Our Gang: The Roach/Pathé silents (1922-1928)

Overview: Mrs. Pennington Van Renssalaer, a publicity-minded society matron, sponsors a children's outing, much to her and her chauffeur's eventual regret.

Rate: 4.5

Release date: 1922-09-09

Overview: The gang forms a fire department; they end up thwarting a bootlegger, but not before their pet animals get drunk on his moonshine.

Rate: 5.7

Release date: 1922-10-08

Overview: An unethical merchant moves into town and steals customers from the widowed owner of an established store; the gang steps in to help.

Rate: 6.3

Release date: 1922-11-04

Overview: The Mystic J.J.J.'s challenge Ernie's bravery; he spins a tale of saving a rich young girl from kidnappers and of creating a utopia called Freetown.

Rate: 7.1

Release date: 1922-11-25

Overview: The Rascals, feeling unloved at home, decide to become pirates. Meanwhile, a mother, an aunt and a valet join the cops in searching for the runaways.

Rate: 6.2

Release date: 1922-12-03

Overview: The gang mistakenly believes a police patrol is after them for beating up a cop's boy; they wind up encountering the police's real quarry: Red Mike.

Rate: 6.2

Release date: 1922-12-30

Overview: Mickey and Jackie feud over Mary, so Sammy schedules a championship bout between the two rivals.

Rate: 6.3

Release date: 1923-01-27

Overview: A cobbler receives his back pension and invites the gang to celebrate with a picnic, but his car stalls along the way.

Rate: 6

Release date: 1923-02-18

Overview: The gang creates its own makeshift county fair, highlighted by a "movie," which is really a clever stage performance.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1923-02-24

Overview: Ernie and Farina anger the police force with their shoeshine scheme. Later, the gang switches places with some runaways about to board a train.

Rate: 5.9

Release date: 1923-03-25

Overview: A kindly old schoolteacher helps the gang escape from a cruel boarding school, but they wind up in a bootlegger's booby-trapped house.

Rate: 5

Release date: 1923-04-07

Overview: The gang, after a premature end to their baseball game, find themselves quarantined in an elegant home, which they proceed to destroy.

Rate: 5.6

Release date: 1923-05-12

Overview: The gang operates a donkey-propelled tour bus. Later, a cut-rate vaudeville producer hires them to help out with his show, which they wreck.

Rate: 6.5

Release date: 1923-06-02

Overview: The gang wages war using old vegetables as munitions. Later, they ruin a movie in progress when they double-expose the film.

Rate: 5.5

Release date: 1923-07-01

Overview: This one has to be seen to be believed. Apparently the gang has witnessed a Ku Klux Klan meeting. They decide to form their own lodge. They call themselves the Cluck Cluck Clams. There is nothing racist about their lodge, which includes member Sunshine Sammy Morrison. The film ends with a chase. The gang gets tangled up with bank robbers. Sunshine Sammy get...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1923-07-28

Overview: The gang is trying just about anything to pass the time during their summer vacation. As usual, Mickey and Jack are trying to win the affections of Mary. In the interim, the village blacksmith, "Dad" Anderson, receives a lucrative contract to produce a creation of his: a sail-propelled scooter. The gang is lucky enough to get a hold of a few of these scoote...

Rate: 6.1

Release date: 1923-08-26

Overview: Entertaining Our Gang comedy has poor Mickey in the hospital being fed castor oil when his friends stop by to pay him a visit. As you'd expect, the kids start making all sorts of noise so the doctors decide to teach them a lesson by scaring them.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1923-09-23

Overview: Author Fawn Ochletree stages a charity performance of her latest play, a Romanesque epic. The gang and other neighborhood kids are forced into starring in the play, much to the chagrin of the gang. They are completely unable to remember their lines, and struggle with maintaing their composure during the more serious moments of the melodrama. Finally, Jackie...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1923-10-20

Overview: After the gang goes to the horse races, they decide to have a derby of their own.

