Remastered and beautifully restored, eight rare silent Our Gang shorts make their Blu-ray debut in ClassicFlix’s The Little Rascals – The Restored Silents, Volume 1. Before Spanky, Alfalfa and Darla, there was Sammy, Mickey and Mary. First inaugurated in 1922, comedy producer Hal Roach’s Our Gang series (later re-titled The Little Rascals for TV syndication) would become the longest-running and most prolific in the history of movie comedy short subjects with 220 entries in all. Volume 1 showcases the franchise in its infancy, including the premiere short put together from eight different sources and now in its most complete form, Our Gang (1922). The collection also features seven of the next eight shorts in the series produced in 1922 and 1923: Fire Fighters, Young Sherlocks, One Terrible Day, Saturday Morning, The Big Show!, The Cobbler and The Champeen!

A must-have for any true Our Gang fan, The Little Rascals – The Restored Silents, Volume 1 stars the delightful kiddie troupe of Ernie “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison, Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, Jackie Condon, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Jack Davis, Joe Cobb and Peggy Cartwright. Also included is the bonus short The Pickaninny (1921), a two-reel comedy which showcases a pre-Our Gang Ernie Morrison in his first starring role, and shows why Hal Roach had confidence the talented actor was not only able to carry a film all by himself, but also had a budding star he could build an entire series around. Each short also has a newly recorded musical accompaniment performed by either Ben Model and Dr. Philip Carli.

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Video Quality

The Little Rascals: The Restored Silents debut on Blu-Ray thanks to ClassicFlix with a brand new 1080p masters from a variety of the best surviving sources. Each of these shorts is accompanied by a text card preceding the short detailing exactly what was used to create what is on this disc. Most of these restorations are 2K scans of 16mm prints, but there are a couple of instances of a 4K scan being conducted along with some surviving 35mm nitrate prints. Given the state that these shorts were in that you can see in the special features, the transfer we have here is quite astounding. Some restoration efforts were more challenging than others so there is varying quality throughout these films, but we feel lucky that these still exist at all.

The black-and-white photography looks nice in high definition with natural grain fully intact. Black levels are as deep as the source will allow with no compression artifacts, but the grain resolution can fluctuate slightly in some sequences. There is a surprising amount of detail present with nice textures on the costumes and within the background. The new transfer shows off a favorable amount of depth and enhanced detail within each film’s composition. The contrast is decently defined with only fleeting moments when you can imagine the source material was especially damaged. Great pains have been taken to clean this material up as much as possible, and for the most part the efforts are a smashing success with only the expected amount of nicks, scratches, and other age-related anomalies still present. ClassicFlix has done some top-tier work here to make these look as great as they possibly can.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a pretty great DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that complements these movies endearingly. Since these are silent films, we only have the newly composed scores to contend with, and everything flows out with the utmost fidelity. You do not have to deal with age-related wear and tear with this outing. Everything sounds great. Optional English SDH subtitles are included for those who desire them.

Special Features

The Pickaninny: A nearly 17-minute pre-Our Gang short featuring Ernie Morrison is provided with the same level of care as the main shorts on the disc.

Restoration Comparisons: A nearly four-minute video demonstration of the material before and after being cleaned up. The difference is night and day!

Preview of Upcoming Rascal Silent Volumes: A nearly eight-minute presentation of clips is provided for the upcoming installments in the series.

Final Thoughts

The Little Rascals is an endearing institution, and it remains as such even when you travel back to its inception in the silent era. The performances from the children have always been the draw of this series, and they never fail to produce some laughs. Some of the shorts have more dated aspects than others, but when viewed in the context of the period they were created there is quite a bit to appreciate here. ClassicFlix has knocked it out of the park once again with this debut volume of silent shorts on Blu-Ray which sports a respectable A/V presentation and a brief selection of supplements. If you are even a bit curious about these shorts, it is worth checking them out if only to support further preservation elements such as this. Recommended

The Little Rascals: The Restored Silents, Volume 1 will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray on January 21, 2025.

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.