Mickey Daniels Movies

Welcome to Midville, an appropriately named small town that has carried moderation to extremes. Run for over a generation by a bluenose civic league, the town doesn't allow driving faster than 12 mph -- and drivers can get a summons for not having a running-board, a part of a car that went out of style after the 1920s; no movies start after dark, and there are no late nights allowed at the soda shop or in the park. It's so bad that the soldiers from the nearby army base shoot right through the town for parts far away when they go on leave, and there hasn't been a wedding in the town in two years, because it's impossible for anyone under the age of 60 to start a romance, much less consummate one. One young couple (Richard Clayton, Elyse Knox) who would like to marry are thinking of leaving town, and that's the last straw from Miss Pandora Polly (ZaSu Pitts), who likes both of them -- she's as prim and proper a small-town spinster as you'll ever see, but that doesn't mean she wants everyone to be that way. And with unintended help from an intoxicating beverage brewed up by her comically inept gardener (Slim Summerville), she loses enough of her inhibitions to finally take a stand. At the next meeting of the civic league, she shows up ready to throw a few stones back at the bluenoses sitting in judgment of the town, and turn over a few rocks littering their pasts. Pitts and Summerville, who'd previously worked together in the Hal Roach-produced comedy Niagara Falls, prove just as effective here as a comedic elderly couple, and Pitts is at her most charming and beguiling in this gentle satire of small-town living, made on the eve of America's entry into World War II and all the more nostalgia-laden because of it. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

A followup to the musical-revue short Our Gang Follies of 1936, the one-reel Reunion in Rhythm was apparently filmed under the title Our Gang Follies of 1937. Its release title reflected the fact that, in addition to such current Gang members as Spanky McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Darla Hood, Billy "Buckwheat" Thomas, and Eugene "Porky" Lee, the film also features return appearances by former "Our Gang" stalwarts Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, Joe Cobb and Mathew "Stymie" Beard. The occasion is a class reunion at Adams Street Grammar School, where the students stage a show for the entertainment of the alumni. Musical highlights include "Baby Face", performed by Darla and Porky; &"Broadway Rhythm", performed by Spanky and the ensemble; and a medley of &"Going Hollywood" and "I'm Through With Love", sung by Alfalfa and Georgia Jean LaRue. Originally released on January 9, 1937, "Reunion in Rhythm" is the least satisfying of the "Our Gang" musicals, perhaps because the kids seem a tad over-rehearsed this time out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

All but forgotten today, the George Abbott-John Cecil Holm stage comedy Three Men on a Horse was once a staple of the community theatre and summer-stock circuit (a 1958 TV production starred no less than Johnny Carson). Though a faithful adaptation of the Broadway original, this 1936 film version avoids staginess thanks to the sprightly direction of Mervin LeRoy. Frank McHugh plays a meek, henpecked greeting-card writer who has an uncanny knack for picking winning race horses. Wandering into a bar after a spat with his wife (Carol Hughes), the prognosticative McHugh is "adopted" by Runyonesque horseplayers Sam Levene, Allen Jenkins and Teddy Hart. Held a virtual prisoner by the three gamblers, McHugh is unable to return to his job at the greeting card company, forcing his boss Guy Kibbee to realize for the first time the indispensability of his missing employee. A very slight piece, Three Men on a Horse is buoyed by the talents of the above-mentioned actors, as well as such reliables as Joan Blondell, Edgar Kennedy and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The family of a wealthy young heir is appalled and worried when the fellow decides to amuse himself by becoming a high speed auto racer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

