Margaret Bert Movies
- 1942
Upset because, as a leap year baby, he only has a birthday every four years, Our Gang member Billy "Froggy" Laughlin bemoans the fact that he has never had a birthday party. The gang decides to throw a surprise party in Froggy's honor, but to keep him in the dark, they pretend to kick him out of the clubhouse. Vengefully, Froggy sneaks back and sets all sorts of booby-traps for the other gang members. But -- you guessed it -- when the party takes place, it is Froggy who bears the brunt of his pre-set pranks. Originally released on May 30, 1942, the one-reel Our Gang comedy Surprised Parties is but a pale shadow of the series' vintage entries of the '20s and '30s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George "Spanky" McFarland, Mickey Gubitosi, (more)
- 1941
Having tried to wrest Shirley Temple away from 20th Century-Fox for nearly seven years, MGM was finally able to put the enormously popular child star under contract in 1941. Alas, by this time the bloom was off the rose for 13-year-old Temple, and her inaugural MGM production Kathleen was met with sublime indifference. For the record, the film casts Temple as Kathleen Davis, the irritatingly forthright daughter of neglectful widower John Davis (Herbert Marshall). Fed up with being left in charge of her superstrict nursemaid (Nella Walker), Kathleen welcomes the arrival of her new governess, warm-hearted Dr. A. Martha Kent (Laraine Day). In her usual take-charge manner, our heroine begins trying to arrange a marriage between her father and Martha, choosing to ignore the fact that Mr. Davis already has a fiancee in the form of actress Lorraine Bennett (Gail Patrick). So poorly did Kathleen fare at the box office that MGM dropped Shirley Temple's contract after this one film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Temple, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1941
Junior con man Freddie "Slicker" Walburn sells the Our Gang kids some "invisible rays," with which they hope to power their homemade mechanical robot. Miracle of miracles, the robot not only begins to move, but actually performs several of the gang's household chores. In truth, the robot is being manipulated by Slicker's cohort Billy Ray "Boxcar" Smith, but the kids don't find out until their rampaging mechanical man nearly lays waste to the entire neighborhood. The one-reel Our Gang comedy Robot Wrecks was originally released on July 12, 1941. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George "Spanky" McFarland, Mickey Gubitosi, (more)
- 1941
Having read horror stories about wicked stepmothers, the Our Gang kids are determined to break up the marriage between Darla Hood's widowed father (Byron Shores) and his new bride (Barbara Bedford). Never bothering to find out (as Darla has) that the second Mrs. Hood is a wonderful woman, the kids pull off all sorts of pranks at the wedding ceremony, from playing the radio too loud to releasing a cylinder of laughing gas. This is one time that the climactic assembly-line spanking gag is thoroughly justified. Originally released on December 13, 1941, the one-reel Wedding Worries marked Darla Hood's final Our Gang appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1940
When Our Gang member Mickey (Robert Blake) reads an article stating that one out of every four children born is Chinese, he begins to worry that his new baby brother will be Chinese as well. Spanky McFarland and the rest of the Gang put Mickey at ease by introducing him to the family of Spanky's new friend Lee Wong. Once he's learned that people are people no matter what their ethnic background, Mickey is mollified -- until he discovers that his much-anticipated "kid brother" is not only a girl, but twins to boot. Originally released on February 15, 1941, the one-reel Our Gang comedy Baby Blues might be regarded as patronizing and even offensive by contemporary viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George "Spanky" McFarland, Mickey Gubitosi, (more)
- 1940
While recklessly playing baseball in a busy street, Our Gang member Mickey (Robert Blake) is struck by a car. Though he fully recovers from his injuries, Mickey meets several other kids in the hospital who weren't so lucky. Instantly developing a sense of civic responsibility, the Gang members establish the "1-2-3 Go Safety Society," dedicated to lowering the number of auto injuries in their community. Playing more like a public service announcement than an Our Gang one-reeler, 1-2-3 Go was originally released on April 26, 1941. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George "Spanky" McFarland, Mickey Gubitosi, (more)
- 1940
Wrongfully accused of stealing, an angry Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer decides to get even with his parents by embarking upon a life of crime. To that end, he enlists the other Our Gang kids as his "mob." Hoping to deflect his pals from this drastic action, Spanky McFarland decides to teach the gang a lesson. He tricks the kids into thinking they're burglarizing a house, when in fact they're merely helping the homeowners clean out their junk. Things take an unexpected turn when a real-life fugitive from justice (Al Hill) chooses the gang's clubhouse as his hideout, with the cops hot on his heels. The one-reel Our Gang comedy Good Bad Boys was originally released on September 7, 1940. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George "Spanky" McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, (more)
- 1939
Merlini the Magician, Clayton Rawson's crime-solving illusionist, has been singularly ill-used by Hollywood, having appeared in a mere two films, "starring" in only one. Miracles for Sale compounds the oversight by rechristening Merlini as "Michael Morgan", in the person of Robert Young. The picture starts well, with a grisly political execution revealed to be an elaborate bit of stage magic perpetrated by the personable Morgan. The story then goes into a fraud and murder scheme perpetrated by Dave Duvallo (Henry Hull), whose consummate skill with makeup and Houdinilike escape devices comes in handy for phony spiritualist Madame Rapport (Gloria Holden). The film's highlight finds Morgan exposing several tricks utilized by magicians and fortune-tellers to gull the public, a sequence which incurred the wrath of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians, who took a dim view at having the secrets of their trade revealed for the cost of a movie ticket. Of historical interest is the fact that Miracles for Sale was the final directorial effort of Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks etc.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Florence Rice, (more)
- 1939
Stronger Than Desire is a streamlined remake of 1934's Evelyn Prentice. Instead of the earlier film's William Powell and Myrna Loy, we are offered Walter Pidgeon and Virginia Bruce in the roles of a dynamic attorney and his wife. Little has changed storywise from Evelyn Prentice: Bruce kills (or thinks she kills) a man who is blackmailing her; another woman is accused of the crime; and as luck would have it, Pidgeon defends the accused woman. The remake is inferior to the original, save for the presence of child actress Ann Todd, who as the couple's daughter is a lot more appealing than Evelyn Prentice's nails-on-the-blackboard moppet Cora Sue Collins. Sidebar: Ann Dvorak, playing an "other woman" role originated by Rosalind Russell in Evelyn Prentice, is directed in Society Lawyer by her then-husband, Leslie Fenton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
Filmed on MGM's standing Dr. Kildare sets, the one-reel Our Gang comedy Men in Fright gets under way as Gang members Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Spanky McFarland, Billy "Buckwheat" Thomas, Eugene "Porky" Lee, and Leonard Landy pay a visit to their hospitalized friend Darla Hood. Thanks to a convenient plot device, Alfalfa is mistaken for a tonsillectomy patient and subjected to laughing gas. Once this complication has been straightened out, the kids burrow through a picnic basket full of such delicacies as pickles, ice cream, and hot dogs, with the expected results (conveyed via a clever bit of animation). Men in Fright was originally released on October 15, 1938. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George "Spanky" McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, (more)