Rate: 5.6

Release date: 1923-11-17

Overview: The kids gets taken on a Sunday picnic in this early three-reeler and after the first ten minutes, manage to elude the adults in this typically charming effort from Our Gang.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1923-12-15

Overview: This Hal Roach comedy short, Tire Trouble, is the twenty-second entry in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. In this one, Mickey drives his own makeshift car with Mary, Joe, and Jackie in tow. Among the unusual gadgets: a boxing glove attached to the outside front that knocks out any passersby! When they stop where Sunshine Sammy and Farina are standing, ...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-01-12

Overview: In this short the kids are managing their own barber shop, with harrowing results. No one gets hurt, but most of the customers wind up bald or close to it: one kid even gets a prematurely fashionable Mohawk! Scenes involving close calls with sharp scissors might make some viewers wince, while the manicurist uses a device that looks like a wire-cutter.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-02-09

Overview: This Our Gang short has the group playing pirates and building a ship to sail in. Once the ship hits water it sinks but they end up on another boat when the dog unties the rope and the kids head off to sea where they must be rescued by the Navy.

Rate: 6.2

Release date: 1924-03-09

Overview: At the start we learn that Farina is suffering nightmares each time he eats meat. His mom tells him to stay away from the stuff but he loves it so much he sneaks out of the house and ends up eating several chickens. That night she puts him to bed and sure enough he begins to have nightmares that the other kids are chasing him. Basing a kids comedy around on...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-04-05

Overview: Centering around the closing days of the school year, this is a view into the life of a one-room schoolhouse. This type of learning institution has long vanished from the landscape being continued in Amish communities and such. We get kid-centric amusement as various skills of music are performed by youngsters who were probably coaxed by parents to take up ...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-05-03

Overview: 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.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-06-01

Overview: A young boy, determined to make money enough to buy his mother a birthday present, finds a variety of odd jobs and finally starts up a makeshift circus.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-06-28

Overview: The kids pretend to be hunting a variety of animals when they're invited to a farm where they try to capture real game. This gets boring after a while so they decide to try and track a bear. Soon the bear is stalking them!

Rate: 5.9

Release date: 1924-07-27

Overview: Mickey is a poor boy who lives with his Uncle Pat. While they're broke, they're also very happy. Since Pat hasn't legally adopted Mickey, Aunt Kate gains custody and takes him to her mansion.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-08-24

Overview: The gang creates their own railroad after being chased from a local railyard, and competes with Toughie.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-09-21

Overview: This Our Gang short has the group running an athletic club where Joe is put through a couple fights. They also appear to be running a wireless shoe-shining gig where they get customers by splashing paint on their shoes.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-10-19

Overview: Fast Company is the sixteenth short in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series created by Hal Roach. Many of the boys here want to go swimming but Mickey has to make a delivery. On the way, he encounters a rich boy waiting at a station for his mom and as they get to talking they trade places since Mickey has never seen the inside of a hotel and the rich kid ju...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-11-15

Overview: Mickey Daniels doing an impersonation of Sherlock Holmes and Joe Cobb being Watson as the two try to discover the whereabouts of a young rich kids who has gone missing. While trying to find the kid the gang must also try and avoid a dumb detective also working the case.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1924-12-12

Overview: The gang play inside a railroad box car which suddenly closes, trapping them inside. The next morning they find themselves in New York City. After seeing some of the sites on foot, they steal a 5th Avenue Bus, and are caught by the police.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-01-10

Overview: The circus is in town and for one day only. By pretending to be sick some of the gang members were able to play hooky from school so as to attend the festivities.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-02-07

Overview: The boys are showing off their dogs to each other when little rich girl Mary Kornman rides by in her pony-drawn cart. When the pony shies and runs away, Mickey comes to the rescue with his dog. In gratitude, Mary invites all the boys and their dogs to her party, much to the chagrin of her wealthy mother.

