in 1924-the same year she graduated from Hollywood High. Crabtree was played by Gisela Valaria Goetten who became June Marlowe when she signed with Warner Bros. Edna Krabappel, a lovelorn but feisty middle school teacher, is clearly a nod to June Crabtree, platinum-haired sweetheart of the PTA. You know a character has achieved pop cultural status when The Simpsons pays tribute. Though the film flirts with bathos, the prevailing mood is joyfully rowdy thanks to the rascals and Mann herself who (with the help of a stunt double) engages in some outrageously funny physical comedy. The gang shows up in time for some slapstick revenge, chasing the conniving rat through a vacant lot littered with strategically placed broken glass and crooked nails-a shimmy up a splinter-ridden telephone pole is the final humiliation and when he reaches the top, sparks fly. The old lady seemed to attract scoundrels like that-in 1931’s Fly My Kite, she’s swindled out of a cache of valuable bonds by her own son-in-law-he even breaks her glasses to keep her sidelined. He performs similar services for Grandma and, shocker, there’s a happy ending for all, except Pennypacker. Fields-Henderson played the kindly farmer who helps Fields out of a jam in It’s A Gift. One of the money men is played by the Canadian actor Dell Henderson, a regular foil for The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and most memorably, W.C. Pennypacker, a miserable bastard with a storybook name, conspires to thwart the buy-out and skedaddle with the profits. The store has other admirers-a well-heeled syndicate is ready to make a deal with our destitute heroine but Mr. The cavernous shop is like a second home to the gang and it stocks all the necessities Bromo-Seltzer and shoe laces for the adults, toys and candy for the kids (Wheezer depends on buttons and slugs for his purchases but scores a bag of jujubes anyway). In Helping Grandma, Mann operates a high-ceilinged five-and-dime where the children while away the hours performing odd jobs-the odder the better. Mann made two films for Roach and they each have overtones of a Victorian stage melodrama: the wolves are at the door and it’s up to our heroes-the rascals-to save the day. Her most effective tool was the comforting Scottish accent she wielded in all her speaking parts, a honey-coated brogue fundamental to her portrayal of Grandma Mack, a bastion of mercy in an unforgiving world. A perennial dowager, her work clothes usually consisted of a shawl, an apron, and a pair of sensible shoes. Mann rode a roller coaster from there on, achieving transitory fame with a starring role in John Ford’s Four Sons before a succession of walk-ons, including a blink and you’ll miss her appearance in Frankenstein and a cameo in Mr. Margaret Mann was born in 1868 in Aberdeen, Scotland and began her career with a supporting role in 1914’s The Skylight Room, a woe-is-me romance based on an O. The folkloric nature of Walker’s work was only amplified by the introduction of two new characters a fairy godmother from the Highlands and a beguiling Goldilocks in school teacher’s drag.
A former sportswriter, Walker crafted stories in the tradition of Tom Sawyer and Aesop’s Fables-cautionary tales disguised as kid-friendly comedies. Walker dreamed up the lion’s share of the scenarios. Producer Hal Roach continued to micro-manage every pratfall, Robert McGowan retained his position as the Rascal’s preeminent director, and H.
2, raises the curtain on the gang’s golden age still topping the bill were Jackie Cooper, Allen Hoskins as Farina, Norman Chaney as Chubby, and Bobby Hutchins as the knee-high Wheezer.
The new release from ClassicFlix, The Little Rascals, Vol. And there’s no narcotic more soothing or transportive than the depression era adventures of Our Gang, a band of pint-sized comedians set loose in the wilds of Culver City. Religion may be the opiate of the masses but nostalgia runs it a close second. Starring Jackie Cooper, June Marlowe, Margaret Mann
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