School Begins

It's the first day of classes for Our Gang and no one wants to go; there's a circus in town, and the fish are jumping at the fishing hole, but only Farina and Wheezer are exempted from this dread duty by their youth.

The silents that MGM distributed for Hal Roach after his deal with Pathe expired have a poor survival rate. Pathe distributed his earlier works for decade through their robust show-at-home network. MGM, however, not only didn't bother with show-at-home, they controlled their prints and demanded them back after they ceased to circulate. The only print known to survive is at New York's Museum of Modern Art, where it was shown yesterday as part of their Cruel & Unusual Comedy series.

It's a typically excellent entry in the series. Although the success of the series caused many producers to attempt similar ones, they tended to be more about the mechanical gags. Although there are a couple of very funny sequences here, it's more about kids being kids and the sort of trouble they get into as a result, as when Joe Cobb forges a note from his mother excusing him from class... only for her to show up.