Rate: 5.6

Release date: 1925-03-07

Overview: Farina, Joe and Mickey are all struck by the love bug. After several problems, they go to the beauty salon, where Pineapple works and proceed to make shambles of it. The police arrive and arrest them, but Grandma comes to their rescue.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-04-24

Overview: Many of the "Our Gang" kids are in their secret clubhouse - so secret that some wannabe members have troubles trying to find the tunnel entrance - planning their next game, which will be a Wild West shootout. They run into some obstacles in playing the game, including objections from parents, and as such they decide to postpone it until the wee hours of the...

Rate: 6

Release date: 1925-05-02

Overview: Mickey's mother makes him dance and won't let him fight. Only his grandma understands what it's like to be a boy. When Mickey gets into a fight, his grandma must cover for him.

Rate: 6.4

Release date: 1925-05-31

Overview: The kids in the tenements have no place to play except in streets where traffic is a hazard. Mickey gets the idea of building barricades to give our gang space to play at an intersection, but a beat cop, the nasty "Hard-Boiled" McManus, puts a quick end to that. A sympathetic constable and a detective who has kids of his own give our gang a chance to help l...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-06-29

Overview: Adults have the Pike and Coney Island amusement parks, so the rascals put up their own rides in a large vacant lot. Mickey's got big plans for expansion when surveyors show up to begin work on a factory. The gang travels by donkey cart to the office of Henry Mills, President of Pan American Export Company, to protest. Henry, in his 60s, is still a boy at he...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-07-25

Overview: A couple makes dolls modeled on neighborhood kids. A gardener at a mansion buys four of them for Mary, the girl of the house. He's her only friend: her parents neglect her for work and card games and her governess is humorless. Mary loves the dolls and dreams of them during her nap. While Mary sleeps, the governess throws the dolls in the dust bin. Mary wak...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-08-22

Overview: Your Own Back Yard is a 1925 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 43rd Our Gang short subject released. Farina is having a very bad day, especially by his friends-very cruel playing nasty tricks, etc. Heeding his mother's advice to stay "in your own back yard," he does just that, feeding jumping beans to his chickens.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-09-26

Overview: The gang decided to go into the movie-making business, using all kinds of sets and props. There were problems as those not involved are trying to ruin their business by playing pranks and even insisting the police to close them down.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-11-01

Overview: The gang has a taxi, consisting of an old Model T with no engine, pushed by a horse. When the owner takes his horse back, they must rely on motorists to tow them to the top of the hill so they can coast down. Little Farina borrows the car and it runs out of control all over town, causing mayhem everywhere it goes.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1925-12-05

Overview: On Christmas Eve, the Gang copes with hardships, helps capture a gang of thieves, and learns that Santa Claus really exists for those who wish fervently enough.

Rate: 6.1

Release date: 1926-01-09

Overview: The Rascals take their homemade boat on a search for treasure and crash a movie set.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1926-02-13

Overview: An abused chimpanzee escapes from a zoo. On the run, he meets Farina, running away from home and his battling parents. The two become friends and inspire the rest of the gang to put on a show to make money from neighborhood kids. But the chimp has his own idea and runs off creating havoc all over town until chased down by the local cops.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1926-03-21

Overview: Mr. and Mrs. Weedle are desperate to find two babies, for their rich uncle has sent them money for years thinking they have children. Now that he’s coming into town, the couple must find a pair of babies as soon as possible. The Our Gang kids are ready for the job, but a 27-year old midget is also in the running for the job and he doesn’t play fairly.

Rate: 5.5

Release date: 1926-04-24

Overview: 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.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1926-05-29

Overview: The kids from Our Gang have to attend a wedding, and they bring along their flea collection--which gets loose.

