Barry Downing Movies

The Our Gang kids are upset that WWII is causing them deprivations and inconveniences. Organizing a fact-finding committee, Gang members Mickey (Robert Blake), Froggy (Billy Laughlin), Buckwheat (Billy Thomas), and Janet Burston try to determine what to do about the present national crisis. With the help of a convenient copy of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, the kids stage a play in which they cathartically come to grips with the sacrifices indigenous to the war effor, and provide patriotic solutions to the situation. The one-reel Our Gang propaganda piece Benjamin Franklin Jr. was originally released on January 30, 1943. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a classic tale from Rudyard Kipling, this melodrama chronicles the desperate attempt of a painter to finish his greatest painting before he goes blind. His affliction is due to a war wound and his final project is to paint a portrait of London's most notorious prostitute. Trouble begins when the hooker falls deeply in love with the artist. Unfortunately, social mores forbid their union and this frustrates the wanton woman. Meanwhile, the artist feverishly continues to paint her. The result is exquisite. Unfortunately, by this time, the whore can no longer contain her frustrated rage, and unbeknownst to the painter whose sight is nearly gone, viciously slashes it. Later the artist takes his prized work and shows it to his best friend, a military officer, in a heartbreaking scene. Afterward the two colleagues head down to fight in the Sudan. There, the devastated painter begs the officer to allow him to participate in one final, glorious charge atop a shining white stallion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Edmund Goulding directed this remake of his own 1929 The Trespasser, which starred Gloria Swanson. Here Bette Davis assumes the lead role of Mary Donnell, a young innocent married to a bootlegger. When her husband is killed, she decides to pursue a better life and gets a job as a secretary to attorney Lloyd Rogers (Ian Hunter). Lloyd falls in love with Mary but stoically keeps his feelings hidden from her. One of Lloyd's clients is the millionaire Merrick (Donald Crisp), whose playboy son Jack (Henry Fonda) falls in love with Mary. The two elope and take off on their honeymoon, but Merrick, who feels that Mary is not good enough for Jack, asks that the marriage be annulled. Jack reluctantly agrees and Mary goes back to her old job with Lloyd. But Mary finds that she is pregnant and has a baby boy. She swears Lloyd to secrecy concerning her child and Lloyd agrees. Meanwhile, Jack marries a woman of his own class, Flip (Anita Louise), but she is fatally injured in an automobile accident. Lloyd also falls ill and dies at Mary's feet --but not before confessing his love for Mary. When his will is read, it reveals that he has left Mary and her child a vast fortune. Lloyd's wife (Katherine Alexander) believes the baby boy is Lloyd's illegitimate child, and she tries to overturn the terms of the will. Jack hears about Mary's child, and she confesses that the child is actually his. Merrick then tries to have the baby taken away from Mary, contending that she is unfit to raise the baby. Unable to withstand Merrick's legal hammering, Mary offers the child to Jack and Flip. Mary, distraught after abandoning her baby, leaves on a European trip. While she is gone, Flip dies and Jack leaves for Europe to try to find her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In his final Western for low-budget Diversion Pictures, veteran cowboy ace Hoot Gibson plays a pony express rider who discovers that his worst enemy is his own long-lost brother. As a child, Clint Knox (Jerry Tucker), and his mother Martha (Nina Guilbert), escaped a gang of bandits who killed Mr. Knox Steve Clark and abducted Clint's brother Ace (Barry Downing). Eleven years later, the adult Clint (Hoot Gibson), now a pony express rider, is ambushed by Ace (Rex Lease), a road agent who also robs a stage carrying Martha and pretty Mary Chrisman (Marion Shilling). In the ensuing gunfight, Clint's life is saved when his pocket bible stops one of Ace's bullet. But when Ace, now Clint's prisoner, recites an illegible inscription in the book, Clint realizes that he is his brother. At the trial, Clint successfully convinces the jury to acquit Ace because of the young man's harsh upbringing in the hands of his kidnappers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

On the last day of school, the Our Gang kids learn that their beloved teacher Miss Jones (Arletta Duncan) is going to be married; thus, come September, the kids will have a "new" teacher, Mrs. Wilson. Miss Jones' fiancee Ralph (Edward Norris) playfully paints a frightening picture of Mrs. Wilson as "a dried-up mean old woman" ---neglecting to inform the kids that his last name is Wilson, and that Miss Jones will continue to be their teacher under her new married name. Thanks to Ralph's ill-timed joshing, the youngsters convince themselves that the only way to retain their favorite teacher is to break up the wedding --- starting with the pre-nuptual reception, where the kids surreptitiously "spike" the food with tabasco sauce, horseradish and garlic peppers. Originally released on April 27, 1935, "Teacher's Beau" marks the final "Our Gang" appearance of series stalwart Mathew "Stymie" Beard. Note: the version included in the "Little Rascals" TV package has been severely edited, rendering the film's punchline incomprehensible (a complete and uncut version is available on home video). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide