Railroadin'

This is the second Our Gang film shot with sound. However, the sound quality is much worse than the first--and it's often tough to hear exactly what the kids are saying. It's a darn shame that the DVD set did NOT include captions--they really needed it on this one.

This film was a bit unusual in that it added a second incredibly obese kid to the mix. In addition to the long-time member of the Gang, Joe Cobb, this film marks the introduction of Chubby Chaney--who plays Joe's brother.

The kids are all playing around the railroad yard (the dynamite factory and acid vats at the nearby chemical plants must have been closed). Joe and Chubby's father is an engineer and with all the railroad noise I had no idea what was being said much of the time. Joe begins bragging and pretends that he knows everything about trains--and even invites some of the kids aboard the engine. However, an evil hobo comes along and deliberately sets the train in motion--and it's soon out of control. At this point, the film gets a bit stupid--and the train keeps nearly killing poor Farina. Who thought all this was funny?! Plus, the special effects were pretty poor--and almost none of this looked very convincing. You'd have to see all this to know what I am talking about here. However, after all these close calls around the rail yard, the train takes off on a trip through the Los Angeles countryside--and they miraculously survived. It's all very diverting but the effects sure could have been improved--even for 1929 they were weak.

The morals of this story seem to be that Joe and Chubby have the worst father in history AND you shouldn't trust crazy hobos! Also, I didn't rate this one any higher as it's essentially a remake of the Our Gang silent film "The Sun Down Limited"--which starred Joe and Mickey Daniels are the INSANE kids to take a train joy-riding.