Review of Birthday Blues

This Hal Roach comedy short, Birthday Blues, is the one hundred eighteenth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the thirtieth talkie. Dickie and brother Spanky witness their father being insensitive to their mother for reminding him it's her birthday and makes her send back her dress that arrived C.O.D. So Dickie resolves to buy one from a store but because of the price (which is more than a dollar) he-per Stymie's suggestion-bakes a cake with his friend and puts prizes in it. Some of those prizes were put in unexpectedly by Spank and Jacquie so some of those items were real surprises! I'll stop there and just say this was another hilarious short which is tolerable at the end despite the not-very-believable turnaround by the father but does reflect a wishful thinking that was probably needed during those Depression times. So on that note, I recommend Birthday Blues. P.S. This was Jacquie Lyn's second and final Our Gang short. After her stepfather demanded more money than Hal Roach-or any other studio-could afford or were willing to give, Ms. Lyn simply lived a quiet life for decades before Lois Laurel-in showing home movies of her and Jacquie before Ms. Lyn's movie with Lois' father, Pack Up Your Troubles, was shown on the VHS tape, asked what happened to her and provided the address of the Sons of the Desert on screen. Ms. Lyn saw that and became a treasured guest at the club meetings for a few years before she passed away on March 21, 2002. Oh, and two of Stymie's siblings appear here-sister Carlena and, in his film debut, brother Bobbie as Cotton.