The Cobbler

Cobbler, The (1923)

** (out of 4)

Our Gang short has the kids playing in Mr. Tuttle's shop when he learns that he has gotten his back pension. He takes the kids on a picnic but the car breaks down and while he walks to get water the kids do battle with a tramp who tried killing Mickey. This entry in the Hal Roach series certainly isn't a good movie but it's decent enough for fans to make it worth viewing, although I'm sure many people will be troubled by some of the images here. I know a lot of people say the Our Gang series was good because it showed white kids and black kids playing and for the longest time I bought into this but having actually seen many of the movies now it appears that the only reason the black kids are here are to be made fun of. You have one scene with Farina eating too much watermelon and an earlier scene where he falls into some powder making him appear to be white. Another rather bizarre sequence comes when the tramp tries to kill Mickey, which certainly isn't funny and not something you'd typical see in a "kids" film. Outside of these images the film moves along fairly well but I'd argue that there really isn't that good of a screenplay on hand here. The first half offers up simple jokes of the kids causing trouble and fighting inside the shop. The second half features the stuff with the tramp and it's not even funnier.