Curse of the Little Rascals

E! True Hollywood Story: The Curse of the Little Rascals (2002)

*** (out of 4)

Fans of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" series will probably want to check out this documentary, which originally aired on the E! channel. The documentary goes over the strange and sad early deaths that struck many of the cast members and after a while people began to think that the series had a curse on it. Now, as someone who is a fan of the old Hollywood I will admit that there's quite a bit not to like about this film. For starters, it's clear that very little research went into the picture because there are some bizarre errors that come up in the story telling. This includes talking about certain bits of history (claiming Roach was over after the Our Gang kids), talking about the history of shorts (said they were nearing their end in the early 40s) and other bits about sound coming into cinema. Those moments make you roll your eyes but the film is still worth seeing simply because of the story itself. Hearing about all these deaths are certainly rather sad and it does make you think if there was some sort of black cloud over the series. Another benefit are the interviews with the likes of Rene Beard, Tommy Bond, Jerry Tucker, George Sidney, Sidney Kibrick and a few others connected to the series.