Every Man for Himself

Every Man for Himself (1924)

** (out of 4)

Fair Our Gang short has the group running an athletic club where Joe is put through a couple fights. They also appear to be running a wireless shoe-shining gig where they get customers by splashing paint on their shoes. If you're a fan of the series then I'm sure you're going to eat up what Hal Roach feeds you here. I'm not going to sit here and say I don't enjoy the series because if I didn't then I wouldn't keep watching the films but at the same time I can't say it's one of Roach's best. I'm sure kids in 1924 loved seeing themselves up on the screen doing things they'd like to do but at the same time these shorts really haven't been all that funny. This one here at least gives us a few interesting technical aspects and this here is mainly the creation of the shoe-shine machine. The second half of the film deals with the kids painting shoes so that the people will then have to come and get them clean. This gimmick was done in earlier shorts where Farina went out and painted shoes before eventually running into the police. The same thing happens here. There's also a brief segment dealing with a new kid but again it doesn't get any laughs. At just 14-minutes this one here is a bit shorter than some in the series, which turned out to be a good thing.