Fast Freight

Farina and Pete are riding a freight train to California, the former hoping for fame and fortune, the latter just trying to survive riding thousands of miles on a poorly tied hammock. They stop at "Sara Cuse," and meet the gang. Farina puts on an impromptu one-man-band show, which impresses the Gang. He tells him of his plan to go where the streets are paved with gold, and the Gang decide to tag along.

Riding the freight train (this time without hammocks) the Gang are attacked by bees in a very convoluted way. They fall off the freight train, and a storm sends them into a nearby ramshackle house. The rest of the short is just a series of haunted house gags, most of which fly pretty fast in an attempt to make you forget how illogical they are. (Why is there a phonograph with "The Ravings of John McCollough" on it? Why does Pete start it up? Who's providing the electricity to make it work in the first place?)

The kids are pretty talented, but it can't hide the fact that the short is just two half-thought-out ideas slammed together without any concerns for story. I wish they'd just kept up with Farina's quest for California glory... maybe they could have found California wasn't the dream land they expected. It would have at least made more sense. Still, the gags are fairly well-executed if completely insane, though they pull the "character has sheet fall on him and other character thinks he's a ghost" idea a little too often.