Saturday Morning

TCM showed several early silent Our Gang comedies recently and this was among them. "Saturday Morning" is from the first year of the series but is very different from the earliest ones in several ways. First, Mickey is the established star in this one and he wasn't even in the ones made earlier that year. Second, the pattern and style of the short is very typical of their later films...more polished and enjoyable.

The story starts with poor Mickey being forced to practice his cello. He hates it and looks for ways to get out of it. Later, when he's sent to walk to the music teacher's class, he gets distracted and he and the gang all pretend to be pirates. All the fun is cut short by a silly plot device...a bear.

Apart from the bear (which made the ending a bit limp), this one was very good...enjoyable and cute...and well worth seeing.