Alfalfa's Aunt

This episode was also entertaining, next to "Alfalfa's Double", Mary Blake(sister of MGM singing star, Jennete MacDonald)did very good portraying Aunt Penelopie. My favorite part was where she screams, every time she saw frightening things.



**********out of**********.

Alfalfa's Aunt (1939)

*** (out of 4)

The seventh film in the MGM-Our Gang series turns out to be the best one so far. Alfalfa's aunt (Marie Blake) comes over for her yearly visit, which doesn't sit too well with the kid's father but there's nothing they can do. It turns out that the aunt is writing a murder-mystery but using the family member's real names. When Alfalfa reads a page about the aunt murdering him, he thinks it's real and calls the gang to help him. This here is so much better than the previous films in the series and it makes you wonder why better stories weren't created for the previous ones. If anything ALFALFA'S AUNT makes you realize that the studio could have produced much better material for the kids had they simply put more effort into it. There are many funny jokes here but the great stuff happens towards the end once the boys are running around and trying to prevent the aunt from murdering Alfalfa. There's a hilarious joke involving a statue of Alfalfa and the father even gets some pretty funny lines earlier in the picture. Blake also deserves a lot of credit as she manages to get some big laughs out of the aunt who certainly not all there in the head. It seems most Our Gang fans hate these MGM shorts but I read several reviews stating that this here is one of the best and it certainly seems like it.

This short was produced by MGM as an Our Gang comedy. Up until 1938, the films were made by Hal Roach and were generally funnier and more enjoyable. However, MGM bought the rights to the series and continued making them until 1944. Like most of the later shorts, this one stars Alfalfa and Spanky. Buckwheat, Porky and several others are on hand for the fun.

Alfalfa's parents are going out and he's going to be babysat by his Aunt Penelope (Marie Blake*). She loves reading and writing murder mysteries and dopey Alfalfa starts believing she's a murderer. So, he calls over his friends to help protect him. In the process, the Aunt believes the place is filled with murderers and all sorts of craziness ensues.

So is this any good? Yes. While it's not at all subtle and is, like all the later films, very short, it's got a few laughs. Not exactly brilliant but enjoyable.



*Marie Blake was a contract player for MGM known mostly for the Dr. Kildare series. Later, on TV, and using the name Blossom Rock, she played Grandmama on "The Addams Family". In real life, she was Jeanette MacDonald's sister.

Surprise! Alfalfa's Aunt is the rare example of an enjoyable MGM Our Gang short, which is sort of a miracle since it sprang from the usually unimaginative minds of writers Hal Law and Robert A. McGowan (director George Sidney undoubtedly deserves a lot of credit). This is one of the all-too-infrequent cases where MGM's production values enhance things rather than detract from the story, which is an atmospheric misunderstanding of Alfalfa's aunt Penelope (Marie Blake) letter which the gang interprets as her intention to bump her cow-licked nephew off so's to inherit the family fortune (Huh? Did anyone stop and look how the Switzer's live?). The kids set out to scare the wits out of her in order to save their pal. In the process of driving Penelope (who's an aspiring mystery writer rather than a murderer) out of the house there's a lot of inventive sight gags and creepy special effects... which conspire to make Alfalfa's Aunt one of the most watchable of the MGM years. Well done and definitely worthy of 10-minutes of your time.

Funny from start to finish. Alfalfa believes a page from his aunt's mystery novel is actually a letter stating that his aunt will murder him.

Everyone is spot on in this short. Marie Blake is hilarious as the Margaret Hamilton-esquire aunt. The actor playing Alfalfa's father is funny too, especially in a scene where he barely tolerates her reading from her manuscript.

Other funny scenes include Spanky reading the "letter," whereupon Porky reaches out his hand and says, "Goodbye, Alfie." Even minor things like little Gary Jasgar attempting the "All for One" hand sign are amusing. Altogether it's enjoyable, and ranks right up there with the Hal Roach shorts.