Joy Scouts

This M-G-M comedy short, Joy Scouts, is the one hundred eighty-first entry in the "Our Gang" series and the ninety-third talkie. After being turned away from the Boy Scouts leader for being too young, the gang resolves to make their own camp. Turns out the place they want to set up tents at has a geyser...Seeing this again after 35 years, I thought this was another funny short in the series though neither Leonard Maltin nor Richard W. Bann thought so judging from their review of this in their book "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang". My favorite gags were the popcorn pancakes and the geyser lifting that tent and some of the gang upwards. So on that note, I recommend Joy Scouts. P.S. This marked two debuts in the series. It was the first one directed by one Edward Cahn who did features at the beginning of the '30s before doing shorts for M-G-M by mid-decade. Most of the studio's entries in this series were helmed by him. And it marked the first appearance of Mickey Gubitosi in the gang. He later changed his name to Bobby Blake and then Robert Blake when an adult. As he later told it, "They had this little rummy that couldn't say the lines. So I said, 'I can say that.' I said it, got the job, and became a regular from that." This was only his second film appearance.