Series: Our Gang
Director: Robert F. McGowan
Producer: Hal Roach
Dialogue: H.M. Walker
Photography: Art Lloyd
Editor: Richard C. Currier
Stars: Our Gang
Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Released: 02 June 1928
Length: 2 reels
Production No.: G-10
Filming dates: February 10-24, 1928
Rating: 5/10
Crazy House
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Poor Jean isn't happy. She comes downstairs to find two of her mother's friends there. Jean tells one lady that her mom said she was two-faced before asking the second lady about her face lift - well, that's one way to start a conversation, I suppose! Meanwhile, Percy's father is setting up his entire house full of pranks for a major April Fool's joke on all the kids. The pranks include a rubber sausage, and a small telescope with ink around the eyehole. The bored Jean looks out of her window to see the robust gang in the throws of a playful boxing match. Wheezer - and then Mary Ann get decked with a flying glove whilst Joe stuffs his face with a banana and trying to hold his pants up. The fight is broken up when Farina's mother shouts out to him to come and get the laundry. Jean protests that she now wants to be a boxer - and be a boy. O......kay then...... The kids enter the "crazy house" where Pansy (the dog) is the first to discover a chair that bends when you stand on it (this is followed by a cringey shot of Wheezer "laughing"). Jean asks 'God' for a baby brother - and along comes Wheezer as the answer to her prayers. Her first decision is to dress him up in her doll's clothes, something that doesn't go down well with Wheezer so she ends up chasing him around the room until she finally puts him on a gramophone turntable. After spinning around for awhile Wheezer becomes dizzy and stumbles around the room. The boys go outside and see the ridiculous-looking Percy and make fun of him before he invites the to go with him to Jean's house (wait, is Jean his sister in this film?) The gang arrive at the house and no sooner do they enter it they are subjected to the pranks. A rush of air being forced up from the floor is the first such prank, followed by the dog being tricked by a pattern on the floor. |
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Harry plays the piano and gets an electric shock. Joe gets kicked in the pants by a suit of armour. Mary Ann receives flour to her face when she gets too close to the radio. Jean then asks to exchange clothes with Harry in exchange for anything he wants in the house and after doing so she offers him a fight. After taking on Harry, she picks on Joe and starts boxing him in the chest and face (it actually looks like she lands a few blows too!) The fun is broken up when the kids go to eat, where the practical jokes continue. Joe, Farina, Jackie and Mary Ann all attempt to tuck into some cakes but find they cannot be digested. Percy reminds the kids that it is etiquette to eat everything presented to them. Farina tries to eat a hot dog but finds the dog is actually a balloon in a bun. Then come the cream puffs full of some kind of squirt. Several of these are exchanged among the kids before the Joe finally demands to know what is going on. Percy tells him it is April Fool's Day and it's all a big joke. Unhappy, Joe asks the others to get together to prank Percy to see if he can take it as well as give it. Harry emerges dressed up as a girl and carrying lots of household items he intends to steal. Just then the cops burst in and are swamped with an absolute avalanche of balloons (which must have taken the props department a whole day to inflate!) falling from the ceiling. The film ends with the kids escaping from the house and running down the street with bunches of balloons attached to them. |
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