Hi'-Neighbor!

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

Although the Gang tries to be friendly with a snooty new rich kid - `HI-NEIGHBOR!' - it's obvious he disdains them all. And when his spiffy fire engine impresses Jane, it's time for the Rascals to build their own competition vehicle.

Some good laughs here. The building of the contraption, especially Spanky helping Stymie put on the wheels, is hilarious. Highlight: the race down the very steep hill.

Okay, I love the Little Rascals! The ones from the 30s and 40s. 1934, i think, is the best season of shorts. Mainly it's becuase it contains Scotty Beckett and Spanky McFarland at there best! I give "Hi Neighbor" 10 stars!

In this episode the rascals build a fire engine from scratch, to use in a race.

The brake on the home-made fire engine fails at the end and the fire engine ends up in a pond. In one scene a boy is sitting on a board and someone drills through the board, ripping off the boy's pants and, I think, his underpants (!)

An unusual episode because before the rascals also get their clothes torn off by shrubs on the side of the road as they ride down to the pond-- where they all get dunked.

This is the funniest, most thrilling OUR GANG I've ever seen. If I could wish for one picture in the series to be named to the National Film Registry or to survive the Apocalypse or what have you, it would probably be this one. I wouldn't say it's the best - the Rascals made too many different kinds of film for any one to be the best - but it embodies what made the series great.

One of those great things is Spanky McFarland. In some of his early shorts his grumpiness is a little overdone, but here he's just perfect. I doubt any of the children have ever been cuter.

The film begins with a moving fan rolling down the street. The boys are thrilled when they see a beautiful new toy fire engine on the truck and follow it--hoping to make a rich new friend. However, the new boy wants nothing to do with them and won't let them ride his neat firetruck. So, the gang decides to build their own. Not surprisingly, when they take it for a spin on the big hill, the shortcomings in their design become all too apparent.

This film bears a lot of similarity to another Our Gang short--"Hook and Ladder"--which is about the boys building their own firetruck in order to help the local firemen put out fires. However, the rear-projection in the final scene is a lot more obvious here in "Hi' Neighbor" and it's not quite as good as the earlier film. Worth seeing but far from their best.