Topic: Shivering Spooks (1926) - Our Gang

[metaldams]

      Again stepping just slightly out of my comfort zone as silent Our Gang is not exactly something I’ve seen a lot of - only a few shorts.  If a BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE style DVD set of silent Our Gangs was released, I’d be the first to buy it.  This was made in 1926, so for some Roach perspective, this is still distributed by Pathe, post Lloyd, pre Laurel and Hardy, prime Chase era.  The Our Gang series has been around for four years at this point and looking at this short, the featured kids seem to be Joe Cobb as heavy set kid and Farina as the African American boy - types that would be seen throughout the entirety of the series.  Both are fun to watch and are cute kids, especially Farina.

      The premise of SHIVERING SPOOKS is pretty simple.  The kids have their little club house fortress which is next to a den where thieves have underground seance sessions to fleece people of their money.  Whatever spooky stuff there is in this short is established right away it’s done by human hands, so there’s no supernatural element.  We get to see how the men doing the seance perform their tricks yet this doesn’t take away from the fact the effect of the ghosts dancing below the ceiling above all the people around the table is a really nice looking effect!

      The kids are on to the fact these people are charlatans, so once they’re in the seance fortress, the charlatans use all the spooky effects to scare the kids away.  That really is all the plot premise that is needed.  Before we get to the spooky stuff, I want to mention the short opens with a great gag where two of the kids are in the middle of a gun fight chase between two men.  The small height of the kids is used to great advantage here as all the bullets easily fly over their heads.  We’ve seen Harry Langdon get involved in a couple of gun fights where he is almost invisible and the concept is kind of/sort of similar here.  The difference being the kids small height is being incorporated into the gag.

      The ghost scene with Farina is awesome.  There is some translucent quality about it, not sure if it’s the lighting that achieved the effect, but whatever it is, it looks awesome.  Add to the fact again, Farina is a cute kid and this adds to the scene.  Right after, Farina meets up with Joe Cobb, we get close up looks of the ghost’s face mask and it looks like some kind of 80’s horror movie character.

      A fun short overall.  The ghost tricks are cool, the kids are cute and there are a lot of kids running around in scare gags in a really cool, spooky setting.  Another fun simple pleasure, I enjoyed this one.

[Umbrella Sam]

I’ve probably seen more silent Our Gang than sound Our Gang, which admittedly isn’t saying much as I’ve never really been a particular fan of Our Gang. That’s not to say it’s necessarily bad, it has its moments, but I would never go out of my way to watch every Our Gang short.

I think the big issue for me is that it’s just too difficult to make kids funny. It’s not impossible, but in the case of Our Gang, it always felt like they were trying to capture what being a real kid was like in those days, with an occasional adult sense. I suppose someone being a kid back then could relate, but for someone just looking for an entertaining comedy, there’s a lot better out there.

Another issue at least with silent Our Gang is “the Bowery Boys” effect, where you have essentially two distinct characters, and then just a few other people in the background. In this case, the distinct ones are Joe Cobb and Farina, but unlike Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall who do have chemistry together, Farina and Joe just kind of get on each other’s nerves and not much else. Everyone else is just kind of in the background and not very distinct in personalities; I know this does kind of change later in the sound era, which is probably why those are the ones most people remember.

As far as highlights go, I actually do like the intro with the kids caught in the middle of the shootout; it’s funny seeing everyone just run back and forth constantly, with the kids essentially doing the same thing as Harry Langdon and expressing constant confusion. And I do kind of like the concept of them ruining the fake seance with their tunnel digging, that was kind of funny too. Beyond that, though, the second half is mostly these scare reactions that I just don’t think are very amusing; I guess I’ve just been spoiled by the great scare reactions from people like Lou Costello or even Harold Lloyd. The Our Gang kids are clearly trying their best, so I do give them props for that, but it’s just not that funny to me.

I feel like Our Gang is one of those series that should have focused mainly on one-reelers; I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Our Gang two-reeler from start to finish that I thought was super consistent. Again, though, it does have its moments, and at least none of the characters are annoying.

[HomokHarcos]

The Joe Cobb and Farina led era of Our Gang happens to be my favorite era, there are several starring them that I enjoy, and including my favorite Our Gang short of all time: Telling Whoppers. Like Umbrella Sam, though, I do have a similar issue when it comes to kid comedies. In essence, it's just them being kids, which makes them acting that way not as funny. The reason Curly, Lou Costello and Gracie Allen are funny is because they are adults that think like children, the contrast is enough to make you laugh at them. I think the scare comedy part was my favorite section of this films. Yes, it's been done many times before, but for horror fans like me, it's serviceable.

The effect with Farina is cool. It looks like an inverted camera filter, but I'm not entirely sure. The children have an interesting discussion about why there are only white ghosts. Most of these racial jokes would absolutely not fit in today's society, but I think there is a way that could be done today in the right hands. It's not as cringy as many other Our Gang jokes.

Good for a Halloween setting, but not my favorite Our Gang short. Telling Whoppers is one I like so much that I might cover that myself in a thread sometime.

[metaldams]

Wanted to respond to Homok’s racial joke comment - agreed.  You can’t make any jokes anymore and I think if done in the right hands, it would indeed be OK.  Being hateful is bad, but so is not being able to laugh at differences in a light hearted manner - which is what I think the ghost joke in this short is.

On the other hand, I’m not a fan of the Stymie jokes about his Dad in jail - bad taste.