When Hal Roach's "Our Gang" series dominated the list of family favorite movie shorts, one of the most popular was "Teacher's Pet", the story of how vengeful children can be sometimes when it comes to facing change, and in the case of that short, it dealt with the arrival of a new schoolteacher (Miss Crabtree) whom they assumed to be an old grouch. Producer Roach took the same story and expanded it into a feature length (one hour) family comedy in the cynical world of the post World War II years and showed that children didn't need video games or technology to have fun; They created it the best way they knew how: with the help of nature and the props around them.
Larry Olsen is the title character, taking over Jackie Cooper's role as the head of his gang of pals, and convincing them to do all they can to make the first day of their new schoolteacher as unpleasant as possible. They believe her to be the seemingly hard-nosed Kathleen Howard, but as it turns out, the teacher is really Howard's pretty niece, Frances Rafferty. Ants, exploding ink pens and a frog help interrupt her class, but Rafferty is one step above their cruel prank and teaches them a lesson that proves to be fun and not preachy. Howard, it is revealed, is a good egg, shown blowing bubbles through chewing gum and even trying to kick a football. The kids are basically kind and they come out of it learning how never to assume or judge a book by its cover.
Somewhat cheaply made, this suffers in its DVD transfer with faded color, but the humor which keeps the film moving makes that tolerable. There's the typical slapstick (particularly the shot of two black kids riding around in Curley's go-cart) and lots of good natured fun. Dale Belding is also fun as Curley's freckle-faced friend Speck, very close in demeanor to "Froggy" from the last years of the series and to George "Foghorn" Winslow who accused Marilyn Monroe of being a burglar in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".
Larry Olsen is the title character, taking over Jackie Cooper's role as the head of his gang of pals, and convincing them to do all they can to make the first day of their new schoolteacher as unpleasant as possible. They believe her to be the seemingly hard-nosed Kathleen Howard, but as it turns out, the teacher is really Howard's pretty niece, Frances Rafferty. Ants, exploding ink pens and a frog help interrupt her class, but Rafferty is one step above their cruel prank and teaches them a lesson that proves to be fun and not preachy. Howard, it is revealed, is a good egg, shown blowing bubbles through chewing gum and even trying to kick a football. The kids are basically kind and they come out of it learning how never to assume or judge a book by its cover.
Somewhat cheaply made, this suffers in its DVD transfer with faded color, but the humor which keeps the film moving makes that tolerable. There's the typical slapstick (particularly the shot of two black kids riding around in Curley's go-cart) and lots of good natured fun. Dale Belding is also fun as Curley's freckle-faced friend Speck, very close in demeanor to "Froggy" from the last years of the series and to George "Foghorn" Winslow who accused Marilyn Monroe of being a burglar in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".
