Hook and Ladder (1932) User Reviews

another fun rascals short

[Kieran_Kenney · 7/10 · 9 October 2003]

You have to marvel at the creative minds of the Hal Roach/Our

Gang prop department. Some really ingenious contraptions have

been made to fight fires, but they were made from baby buggies,

cardboard boxes, banana crates, hot water bottles and anything

else that mother wasn't using at that moment. And can we

suspend disbelief and pretend that these kids did in fact build all

of these amazing gadgets? Of course. Why? Because they are

the Little Rascals!

And this time they are volunteer fire fighters. In Stymie's words

"We don't get no pay!" They have converted a barn into a fire house

and have plenty of time to play around at being firemen. Of course,

when duty calls, they are on the job and ready to take on anything.

What kids. Of course they don't read to well, so one of them

(Stymie) has no trouble (spoiler warning) taking boxes labeled

DYNAMITE though a nearly burning hallway and dumping them out

a window. When they finally (spoiler warning) overcome the blaze,

we can't help but cheer for them. A very fun and exciting movie I've

watch over and over again for years. 7/10.

Well worth seeing....just for the props!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 2 December 2011]

This is an odd Our Gang comedy because instead of the kids, this particular one seems to star the people who made the wonderful props for this film. Seriously. This is one you just have to see to believe!

"Hook and Ladder" begins with a posting in the paper by the Fire Department. It seems they want assistance from the community. The kids take this to mean that they need to form their own volunteer fire house--and they do. It's filled with TONS of amazing props but the most interesting, by far, are the crazy fire engines they drive. Eventually, the boys actually happen upon a real fire--and they don't know it, but there is dynamite in the place! What's to happen next?

Overall, one of the better comedies for Our Gang. While the humor is okay, the props are just mega-cool and worth seeing.

The Second Renaissance The Moore era begins!

[thejcowboy22 · 8/10 · 27 July 2016]

Originally the OUR GANG talkies had at least one member who shined ahead of the pack. First It was the cowlick haired Jackie Cooper with his troubled romances with Maryann Jackson and his beloved teacher June Crabtree. Jackie had the wit and vulnerability to capture fans hearts of the series. Jackie's contract ran out and left the series and that was the end of the first group of players. Next was adorable Wheezer Hutchins, but Wheezer had the charm but he wasn't a strong confident gang leader. Some of Wheezer's leading two reelers were at best forgettable. Next Enter Kendall McComas (Breezy) who came off as a tough street punk and older brother to Spanky. Breezy lacked personality and very little charm. Enter Dickie Moore as the new leader of the gang.They are fire fighters in this short as the very first scene shows the new rascals of the depression era.The Lil Rascals of today! Dickie had the looks and charisma to handle any situation except for giving the first chief (Spanky), his medicine oil when the alarm clock sounds. As for Breezy he was demoted to Looker-outer for fires.This is also the last episode for Sherwood Spud Bailey in the series. Breezy spots fire atop the firehouse barn and slides down to set off the dog chasing cat fire alarm. The Kids swing into action but Spanky doesn't want to put his pants on. Finally the gang boards their firetrucks (animal driven)and ride along the streets of Los Angeles. Stymie's wagon in particular with its elongated wobbly wheels are a hilarious thing to watch. The gang reaches their destination, a flaming two story building. Stymie is the real hero in this episode as he braves the flames on the second floor and dodges a tickling flame to save what he thought was valuable merchandise but in reality the boxes read DYNAMITE. This kicks off the Dickie Moore segment of the Our Gang Series. A short run of 7 more episodes before Wally Albright takes over the thrown.

Oh My - What Fun!

[LAKERS34 · 10/10 · 21 May 2004]

What can you say? What more could you ask for? You've got Spanky, Stymie, and Dickie all at the top of their game...you've got the perfect supporting cast in Dorothy, Breezy, and Sherwood, plus the BEST collection of gadgets the gang has ever used. FIRE ENGINES! I was in heaven when I saw this short 30 some odd years ago and I'm in heaven when I see it with my 3 year old now!

Spanky absolutely steals the show here with the medicine gag and his constant harassment of the older kids...priceless! These little ones take direction like real pros...Their timing is dead on and every gag hits the mark - As many have said, you just don't see this kind of work today! Couple this with some real action as the gang puts their contraptions to work and battles "a real fire" and you've got one of the top 5 Little Rascals shorts of all time!

Most of this episode was shot over in the Palms area of West Los Angeles. The place where the gang battled the fire is still a vacant lot today. The real fire station shown in the film also still stands, LAFD Station 43, located on National Blvd. just east of Motor.

Fightin' Fires With The Little Rascals

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 26 April 2000]

To help out their city during a shortage of fire fighters, the Rascals have developed their own HOOK AND LADDER company. Converting an old barn into a firehouse, and using a motley assortment of wagons & vehicles, they are vigilant and alert to respond instantly to an alarm - if `Cheef' Dickie can get the pants on little brother Spanky. But when a warehouse full of dynamite begins to burn, and the Gang are the first on the scene, things really begin to heat up...

A very funny little film. The Rascals' fire fighting amenities, in the best tradition of Rube Goldberg, are a delight - as is Spanky & his medicine oil tribulations.

