The Buccaneers

Buccaneers, The (1924)

** (out of 4)

Lesser Our Gang short has the group playing pirates and building a ship to sail in. Once the ship hits water it sinks but they end up on another boat when the good ol' dog unties the rope and the kids head off to sea where they must be rescued by the Navy. This entry in the series certainly isn't the best Hal Roach had to offer but it's decent enough of a time killer but the lack of laughs really keep it from being better. The only laughs don't happen until the end of the film once the kids are on the Navy ship and the Captain informs them that they hang pirates. This small sequence gets a few nice laughs but everything leading up to it is pretty flat. This includes a running joke of Joe chewing tobacco and we get close ups of the spit once it hits the floor. We see this at least five times during the film so apparently someone thought it was funny. Another joke deals with the boys not wanting Mary on the ship because pirates and girls don't go together.