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5.0 out of 5 stars
"Little Rascals in Color ... Hal Roach's Our Gang ... Legend Films (2007), July 24, 2007
This review is from: Little Rascals in COLOR! Box Set (3pc) (DVD)
Legend Films present "THE LITTLE RASCALS IN COLOR" (BOX SET) (1930-1938) (252 mins) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) --- now in COLOR and Glorious Black and White --- "Our Gang", also known as "The Little Rascals" or "Hal Roach's Rascals", was a long-lived series of American comedy short films about a troupe of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together --- Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, Our Gang was produced at the Roach studio starting in 1922 as a silent short subject series --- Roach changed distributors from Pathé to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1927, went to sound in 1929, and continued production until 1938, when he sold the series to MGM --- MGM continued producing the comedies until 1944. A total of 220 shorts and one feature film, General Spanky, were eventually produced, featuring over forty-one child actors --- In the mid-1950s, the 80 Roach-produced shorts with sound were syndicated for television under the title "The Little Rascals", as MGM retained the rights to the Our Gang trademark.(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The series, one of the best-known and most successful in cinema history, is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way --- While child actors are often groomed to imitate adult acting styles, steal scenes, or deliver "cute" performances, Hal Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular kids --- Our Gang also notably put boys, girls, whites, and blacks together in a group as equals, something that "broke new ground," according to film historian Leonard Maltin, such a thing had never been done before in cinema, but was commonplace after the success of Our Gang --- Unlike many other motion pictures featuring children that are based in fantasy, producer/creator Hal Roach rooted Our Gang in real life: the majority of the kids were poor, and the gang was often put at odds with snobbish rich kids, officious adults and parents, and other such adversaries --- The series was notable in that the gang included both African Americans and females in leading parts at a time when discrimination against both groups was commonplace. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
"The Little Rascals: The Best Of Our Gang" (84 mins) (B&W/Color Versions) [79945]
Along with five shorts--including "Fly My Kite" (1931), "A Lad an' a Lamp" (1932), "The Kid from Borneo" (1933), "Hi' Neighbor!" (1934), "Hide and Shriek" (1938)--in both the original black-and-white and newly colorized versions, this collection also features footage of the kids clowning around with Laurel and Hardy and a 1950s "Our Gang" TV reunion --- bonus footage; "You Asked for It" reuion.
Director: Robert F. McGowan --- Cast: Harry Bernard, Tommy Bond, Dorothy DeBorba, Otto Fries, Dick Gilbert, John Lester Johnson, Dickie Moore, May Wallace
"The Little Rascals: The Best Of Spanky" (85 mins) (B&W/Color Versions) [79946]
Along with five shorts--including "Choo-Choo!" (1932), "Shrimps for a Day" (1934), "Washee Ironee" (1934), "Our Gang Follies of 1936" (1935), and "Rushin' Ballet" (1937)--in both the original black-and-white and newly colorized versions, this collection also features rare film clips, trailers and home movies starring the one and only George "Spanky" McFarland --- English Dolby Digital stereo; home movies; theatrical trailer, plus much more.
Director: Robert F. McGowan --- Cast: Wally Albright, Sherwood Bailey, Eddie Baker, Harry Bernard, Baldwin Cooke, Dorothy DeBorba, Estelle Etterre, Budd Fine, Otto Fries, Donald Haines, Oliver Hardy, Dell Henderson, Kendall McComas, Lyle Tayo
"The Little Rascals: Superstars Of Our Gang" (83 mins) (B&W/Color Versions) [79947]
Along with five shorts--including "School's Out" (1930), "Free Wheeling" (1932), "For Pete's Sake!" (1934), "Divot Diggers" (1936), and "Waldo's Last Stand" (1940), featuring Robert Blake as "Mickey" --- in both the original black-and-white and newly colorized versions, this collection also features footage of ex-Rascal Jackie Cooper racing mini-cars with the Marx Brothers and an adult Alfalfa on "The Roy Rogers Show."
Director: Robert F. McGowan --- Cast: Jackie Cooper, Dorothy DeBorba, Donald Haines, Creighton Hale, June Marlowe, Lyle Tayo, Clifton Young
Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Comedies, Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage era of the '20s, '30s & '40s --- order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on DVD --- stay tuned once again for top notch never to be forgotten films of Hollywood --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out Legend Films where they are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector --- all my heroes have been cowboys!
Total Time: 252 mins on DVD ~ Legend Films Video. ~ (3/27/2007)
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