Topic: GIANTS VS. YANKS (1923) Our Gang

[NoahYoung]

I just picked up a Super 8 Niles print of this.

I had always expected this short to revolve around the kids playing baseball, but apart from a short scene, not much baseball is played. I can't really say that this was unexpected, since the Maltin book from the 70s has the same complaint. I got that book when it first came out, but frankly never read many of the entries on the silents. I did read up on it when this film started showing up for sale in recent months -- there are actually at least 2 more prints of this avaiable.

There are some good early scenes where various members of the gang try to get out of doing their chores, and of course some home-made contraptions are used to make the chores easier, even if it appears that the parents invented them, which was unusual for this series.

The central plot involves the gang having to spend a week or so in the house of a well-to-do family with a child of their own. This was contrived by the writers by having some sort of contagious disease force a quarantine. Of course, the gang all but destroy the house, as would be expected.

I found this short mildly amusing at best, and not one of the better silent Our Gangs I've seen. Unlike the Roach talkies of which I've seen all 80 many times each, I still haven't seen all the silents. TBH, I find them to either be hit or miss, and I don't enjoy them nearly as much as "The Little Rascals," which is of course the moniker given to the Roach talkies after he sold the name "Our Gang" to M-G-M in 1938.

As a side trivia note, the Niles print of this short uses "Those Lovelable Scalowags and Their Gang" main titles, which actually credits Spanky McFarland and Jackie Cooper, neither of whom are in this short!