Mary, Queen of Tots

Mary, Queen of Tots (1925)

*** (out of 4)

Charming Our Gang short has Mary playing a rich girl who isn't allowed to have any real friends of her own. The gardener makes her four dolls and bases their appearance on the neighborhood kids, which just happen to be the Our Gang group. Mary goes to sleep and dreams that the dolls come to life and when she wakes up she begins to think she's still dreaming as the dolls are still alive (but this time the real kids). MARY, QUEEN OF TOTS doesn't have a great number of laughs but at least the film has a lot of heart and imagination. The more of these Our Gang shorts I see I'm starting to realize that the best ones feature an imagination and that's clearly the most important thing. I thought the "dream" sequence was without question the highlight of the film because the Our Gang kids are shown as miniatures and I was shocked to see how well the special effects were. The larger sets look extremely believable and I can't help but feel the studio spent a few extra dollars. Some of the gags don't work too well including one with the kids being scared by the radio. Others work fairly well including a sequence where the kids keep slipping on a "magic" rug.