Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Thundering Fleas" is an "Our Gang" film from 90 years ago. The basics are the usual: It is silent, black-and-white and runs for slightly under 20 minutes. Writer an director have made many of these films, but this one here may have bigger names than usual in the cast as Charley Chase and Oliver Hardy appear as well. Unfortunately, they are only in here very briefly. Blink and you may miss them almost. The story is what the title says. The kids cause some trouble with their fleas and a poor dog pays the sacrifice. Overall, this was a pretty wild little movie, but it lacked the heart and comedy that some other "Our Gang" short films delivered. I do not recommend this one here. Nowhere near the best the series has to offer. The most interesting aspect may be the occasional animation, which is very unusual for the franchise.

classicsoncall This is probably the earliest Our Gang film short I've seen and it provided double the pleasure with a handful of Hal Roach regulars in support. Oliver Hardy in particular had a fairly significant role as a neighborhood cop, victim of a flea infestation that causes him to ditch his trousers and paint on a new set when one of the gang absconds with them. There was also the creative use of animation added to the live action, as the story introduces Garfield the Flea, starring act of 'Professor Clements Trained Flea and Insect Circus'. That was another first for this viewer, at least going this far back.I didn't recognize most of the Our Gang group in this one. My familiarity with them hearkens back to the Spanky and Alfalfa days, and I never caught this one as a kid growing up. But the antics are pretty much to speed with what I remember, as the kids wind up creating havoc in the most innocent of ways. You know, I can't help thinking that with the interracial component of these pictures, we would have a lot more tolerant society if everyone watched these before they started attending school.One last observation - I've come up with a little game for my family to holler out whenever someone spots a reference to Coke in a picture, and this might be it's earliest placement in a film that I've seen yet. There's a rather large advertising sign on the side of a building that you can't miss - 'Coca-Cola' in the distinctive trademark font one easily recognizes. For an instant, even though it's a black and white film short, you imagine seeing it in red.

tavm This Hal Roach comedy short, Thundering Fleas, is the fifty-first in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. Inspired by her older sister's upcoming wedding, Mary stages a mock one with Joe as the groom. He refuses to kiss her since he doesn't want the gang to laugh at him, however. They indeed do when Mary does the deed on Joe's lips. After one of them throws a shoe to Joe's face causing a track there, they point to Farina (who had nothing to do with it) who gets chased by the tracked-faced boy with dog Magnolia in tow. After Joe stops, Farina and the dog encounter a flea circus with the star attraction-Garfield. That flea (which is amusingly animated here) lands on Magnolia and decides to reside there with the dog now scratching herself. Along the way, Farina encounters a new friend, Scooter, who says his father is the vice-president of the U.S. They drop a bowl of fish with the amphibians jumping up and down. Scooter's mom then shows and sends Farina on his way. Meanwhile, Garfield's owner offers the rest of the gang $1 for finding his star flea. At this point, the rest of the owner's fleas are set free as Garfield tells his friends to "come on up" on the dog. It all ends in a hilarious disaster of Mary's sister's wedding...This has to be the most hilarious of the silent "Our Gang" comedies I've seen yet! Besides what I've just mentioned, there's plenty of now familiar faces of other Hal Roach comedies that provide additional pleasure starting with the up-and-coming Oliver Hardy as the cop who's the first victim of the fleas as he loses his trousers and paints his bright white long johns black to prevent further embarrassment, Charlie Hall as one of the wedding musicians, Charlie Chase with a big walrus mustache that hilariously moves from side-to-side, and James Finlayson without his usual prop mustache as the preacher reacting with his familiar fisheye reaction when the groom shakes his head as if to say "no" before the fleas then also lands on the preacher. Once again, kudos to the YouTube poster who added the familiar LeRoy Shield music from the "Little Rascals" talkies for providing the topper for this very enjoyable "Our Gang" entry, Thundering Fleas.

boblipton A sort of all-star Our Gang comedy, in which all sorts of Roach's regulars and mini-stars -- except Stan Laurel -- appear. The sole gag here is that a bunch of fleas gets loose at the gorgeous Martha Sleeper's wedding, causing all sorts of consternation. See if you can spot Charley Chase.