Selected Short Subject: Goin Fishin (1940) Our Gang
Most people know the story of Our Gang, a comedy series at the Hal Roach studios about mischievous kids that began in the silent era and lasted almost to the end of World War Two. It was clever and funny for a lot of years, but by the late 1930s it became a bit more wholesome and mechanical. When Roach stopped filming the series, he sold it to MGM, who continued making one reel shorts for a few more years. He also sold the series name, which is why the Roach product is called The Little Rascals.
As a unit, the MGM films expanded upon the wholesomeness that was creeping up already in the last Roach productions. Where the kids once pulled stunts and outsmarted the befuddled adults, they were now goody-goody kids of some means who were saying things like “gee whiz officer, that’s swell.” It fit the mold for MGM, whose President, Louis B. Mayer, liked offering relaxing wholesome fare, but for the viewer it can be pretty annoying.
“Goin’ Fishin’” is somewhere near the best of their later output, as it pits the kids against an adult whom they innocently harass and cause fits of comic anger. These aren’t the clever kids of the Roach era who purposely engage in prankish behavior. This is the MGM incarnation, and thus, anything they do wrong is an accident. But in this context, the concept works. Running under ten minutes, “Goin’ Fishin’” is a rarity among the MGM shorts -- it is actually rather funny.
Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Leonard, and Mickey sleep overnight on the sidewalk in order to catch an early bus to the east lake to go fishing. The bus arrives and they clamor on with all manner of bulky fishing equipment, from rods and reels to tackle boxes and live bait. Paul Hurst plays the harried conductor of the bus who exhibits mounting frustration as the kids get all the way to the seats at the top of the bus, discover that Mickey has lost the money he kept in his shoe for fares, climb all the way down, find the money in his other shoe, climb back, realize they are on the wrong bus, decide to go to fish at the lake on this route, etc.
When the boys finally do get settled, some of the equipment (containing jackknives and other sharp objects) plops out and lands on the street in front of a tire. The tire goes flat and has to be changed. By that time, the sun is up, it is too late to fish, so they decide to try it another day. When they leave the bus, it goes racing away at top speed, as the kids wonder why the conductor seemed mad.
This time, the Gang’s newfound wholesome innocence works in the context of the comedy. The conductor gets madder and madder at the delays, while the kids are happily oblivious, maintaining their “gosh, gee whiz, mister, that’s swell” attitude which is maddening in and of itself. Paul Hurst, who gets special billing in the credits, is quite funny playing the foil. By this time he had already written and directed several low budget films, and appeared in such classics as “Gone With The Wind” (the deserter that Scarlett shoots dead on the stairwell) and “Each Dawn I Die” (one of George Raft’s gangster henchmen). Hurst contracted terminal cancer in 1952 and, beset with health problems, committed suicide the following year. Perennial movie cop Robert Homans shows up in uniform, and old timer Arthur Hoyt is quite amusing as a frustrated bus passenger who is worried about being late to work.
Edward L. Cahn, who made his name in B movies, directed this short (as he had many MGM Our Gang one-reelers). One of the best shots in the movie is when the bus takes off while a low hanging fishing line hooks onto the cop’s hat. The bus moves along the street while the cop chases after his hat, as it dangles from a fishing line hanging down from the top of the bus. Cahn shoots this from overhead so the bus, the pole, the hat, and the cop are all in the frame. It’s really quite impressive.
As the Our Gang series wore on, they adapted the MGM Mickey Rooney “put on a show” idea and started also making movies about parental strife, wartime fundraising, and other unfunny concepts. But “Goin’ Fishin’” is a breezy nine-and-a-half minutes and offers as much fun as could be had from an Our Gang comedy during the MGM period.