Fish Hooky

To me, this is the greatest of all Little Rascals/Our Gang Films. Here, the 1920s Our Gang kids, Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, Joe Cobb, and Allen "Farina" Hoskins mix it up with their 1930s successors Stymie, Spanky, Wheezer, Dorothy, Dickie Moore, Uh-huh, and (of course) Pete.

In this tale, Truant officer Mickey and schoolteacher Mary Kornman (still sweethearts after all these years) try to foil teenaged Joe and Farina's plans to mislead the smaller fry into playing hookey. The would-be truants find out that Mary and Mickey are taking the kids that went to school to an amusement park (the old Santa Monica pier) and...well see it and figure it out.

There are lots of laughs in this film, particularly when toddler Spanky spills the beans to Mickey about his older friends skipping school (and smacking Mickey for doing his trademark Woody-woodpeckerish laugh). Mickey chasing Stymie through the amusement park is also very well-photographed (with panoramic views of the park) and laughs to boot. Farina and Joe's phony notes to Mary Kornman to excuse the kids (Deer Teecher-Pleese Esckuse Wheezer-he caught a skunk) are also real knee-slappers.

But overall, it's also great for Our Gang fans to see the rascals as they were (the 1920s group) and as they were to become (with Spanky and Stymie) along with a good story that ties them all together as an ensemble. This was done again in "Reunion in Rhythm" (1937), but not nearly as well. Long live the rascals!