Goin' Fishin'

This M-G-M comedy short, Going' Fishin', is the one hundred ninety-second entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred fourth talkie. The gang stay overnight at the window of a sporting goods store in order to catch the early bus to go fishing. The kind of bus they're going to ride is a double decker one where they can go to the top to see the view from above. But first they have to pay their fare and only Mickey has the money but he's confused which shoe it's in. I'll stop there and just say the frustration on the part of the conductor is believable but so are the kids' ignorance of how they're the cause of it which makes it all funny the way it's presented here. Paul Hurst-who's one of the few players receiving credit in these shorts-does quite well doing his slow-burn grimace throughout. In summary, Going' Fishin' is one of the better M-G-M Our Gang shorts.

.....and that's all too seldom in the MGM Our Gang series.

What a neat idea: the Gang takes a bus to go fishing with tons of equipment, much to the frustration of an already-irritable conductor. This is one of those plot ideas that just can't fail.

Some of the best scenes involves a running gag in which each Gang member stumbles onto the double-decker bus with all their fishing gear, and the conductor yells at each kid to pay the fare; each kid keeps saying: "Mickey's got it!" And, naturally, Mickey is the last kid to get on the bus.

There's another funny scene in which the Gang learns that the bus is heading to the West River (and doesn't everyone know kids fish in the East River?). They're about to get off the bus (further delaying the bus's departure ), when the conductor convinces them that the fishing is better in the West River -- he even goes so far as to name each and every fish that lives in the West River!

Other scenes work as well. Aside from that, the Gang looks pretty good in this short. The acting is fairly natural (which is commonly a stretch for these aging young actors). Even Mickey isn't his usual whiny, obnoxious self (no offense to Robert Blake). What's more, the kids' innocence is priceless; at the end of the film, the bus leaves them at the bus stop, zooming away at double-speed. "I think that conductor was sore at us," says Alfalfa. "Yeah," replies Mickey, "I wonder why?"

The actor is plays the poor conductor is perfectly cast, as are the harangued passengers on the bus. Commenting on the delay, one man moans, "I'd have been better off if I'd walked to work!"

What a wonderful film!