Production Notes[]
Length: Two Reel
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Robert McGowan
Photography:
Editor: Unknown
Titles: H. M. Walker
Writer: Hal Roach
Released: July 29, 1923
Studio: Pathe Exchange
Main Cast[]
- Allen Hoskins
- Jackie Davis (actor)
- Jackie Condon (actor)
- Joe Cobb
- Ernie Morrison
- Mary Kornman (actress)
- Mickey Daniels (actor)
Supporting Cast[]
- Andrew Samuel
- Charles Stedman - Car Thief #2
- Elmo Billings
- Gabriel Saienz
- George "Freckles" Warde
- Ivadell Carter
- Joseph Morrison - Professor T. Jefferson Culpepper
- Julia Brown
- Lincoln Stedman - Car Thief #1
- Mary Murphy
- Richard Billings
- Richard Daniels Sr. - Mickey and Jackie's dad
- Winston Doty (according to Maltin and Bann)
The Short[]
Plot: Joe Cobb is becoming a new member into the gang's club, the Cluck Cluck Klams, at the Old Jones Barn little knowing some car thieves are using the location as a hide-out. In a subplot, Professor T. Jefferson Culpepper offers a lecture in philosophy mixed in double-talk in a Southern accent, thoroughly boring his listeners. Also bored, Ernie and Farina start shooting dice, but when Culpepper confiscates the dice and continues his lecture shaking his fist now holding the dice, he and his audience can't resist ending the talk to start gambling amongst themselves. Joe gets roughed up in his initiation, but passes it just as the car thieves arrive at the barn, which they use as a hideout. Farina and Jackie then get trapped in the stolen car as the thieves drive off in it. The gang (Ernie, Mickey, and Jack) rallies to their rescue in another car, which falls mostly apart, but ends up blocking the thieves' car on a narrow dirt road, resulting in a crash. The police come running to investigate and give the kids a $500 reward for catching the criminals.
Quotes:
- "He's a sheek!" - Jack Davis
- "Farina - Doesn't know what the lodge is all about - But is in favor of anything." - Title Narration about Farina
- "Dust want to take the royal oath?" - Mickey
"Dust." - Joe
Notes/Trivia:
- Joseph Morrison was the real life father of Ernie Morrison.
- Richard Daniels Sr. was the real life father of Mickey Daniels.
- The Cluck Cluck Klams is loosely patterned after the Ku Klux Klan as the kids, including Ernie and Farina, wear white sheets and refer to their "Xsalted Ruler."
- On Mischief Makers, this episode is entitled "The Secret Meeting'', however, the episode later got pulled from TV due to controversial and racist themes, However the episode can be seen on YouTube.
- The first short to possibly use stop-motion animation in the classroom scene when a fly appears in the boy's diorama.
Sequence[]
- Previous Short: Dogs Of War!
- Next Short: Fast Company