans and sadness at the end for doing something like that to a person he liked. Finally, Miss Crabtree is sweet and forgiving, the kind of teacher we all wish we had! 10 helpings of ice cream and cake out of 10!

"Teacher's Pet" is a 20-minute black-and-white short film from 1930, so this one is already over 85 years old. And still because of the young cast, some of the protagonists (including Jackie Cooper) still lived until way into the 21st century. By now you probably realize this is another Rascals short film and the main antagonist / main (grown-up) friend in here is once again Miss Crabtree, a recurring character in these old sound films played by the fairly stunning June Marlowe. Nonetheless in terms of the story I found it underwhelming to say the least. Director is McGowan, writer is Walker like many other times with these Our Gang films. And like most of the others, this one is also really overrated here on IMDb. Even if you are a fan, there is no way one can make an argument that this is on the same level quality-wise with stuff like Network, No country for Old Men or On the Waterfront. Anyway, as for the contents here, there was not as much animal action as in other Rascals films, just one scene basically. The story is about the kids (one in particular) trying to prank Miss Crabtree, but of course that's not gonna happen. I give it a thumbs-down. Even at under half an hour, it dragged quite a bit in my opinion.