College football hero David (David Sharpe) is astonished to learn he's to be crowned King of Transylvania, and is already scheduled to marry a Princess he's never met. Once in Transylvania with his buddy Mickey (Mickey Daniels), David finds adventure and romance. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who has married fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), despite her father (Walter Connolly)'s objections. To keep Ellie from marrying this lothario, her father has been holding her prisoner aboard his yacht. But Ellie bolts from the yacht, swims ashore in her clothes, and eventually slips onto a Greyhound bus bound for New York. Aboard the bus is newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who has recently been fired for drinking on the job. Peter gets the last seat on the bus -- but when he gets up to argue with the bus driver, Ellie takes his seat. Since it is the last seat on the bus, they have to share it. When Ellie has her purse stolen and she refuses to report it, Peter begins to suspect something. The next morning, they both miss the bus after a leisurely breakfast, and Peter reveals that he knows her identity. She makes a deal with him: if he helps her get to New York, he can write a scoop about her for his paper. Peter thinks she is a spoiled brat, however, and refuses a monetary bribe: "I'm not interested in your money or your problem. You, King Westley, your father -- you're all a lot of hooey to me!" But as they travel northward and engage in a series of misadventures, the gruff newspaperman and the spoiled rich girl, thrown together by circumstances, fall in love with each other. This movie set the pace for the "screwball" comedy, the witty and romantic clash of temperaments between a man and a woman mismatched in both personality and social position, a type of movie often associated with Katherine Hepburn in such classics as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and, with Spencer Tracy, Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), and Desk Set (1957), among others. The only other movies to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Cecil B. DeMille's This Day and Age was perhaps the most Draconian entry in Hollywood's early-1930s "vigilante" film cycle. Richard Cromwell heads a group of civic-minded teenagers in a small midwestern town. When a lovable old tailor (Harry Green) is murdered by a notorious gangster (Charles Bickford), Cromwell and his pals demand justice. But the local government is terrified by the influential gangster; in fact, many of the city fathers are on the take. Enraged, the kids take matters in their own hands. In the near-fascist climax, a mob of teenagers kidnap Bickford, spirit him away to the city dump, and suspend him over a pit of rats until he confesses to the murder! This Day and Age was the sort of Depression-engendered film of desperation that all but vanished once Franklin Roosevelt was elected. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This entry was part of MGM's short-lived "The Boy Friends" series, which was developed by director George Stevens. In this one, two elderly people, both widowed, want to get married, but the kids do their best to stop them. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

Originally released on January 10, 1926, Good Cheer was Our Gang's Yuletide present to the series' legions of fans. 'Tis the day before Christmas, and all through the snowy streets, the Our Gang kids are confronted not by Christmas cheer, but by the crass commercialism of the holiday. Happily, the Spirit of Christmas -- who looks a lot like Santa Claus -- pays a surprise visit to Gang members Mickey Daniels and Johnny Downs, inspiring the boys to earn enough money to buy presents for the rest of their friends. With their usual business acumen, the youngsters come up with a sure-fire moneymaking scheme -- selling heated bricks to keep the last-minute shoppers' feet warm. As a bonus, the gang captures a bunch of bootleggers, thereby earning a huge reward. The film's most memorable sequence, in which a gathering of wind-up toys dance and cavort in a department store window, is unfortunately missing from most TV prints of Good Cheer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Our Gang member Allen "Farina" Hoskins decides to run away from home on the same day that an oversized, trained chimpanzee mischievously escapes its captors. Befriending the monkey, Farina invites his new pal to join the rest of the gang. The kids decide to capitalize on the simian's talents by staging their own tent show. Alas, the chimp manages to down a bottle of bootleg booze, then goes on a drunken rampage, terrorizing everyone in town. When the cops arrive, the big ape commandeers their patrol wagon, and what happens next could only happen in an Our Gang comedy. Making up in energy what it lacks in coherence, Monkey Business was originally released on March 21, 1926. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

According to the opening title of this silent Our Gang comedy, "Uncle Tom's Cabin had been translated and played in forty-two languages -- the gang decided to make it forty-three." In the kid's barnyard production of the Harriet Beecher Stowe epic, Mickey Daniels is cast as Simon Legree, Mary Kornman as Little Eva, and Joe Cobb (in blackface) as Uncle Tom. Despite a rowdy, vegetable-throwing audience, and the constant interruptions of their mothers, the kids' production is a marvel of ingenuity, complete with vibrating ice floes and heavenly "clowds" -- until the calamitous finale. Originally released on May 30, 1926, Uncle's Tom Uncle was remade as the 1932 Our Gang talkie Spanky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Producer Hal Roach often claimed that Your Own Back Yard was his favorite of all the Our Gang silent comedies produced by his studio. The focus is on black youngster Allen "Farina" Hoskins, whose efforts to leave his own back yard and participate in the gang's activities are constantly rebuffed. Eventually, Farina not only gets his wish, but an unexpected financial windfall. Meanwhile, the other kids decide to become dentists, with the expected disastrous results when they spread dental cream on the mouths of their pet dogs. Originally released on September 27, 1925, Your Own Back Yard was long regarded as a lost film; only in the late 1970s did the film's second reel resurface, revealing that one of the supporting players was none other than Fay Wray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide