Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.)

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
The Ol' Grey Hoss (1928)
Topic Started: Sep 3 2012, 09:43 AM (379 Views)
Laughing Gravy
Member Avatar
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
[ *  *  * ]
These Our Gang films from the late 1920s are an odd group, as directed by Anthony Mack. They pay a lot more attention to weird gags and special effects than they pay to the kind of warm, human humor we find in the best 1930s Gang adventures.

This one's a case in point; the plot is a quintessential Our Gang story. Poor old Chief Cummings (Richard Cummings) was forced to retire from the Fire Department, and he uses his broken-down nag to cart a coach around as a taxi service. Alas, a new (and particularly nasty) cabbie in one o' them new-fangled motorized taxis is stealing all his customers, so the Chief is being evicted, to the dismay of the Gang, who love the old coot. They decide to booby-trap the motor cab and steer new business to the Chief.

That's all fine, and in the 1930s we'd see that plot used to help one old Grandma or another save her house or her store or learn how to rollerskate. Here, though, we get one good gag: Mary Ann dropping popcorn into the batter and making explosive pancakes. The other gags, from electrifying the cab and shocking people (with cartoon bolts) to making poor Wheezer go through a series of embarrassing "get lost" jokes, are mainly tedious. I did love the scene in which the kids put a "Free Cab Rides" sign on the back of the motor cab and watch as he drives people all over town at no charge, and there's a chase scene with Joe Cobb and Harry Spear in a runaway horse cart that shows the Hal Roach team at their best, lots of good chasing through the streets of early Culver City. In any case, we're all glad when what should've happened all along finally happens: Petey bites the evil cabbie on the ass. The film's closing, with the kids jumping off a high-level bridge and landing on their heads in the mud far, far below, is ugly and horrifying. Yikes.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Free Forums with no limits on posts or members.
Learn More · Register for Free
« Previous Topic · Silents, Please · Next Topic »
Add Reply