Rate: 5.6

Release date: 1926-07-18

Overview: The kids are playing baseball when a man dressed in Middle-Eastern clothing comes out and tells them to be quiet. They join Mary, Farina, and Scooter in the gang's hide-out while Mary is reading ghost stories. While on the other side of the wall, the Arab-looking man is cheating people out of their money by staging a fake séance using state-of-the-art speci...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1926-08-07

Overview: The rascals once again, now as a plumbers.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1926-08-11

Overview: While on a cross-country train trip, the Our Gang kids drive the rest of the passengers crazy with a never-ending game of cowboys and Indians. During a stopover in the sleepy town of Red Dog, the kids disembark in hopes of savoring a taste of genuine Western life. They get more than they bargained for when a trio of bandits rides into town for a showdown wi...

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1926-11-20

Overview: Farina and Joe fib to the gang that they've beaten up the neighborhood bully. Later, they hear he's been murdered and think they'll get the blame.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1926-12-19

Overview: Habitually mistreated at the deceptively named Happyland Home Orphanage, the Our Gang kids find a loyal and kindhearted friend in the form of a black grownup named Uncle Tom. Alas, Tom's own children -- including real-life siblings Allen "Farina" Hoskins and Jannie "Mango" Hoskins -- are carted off to Happyland by the cold-hearted county officials. Farina, ...

Rate: 5

Release date: 1927-01-16

Overview: In this Our Gang film, James Finlayson plays the gang's schoolteacher who takes the kids to Europe after winning a local contest. He takes them on a tour of Naples, Pompeii, Rome, the Vatican, Venice, London, and finally Paris, where problems arise on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Rate: 6.1

Release date: 1927-02-13

Overview: Ten Years Old is a 1927 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 58th Our Gang short subject released. It was remade as Birthday Blues in 1932. Nobody comes to Joe's birthday party so he goes to the rich kid's party with his own special cake.

Rate: 5.2

Release date: 1927-03-13

Overview: Farina Hoskins discovers a stray dog. Joe Cobb suggests that he and Farina take the dog to the gang's dog show. In the middle of the show, the dogcatchers crack down on picking up all unlicensed strays to control a hydrophobia epidemic; the injection to control the disease costs five dollars.

Rate: 4.2

Release date: 1927-04-16

Overview: Tired Business Men is a 1927 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 60th Our Gang short subject released.

Rate: 5.5

Release date: 1927-05-15

Overview: Joe Cobb is a wealthy child who longs for a baby brother. His nursemaid takes him to the other side where he meets some kids his age (the rest of Our Gang) where Joe offers three dollars for a baby. Farina finds a fellow African-American neighbor woman who lets him mind her infant which he then paints white and sells to Joe. The rest of the gang has set an ...

Rate: 6.2

Release date: 1927-06-26

Overview: It's the Fourth of July and the mother of Our Gang member Joe Cobb is doing a brisk business at her fireworks stand. Briefly left in charge of the stand, Joe does his best not to blow up himself or his friends, but a poorly-aimed skyrocket owned by Allen "Farina" Hoskins triggers a somewhat premature but undeniably spectacular display of pyrotechnics.

Rate: 5.7

Release date: 1927-06-26

Overview: While the world watches the Olympic Games in Stockholm, the Rascals gather at the flats for their own games. Whether it's the shot put, the hurdles, the pole vault, or the high jump, not much goes right. There's a deep mud hole that catches several of the kids, and someone out there keeps giving them the razzberry. It's young Wheezer hiding out of sight wit...

Rate: 5.5

Release date: 1927-09-11

Overview: Chicken Feed is a 1927 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 66th Our Gang short subject released. The kids go to a magic show and decides to try a little magic of their own.

Rate: 5.5

Release date: 1927-11-06

Overview: Wheezer gets excited watching his dog Pansy attack and rip apart the chickens and furniture in the back yard. His mother is upset, and his father takes his rifle to shoot the dog. Meanwhile, Joe Cobb has taught Pansy to play dead, and after the deed is done, he hides the dog at Farina's house.

Rate: 5.5

Release date: 1928-01-02

Overview: Farina's mother is very ill and the mortgage is due. He tries to take over her laundry business, but the kids just wreck the clothes. Joe takes pity and devises a scheme to make money: the gang builds their own oil well.

Rate: 5.8

Release date: 1928-02-25