Clown Princes

Clown Princes (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

One-reel comedy from Hal Roach and his Our Gang. This time out, Porky is about to be kicked out of his home because of the greedy landlord. The kids decide to put on a circus to raise the money for him but of course things don't go as planned. This is a pretty good entry in the long-running series but I must admit that there weren't enough laughs to make the film a complete success. The best sequence would have to be when Darla is pretending to be the lion tamer but the lions are actually dogs made up. Some might object as there are several scenes where dogs are tied to wires in order for the "gags" to go as planned. There's also a rather silly scene with Buckwheat playing a cannibal from Africa. Clarence Wilson gets a few nice laughs as the landlord including drinking the penny lemonade instead of the two-cent one.