The Little Rascals Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

The Little Rascals Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 22, 2021

The vagaries of both initial branding and, later, various rights’ holders means that The Little Rascals are also known as Our Gang and even, as several title cards in this collection document, His Rascals, with that possessive pronoun referring to, of course, Hal Roach, the inimitable showman who came up with the idea of letting kids just be kids in front of the camera. The Our Gang series managed to last from 1922 to 1944, resulting in over two hundred shorts (and one feature, General Spanky) being released. With a production span of over two decades, it’s understandable that children came and went in the series, but there’s a remarkable consistency of tone and humor throughout many of the films, no matter what their particular production year may have been. That may have been due at least in part to the director who helped shape the series and who helmed many of the shorts, Robert F. McGowan, a former firefighter from Denver who decided it was arguably a little less dangerous to be working in Hollywood, where he soon befriended and then later came to work for Hal Roach. Kind of hilariously, the success of the Our Gang series cemented McGowan’s reputation as a director who was incredibly facile working with children, but it also led to McGowan encountering health problems from having to work with children (and their stage parents). Even more hilariously, when McGowan left the series to accept a deal with Paramount to direct features, he ended up working with the likes of Frances Farmer (in her first feature, Too Many Parents, a film which featured a coterie of child actors, including Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer), which some may feel was the cinematic equivalent of jumping out of the fire and into the frying pan. ClassicFlix has undertaken an impressive restoration strategy with regard to the Our Gang shorts, and this first volume offers the initial eleven shorts from the series’ transition from silents to talkies, with sound films from 1929 and 1930.

These early Our Gang talkies show quite clearly why the series was so popular. The kids are amazingly natural throughout, and if some of the characterizations, notably some of the African Americans like regular presence Farina or guest star Stepin Fetchit, may strike modern day sensibilities as verging on the objectionable, it's also rather remarkable and maybe even refreshing to see an integrated cast of kids (and, occasionally, adults) like this as early as 1929 and 1930 where the interaction between everyone is just deemed "normal". Details about the eleven shorts in this collection are below, which include some information from ClassicFlix as well as some thoughts of my own.

Small Talk (released May 18, 1929) was the first talkie in the Our Gang series and it kind of interestingly casts the kids as orphans, with Wheezer getting adopted and chaos resulting when his friends visit.

Railroadin' (released June 15, 1929) is a crazy piece with the kids commandeering an out of control locomotive. This was Norman "Chubby" Chaney's first appearance in an Our Gang film.

Lazy Days (released August 15, 1929) is a showcase for Farina, who became one of the most popular characters in the franchise.

Boxing Gloves (released September 9, 1929) features Farina again, this time as a kind of boxing promoter with Harry. This offered Jackie Cooper his first Our Gang appearance.

Bouncing Babies (released October 12, 1929) is a slightly gonzo short with Wheezer attempting to trade in his new baby brother for a goat.

Moan & Groan, Inc. (released December 7, 1929) is kind of interesting to view within the context of what would have then been the immediate aftermath of the "great crash of 1929", since the kids are on the hunt for hidden treasure.

Shivering Shakespeare (released January 25, 1930) is the Our Gang equivalent of the famous pie fight scene in another Hal Roach effort, Laurel and Hardy's The Battle of the Century (included on the Blu-ray release of https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Laurel-and-Hardy-The-Definitive-Restorations-Blu- ray/263565/).

The First Seven Years (released March 1, 1930) features a menage a trois between Jackie, Mary Ann and Speck.

When the Wind Blows (released April 5, 1930) features a "dark and stormy night" which wreaks havoc with both Jackie and Farina.

Bear Shooters (released May 17, 1930) is fun for its location photography, as the kids end up going on a supposed hunting trip, but end up dealing with some nasty moonshiners.

A Tough Winter (released June 21, 1930) features Stepin Fetchit attempting to help the kids.

The Little Rascals Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 1 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.38:1. The back cover of this release offers a generic "newly scanned and restored from original Hal Roach 35mm film elements", but the restoration featurette includes a bit more information courtesy of a couple of text cards:

Original nitrate film elements for the iconic Hal Roach "Our Gang" film series, later to be known as "The Little Rascals", have languished in studio vaults for decades without any urgency or desire to preserve, restore and release these beloved short subjects with presentations worthy of their status in popular culture.

ClassicFlix has endeavored to right this wrong by seeking out and finding the best available film elements for each short in this collection.

For seven of the eleven shorts in Volume 1, we were able to use original nitrate film elements as a scanning source. Fine grain and other safety elements were used on three shorts because nitrate material either doesn't exist or was far too deteriorated to use. And for one short, Railroadin', we used a mix of safety and nitrate film sources.

Each short has its own restoration story, with some proving more challenging than others.

As probably alluded to in that last comment, this collection understandably shows some variances in damage, clarity, contrast and grain resolution, as can probably be made out by cycling through the screenshots included with this review, but generally speaking this is a really commendable and enjoyable first "at bat" for ClassicFlix and The Little Rascals. In the best moments, there is appealing sharpness and a nicely organic appearance, with enjoyable detail levels in close-ups in particular. There are some ragged looking sections at times, sometimes even within otherwise relatively secure looking transfers, but judging just by the condition of some of the raw scans seen in the restoration featurette, the results here are kind of amazing. Damage has managed to evade the restoration gauntlet to the point that minor scratches and nicks can sometimes be spotted, but the overall presentation here is very winning.

The Little Rascals Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

These first eleven Our Gang talkies were made at the very dawn of the sound era in 1929 and 1930, and as such, certain leeway needs to be afforded the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks included on this release. Some of these kind of strangely don't have any score underlying the credits, and occasionally even the initial dialogue can sound like it's joined in progress, but aside from some expected thinness, there's no appreciable damage in the form of dropouts during dialogue and the like. There are certainly variances in fidelity at times, and some of the earliest shorts suffer from obviously inadequate recording technologies. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Little Rascals Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Restoration Comparison (HD; 4:33)


• Zenobia Trailer (HD; 3:52) plays automatically at disc boot up but is accessible separately under the Bonus Features menu as well.

The Little Rascals Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

ClassicFlix is off to a great start with this first volume of shorts from the variously titled Our Gang nad/or The Little Rascals. The restoration featurette shows a number of source elements in decidedly horrifying shape, and the improvement in general picture quality is quite remarkable, all things considered. Audio certainly shows the limitations of the early sound era, but dialogue is rendered cleanly enough, even if things are tinny and boxy a lot of the time. The shorts themselves are often sweet, with a charmingly natural set of performances by some very young kids. Recommended.