Chicken Feed

Production Notes[]

Length: Two Reel
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Anthony Mack and Charles Oelze
Photography: Art Lloyd
Editor: Richard Currier
Titles: H. M. Walker
Writer: Hal Roach
Released: November 6, 1927
Studio: Pathe Exchange

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Andrew Shuford
David Mohanan
Ham Kinsey - Animal Trainer
Harry Spear (actor)
Jimsy Boudin
Robert Hutchins
Robert Mallon

The Short[]

Plot: Johnny puts on a magic show for the gang and seemingly turns Jean into a rabbit with some magic powder. Joe Cobb wants to learn his secret, so he takes some of the powder to experiment on Mango. She climbs out of the magic box unseen and is replaced by a monkey. The gang believes they have turned her into a monkey and chases after her as she seemingly continues changing into the animals the monkey encounters. In the end, she's replaced by a chicken which the gang searches for at the Greenpoint Train Station, only to find a hobo licking his lips next to a pile of feathers. Believing they have lost her forever, the gang try one last magic trick with the box, and Mango appears in a white sheet, resembling a ghost, and chases them down the railroad tracks.
Quotes:

"Yo' done it fo' Daniel -- Do it fo' me!--" Farina

Notes/Trivia:

Robert F. McGowan was on vacation during this short. His nephew, Robert A. McGowan, who directed under the name Anthony Mack, later directed the weak and lackluster final Pathe Our Gang shorts. In his criticism of the man's work, Maltin and Bann remark that his "films show little sensitivity, his gags are unsubtle and sometimes tasteless."
This was the first short for Harry Spear, who appears as an audience member It was also the last for Johnny Downs, who returned to the series after being absent from four shorts.
This short was remade as A Lad An' A Lamp.

Sequence[]

Previous Short: Baby Brother
Next Short: Olympic Games