By 1935, the writing was on the wall for the staple at Hal Roach Studios: two-reel comedies. While his short films were still popular with the public, Roach’s filmic output was losing ground financially to double features, necessitating that his stars either transition to feature films (like Laurel & Hardy) or find employment elsewhere. An exception was made for Our Gang as the producer continued to make one-reelers featuring the kiddie troupe with the focus on five members: Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat and Porky.
With the length of the shorts cut in half (Our Gang Follies of 1938 [1937] being an exception), the finished streamlined product was both cost-effective and profitable. The change didn’t seem to hurt the franchise either as the first one-reeler, Bored of Education (1936), won the Academy Award for Best (One-Reel) Short Subject the following year. In 1938, after two additional years of cranking out classic comedies, Roach would sell the property to MGM where the series continued until 1944.
The Little Rascals – The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 6 contains the final 23 Our Gang sound shorts produced by the Hal Roach Studios: Bored of Education (1936) to Hide and Shriek (1938)—with each short newly scanned and restored from the original Hal Roach 35mm film elements.
A must-have for any true Our Gang fan, Volume 6 features the talents of George “Spanky” McFarland, Billie “Buckwheat” Thomas, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Darla Hood, Eugene “Porky” Lee, Tommy “Butch” Bond and Sidney “Woim” Kibrick. There are also special appearances from former members Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, Joe Cobb and Matthew “Stymie” Beard!
For additional thoughts on The Little Rascals, check out the reviews of Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4 and Volume 5.
For thoughts on The Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 6, please check out my piece on The Video Attic:
SHORTS:
1936
- Bored of Education
- Two Too Young
- Pay as You Exit
- Spooky Hooky
1937
- Reunion in Rhythm
- Glove Taps
- Hearts are Thumps
- Rushin’ Ballet
- Three Smart Boys
- Roamin’ Holiday
- Night ‘n’ Gales
- Fishy Tales
- Framing Youth
- The Pigskin Palooka
- Mail and Female
- Our Gang Follies of 1938
1938
- Canned Fishing
- Bear Facts
- Three Men in a Tub
- Came the Brawn
- Feed ’em and Weep
- The Awful Tooth
- Hide and Shriek
Video Quality
The Little Rascals concludes its amazing run of Hal Roach-produced shorts on Blu-Ray in its original 1.38:1 thanks to the heroic efforts of ClassicFlix with a brand new 1080p master from newly scanned and restored 35mm film elements. If you are familiar with the previous volumes, you know what the deal is here since the quality has been consistent since day one. Previous volumes had restoration demonstrations in the special features which showed the rough state of these elements. Thankfully, the restoration process has yielded some very satisfying results that are better than fans could have imagined.
The quality does ebb and flow a bit in terms of video quality throughout these 23 films thanks to the state of the source material. Many hours have been put into cleaning this material up as much as possible, and the efforts are mostly spectacular with only a very small amount of nicks and scratches still present. There is a solid amount of detail present with surprising textures on the gang’s clothing and within the various backgrounds. The new transfer shows off a grand amount of depth and enhanced detail within each film’s composition. The contrast is well defined with only passing moments where you can imagine the source material was especially damaged. The black-and-white photography shines in high definition with natural grain largely intact outside some moments where print clean-up caught some grain in the crosshairs. Black levels are fairly deep with no overwhelming occurrence of black crush or compression artifacts. ClassicFlix continues to put in the work on their restorations which earns our eternal love.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that does what it can to reproduce this material in the most enjoyable manner possible when factoring in the place in early sound recording. Fidelity is where the track struggles the most, but this can be forgiven given the source elements. What music is featured can occasionally present as a bit brash or hollow, which is nothing new for classic material such as this. This track presents with some amount of age related wear and tear including some hissing and crackles that date back to the source elements. Dialogue and background noises are mostly represented in harmony, but there are a few instances where the action sound effects overtakes the dialogue. There are optional English SDH subtitles included for those who desire them. ClassicFlix has provided the most stable track possible for this one considering the limitations of the source.
Special Features
There are no special features provided on this disc.
Final Thoughts
The Little Rascals ends the Hal Roach era strong with a change of format that keeps the films breezy and entertaining even amidst some recycled plotlines. These 23 shorts from 1936-1938 feature many of your favorite characters in some hilarious situations that keep the laughs flowing. As with every volume, this collection brings a rich part of cinema history straight to your living room. ClassicFlix continues its terrific output with this sixth and final volume on Blu-Ray which sports an amazing A/V presentation. If you have been collecting them up until this point, you owe it to yourself to complete the collection. There is so much fun to be had from beginning to end. Highly Recommended
The Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 6 is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: ClassicFlix has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.