Doin' Their Bit

Poor Spanky and Buckwheat. MGM made them appear in drivel like this because they were under contract. It's sad to see them go downhill like this.

Needless to say, this is a "revue" short. Some guy who keeps reappearing to goad the kids into performing cutesy little numbers, goads the kids into performing cutesy little numbers. After a quick proto-Riverdance which is even more stultifyingly boring, Janet Burston sings "I Love a Man In Uniform" in a passable and yet not entertaining fashion. Spanky and Froggy then do an army camp skit with Froggy's raspy voice destroying the punchlines. Finally a young Virginia O'Brien wannabe sings about the Allies while solemn and depressed-looking kids parade by with flags. (Buckwheat gets the Haiti flag. Make of that what you will.) I think the war effort could have done without this "bit", and judging by the fact that this short was the first to lose money, I think America felt the same way about it.

MGM put Our Gang into some terrible s***t. They seemed to ignore the humor of the original short in exchange for Samuel Goldwyn's imposed American morality. Even poor Froggy couldn't save this one. It was like watching a John Birch Society recruitment film.

I don't care if you call me patriotic this film is the pits.

Ten minute song and dance film has the kids doing their part by putting on a show for the soldiers.

Time waster of a film is only worth bothering with for anyone who needs to have a musical constantly playing in their life. All other need not bother.

Yea this is another one of those review films that MGM put out on a regular time table. I don't know that anyone really would have liked them since the music and performances aren't that good. I'm guessing the main actors didn't like them since they seem to be walking through this nonsense.

Unless you're a huge fan of forgettable musicals take a pass.

Even taking into account that this "Our Gang" short was meant to be a morale-booster for the home front and nothing more, it's just downright awful. The opening production number, with 15 or so young boys dressed in military uniforms doing a precision tap-dance routine, is not particularly good but turns out to be the best thing in the picture, which rapidly goes downhill from there. Froggy and Spanky do an army-camp "comedy" routine that has nothing whatsoever funny about it--as another reviewer mentioned, Froggy's voice makes it almost impossible to understand the "punchline"--and a young girl who looks to be about five or six years old sings a number in which she keeps repeating dreamily "how I love a man in uniform" that comes perilously close to being creepy. The closing "Miss Liberty" number is so bad, and the kids in it look so bored, that it's downright embarrassing. The "Our Gang" kids have done several cute and interesting little musicals in this series, but this dud is definitely not one of them. Skip it.

I TOTALLY disagree.

"Doin' Their Bit," even though it might have seemed a little "put-on," is one of my favorite MGM-produced "Our Gang" musicals. For somebody who wasn't even around when this film was released (I was born in April 1962), and considering the historical significance embodied into it (World War II was eight months old in mid-July 1942), it made me appreciate how people back then banded together to help our country, much in the same way the 9/11/2001 incident did recently.

And even though some people didn't like Janet Burston's big number, I thought it was rather funny, especially after reading how, in Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann's 1992 "Little Rascals" book, the two authors "dissed" it (they said, "Judging from the applause this generates, the soldiers in the audience must have been starved for entertainment").

I also thought the "Allies on Parade" finale was rather good (Buckwheat carrying a Haiti flag? I'll have to check that out if and when I ever see this short again); to me, it was kind of like the "Main Street, U.S.A." 2-parter of "The Lucy Show" - even today, it has a "feel-good" quality to it that, when you look beyond when it was made - well, makes me GLAD to be an American citizen! (And by the way, that "Virginia O'Brien wannabe's" real name was Beverly Hudson; she also had a small part in "Our Gang's" much-worse "Family Troubles" a year later.)

Yes, I too, as Maltin and Bann also said in their negative "Doin' Their Bit" review, was "weaned on earlier and better 'Our Gang' comedies" - but I DIDN'T think "Doin' Their Bit" was "coy and plastic" or "(a) cute and stale little revue," nor lacked any "heart, humor, or talent." I thought the short was rather enjoyable and well-done!

(Warner Home Video, any chance you'll put out a compilation of the last 52 MGM-produced "Our Gangs" on DVD? If so, I hope you'll include "Doin' Their Bit" and perhaps other favorites like "Mighty Lak a Goat" - but, as I said before, DON'T include such God-awful shorts as "Ye Olde Minstrels!")

I give "Doin' Their Bit" an 8. Happy 4th of July!