MGM lobbies for the privatization of U.S. emergency services . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 20 January 2018]

. . . during HOOK AND LADDER. Always considered the home studio for Big Business and Corporate Greed, MGM opens HOOK AND LADDER with an attempt to create a self-fulfilling prophecy: they flash a possibly bogus front page newspaper story mandating that every U.S. resident--man, woman, or child--is henceforth responsible for putting out their own fires (and, by logical extension, reviving their own Drowners, tracking down their own serial killers, patching up their own earthquakes, and plugging their own erupting volcanos). This, of course, is the long-savored pipe dream of the U.S. C of C, which views fire-fighting privatization as the first step toward vigilante self-policing, turning America's borders into free-fire "target practice" gun ranges for use by "concerned citizens," adopting Mickey D's School of Hamburgology curriculum as the replacement for the Common Core standard, substituting time-tested "poor farms" for Social Security and Medicare, combining Medicaid programs with Pre-Med Gross Anatomy classes, and so forth. As the Our Gang kids throw crates of dynamite and kegs of gun powder around during a barn fire, MGM asks its wealthy viewers to weigh the advantages of replacing ALL salaried government employees with unskilled volunteer labor to improve their Bottom Line. HOOK AND LADDER notes that professional firemen waste hours every day sleeping. Fire Kiddies are willing to snooze for free. What's the worst that can happen?

Hook and Ladder was a funny-and a little thrilling-Our Gang short

[tavm · 8/10 · 25 October 2014]

This Hal Roach comedy short, Hook and Ladder, is the one hundred sixteenth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the twenty-eighth talkie. A remake of the silent The Fourth Alarm, once again, the gang make their own fire department and attempt to put out a real fire and once again, someone (in this case, Stymie) has the duty of putting some explosives out of harm's way. While there were many funny gags and lines, by the time of the actual fire, I was quite worried for Stymie's safety during that scene of him getting all those explosives out and glad when the gang actually put that fire out! Of note is the absence of Wheezer who'd also miss the next two eps. This also marked the debut of Dickie Moore in the series. One of the few members who's still alive today, his much-older self did the intro on Disc 3 of The Little Rascals-The Complete Collection. So on that note, I highly recommend Hook and Ladder.

Watch out for belly laughs

[nnwahler · 10/10 · 16 September 2022]

For decades this episode was just below my Top Ten in the Little Rascals canon, but a recent viewing fest has finally bumped it up to that hallowed spot.

This could lay fair claim as the series' most inventive episode. Gadgetry abounds. Stymie, Dickie and little brother Spanky are among the heads of the gang's own Fire Brigade, responding to a newspaper article pleading for more local firefighters. Dickie Moore, one of Hollywood's most in-demand child actors, makes his series debut here. Sadly, it was to be his last season as well. Spanky, who'd debuted half a season prior, has the very funniest scenes. Baby Spanky just slays me--whether he's rebelling at taking his half-hour medicine dosage, or whether he's dinkering with the makeshift intercom system by blowing dust onto Dorothy's head--accompanied by that incomparable nasty laugh. Stymie is simply in his greatest period here.

And there's that supporting cast of characters: dogs, cats, horses, goats are pressed into service, primarily to power the gang's three (four?) fire trucks. I especially like the little dog on the treadmill (was that Laughing Gravy from the Laurel & Hardy series?); his barks are dubbed in for extra loudness. And was Pete's offscreen yelp supposed to be the cat in the cage scratching him? And in case you hadn't noticed, the shot of the goat and mule sitting back down was really that same shot run backwards--the same comic device was later used in the episode "Honkey Donkey".

Dickie Moore's First Film With Our Gang

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 24 November 2022]

The year 1932 introduced a new actor to the Little Rascals: child star Dickie Moore. The seven-year-older had already been in almost thirty movies, including a trio of silents, when he was offered a part in August 1932's "Hook and Ladder." Some of the gags in Dickie's first "Our Gang" short dates back to the series' inaugural year in 1922's 'The Fourth Alarm." Moore's character is chief of the kids' fire squad who discovers a barn fire. The barn, filled with dynamite and barrels of black powder, poses a challenge for the rascals' fireboys, stretching all the resources they have in their possession. Spanky is Dickie's younger brother here, and requires a dose of dewormer every 30 minutes. Dickie's stay with Our Gang lasted just a year, but his withdrawal from the rascals didn't put a halt to his acting career, which stretched to 1957 when he played the role of Confederate General Jeb Stuart. He retired to start his own public relations firm in the Los Angeles area, operating the business for 44 years.

Our Gang fighting the fire

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 5 April 2017]

Here we have "Hook and Ladder", an American 18-minute short film from 1932, which has its 85th anniversary this year. When you read the names McGowan, Walker, Stymie, Spanky and Pete the Pup, you know immediately that this is another Little Rascals movie from the early days of sound film. So don't be surprised because of the audio quality, this one here is like the other Rascals short still much more about what you see. The gang dress up as firefighters this time and play a bit around, but things become much more serious (well, no not really, it's all about the comedy still) when there is a real fire and our heroes have to help in extinguishing it. That's what they do. And in-between they play around with the water or the extinguisher and the foam. Adults are almost missing completely in these slightly under 20 minutes, but there is some solid animal action in here this time that extends way beyond Pete the Pup. Audiences loved little kids and animals back then. But I still believe it hasn't aged too well unfortunately. Neither the comedy nor the story nor the "performances" left an impact on me. Then again I have never been too big on the Rascals. Watch it if you love them. If you don't, then skip it. You won't be missing much.