Author Archive: Retro

The gang is putting on a show with Alfalfa billed as “King of the Crooners.” But Alfalfa abandons the show saying his crooning days are over, and that opera is his true calling. But after taking a nap and dreaming of a successful future in popular music, he changes his mind and joins the rest of the gang for the closing number.

The kids mistake Miss Crabtree’s brother for a potential boyfriend, and plot to discourage him.

The boys cannot go fishing because they have to take care of their baby brothers and sisters. After trying unsuccessfully to sell their babies to some traveling gypsies, Mary shows up and tells them that her little sister just won a prize at the baby show.The boys decide to enter their babies in the show, only to discover that all the prizes are gone except the one for the fattest baby. Mickey comes up with the idea to enter Joe as a baby. After Joe escapes, the gang decides to make their own baby show. When the parents discover their babies are missing they assume that the gypsies stole them. When the gang finds out that their parents are after them, they hide in the gypsy wagon, which drives off. As the police and parents chase the wagon down the street, the babies start falling off the wagon and the parents stop and pick them [...]

The Gang stages their own revisionist version of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in Mickey’s barn. But Joe’s mother thinks the back yard needs cleaning, and there are several interruptions when they lose a leading character. Mickey plays Simon Legree; Mary as Eva; Joe as Uncle Tom; and Farina essays the role of Topsy.

The gang is putting on a show with Alfalfa billed as “King of the Crooners.” But Alfalfa abandons the show saying his crooning days are over, and that opera is his true calling. But after taking a nap and dreaming of a successful future in popular music, he changes his mind and joins the rest of the gang for the closing number.

While on a camping trip, the gang comes across poachers.

Don Gomez writes a letter to the parents of Zelda, a young Spanish girl, regretting his inability to pay them a visit, but sends his son, Jose, instead. Jose arrives and is immediately smitten by the charms of Zelda. Zelda indulges in a little flirtation. Her mother inaugurates a system of espionage that is very inconvenient for the lovers. They are surprised by the duenna-like mother and are driven to desperation. Zelda has a girlfriend about her age who resembles her and is attired to represent a clever counterpart of Zelda. The mother walks in the garden accompanied by Zelda. Seating herself on a bench, she commands the girl to repose beside her. Finding the vigil rather tiresome, the elder woman lapses into a state of drowsiness, and the companions of Zelda beckon her to join them. So clever is the disguise of Rosa that Jose is deceived and he kisses her. The father of [...]

A gang of thieves lure a man out of his home so that they can rob it and threaten his wife and children. The family barricade themselves in an interior room, but the criminals are well-equipped for breaking in. When the father finds out what is happening, he must race against time to get back home.

Dreary indeed is the aspect of the little mining camp, deserted by all but four survivors of the terrors of this desert land. The graves in the background vividly tell a story of privation and suffering. The little party comprises a miner, his wife and her sister, and a young woman, who is the sole survivor of another family nearby. Death is inevitable should they stay longer, and so the four start their race with death to the desert’s rim. At their first resting place, the wife and her sister go in search of water to replenish their supply. Left alone with the girl, the husband, in a vagary of weakness, makes advances to her. This is seen by the wife from a distance, and in the struggle which ensues, the man, who is a physical wreck, pays the penalty with his life. As the wife and sister stand over the lonely grave, they, wrongly [...]