Unidentified, Jean, Farina and Harry
Length: Two Reel
Producer: Hal Roach and Robert F. McGowan
Director: Robert F. McGowan
Photography: Art Lloyd and F. E. Hershey
Editor: Richard Currier
Titles: H. M. Walker
Writer: Robert F. McGowan
Released: October 12, 1929
Studio: M-G-M
Main Cast
- Allen Hoskins
- Harry Spear (actor)
- Jackie Cooper (actor)
- Jean Darling (actress)
- Mary Ann Jackson
- Norman Chaney
- Robert Hutchins
- Robert Mallon
- Thomas Atkins - (unconfirmed}
Supporting Cast
- Dora Dean - Wheezer's Mother
- Eddie Dunn - Wheezer's Father
- Lyle Tayo - Nurse
The Short
Plot: Since the new baby was born, Wheezer has not been getting very much attention in the house. When he misses breakfast, Wheezer has to dress himself with Pete's help and cook for himself, mistakenly using Plaster of Paris to make some rock hard and inedible pancakes. One accidently hits mom, but he uses another to save his posterior from a spanking, a stunt that doesn't work. He afterward grumbles off to the park where Farina tells him he once replaced a baby brother with a goat, but then the gang comes by in their Halloween costumes to scare them both, Chubby distorting his voice that it sounds loud and unearthly. Plan in mind, Wheezer tries Farina's idea by taking the baby back to the hospital to get rid of him, smashing lightbulbs to make the sound of a tire popping that the cars will stop and let him pass. At the hospital, all he has brought them is the doll from the bed. The nurse calls and tells Wheezer's mother what has occurred. Mom plans with Mary Ann to cry so hard over the loss of the baby that Wheezer will go back to the hospital to bring the baby back. On his return, Wheezer is told the baby has been returned to heaven. Heading back home, his light bulb gag fails him as he is caught by motorcycle cops. He has to run for it, and once home, he is told that he has to pray to get his baby brother back. By now, mother sneaks the baby into the room to teach her other son a lesson, and how, the playful infant bops Wheezer on the head to announce his presence.
Quotes:
Notes/Trivia:
- The kids in costume are Chubby as a devil, Harry as a skeleton, an unidentified kid as a ghost and Jean as a clown.
- Wheezer's mother is named "Mrs. Dean" by the nurse - this was the actress's real last name.
- Through Our Gang, Farina has had two older brothers, Ernie and Pineapple, and two younger sisters, Mango and Pleurisy; he would not get a baby brother until Moan & Groan, Inc. Trellis, who could be the same as Farina's baby brother Hector in When The Wind Blows, would be played by an actress, Betty Jane Beard.
- This was the last short for Jean Darling and Harry Spear. Despite what some sources claim, Joseph Cobb does not appear in this short.
- This short is often erroneosly retitled "Bounding Babies."
- Most of the existing prints of this short are marred by static and soundtrack noise over the footage. Later when AMC (American Movie Classics) aired this short on TV, they attempted to hide the static noise by sloppily adding in the background music pulled directly from Hearts Are Thumps.
- This short was released just roughly seventeen days before the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929 that plunged the United States into the Great Depression. As Maltin and Bann pointed out, it's odd coincidence that the next short would be Moan & Groan, Inc.
Sequence
- Previous Short: Lazy Days
- Next Short: Moan & Groan, Inc.