Free Eats

This Hal Roach comedy short, Free Eats, is the one hundred twelfth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the twenty-fourth talkie. A wealthy society woman is throwing a party for all the poor kids...in order to help her husband's political campaign. So Breezy, Wheezer, Dorothy, Stymie, and Spanky arrive for the treats. Also arriving are some "fidgits" (Stymie's word)-disguised as infants-and their "parents"-one of whom is Billy Gilbert who previously appeared in Shiver My Timbers and Dogs Is Dogs-who intend to steal some jewelry...As always in these early talkies, Stymie steals the show with most of his quips and how refreshing is seeing his character be the one who sees through the fake babies' facade compared to the way his race was often portrayed at the time. And how cute little Spanky-in his series debut-is with his rambling on various subjects and also when he's with a monkey! So on that note, Free Eats was another funny Our Gang short. P.S. Wheezer is noticeably reduced in screen time here. I'm guessing this is his status in the remaining eps in the series.