If you're an Our Gang fan, there's no better way to celebrate your birthday than with this classic Birthday Blues from 1932. It features Dickie Moore, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, George "Spanky" McFarland, Dorothy DeBora, Kenneth "Brisbane" McComas and Jackie Lyn Dufton (both their last episode), Bobbi "Cotton" Beard and Pete the Pup. It also includes Hooper Atchley and Lillian Rich, as Dickie and Soanky's parents, alumnae Donald Haines, Mildred Kornman and Edith Fellows, Carlena Beard, Marcia Mar Jones Harry Bernard as the Store manager and a cameo from Gordon Douglas as the Delivery boy.
Plot summary: Dickie, Spanky and their parents sit down for breakfast. Spanky is forced to eat mush, which he hates. His father snaps "You'll eat it and like it!" "Well, maybe I'll eat it," Spanky retorts, "but I won't like it!" Dickie feeds Pete some of his sausage. Spanky pretends to be Pete and when Dickie catches on, he adds tobasco sauce to spice them up. Spanky runs to the water cooler! Meanwhile, their parents have an argument. It's their mother Lillian's birthday and John, their father, has forgotten again. When a delivery boy tries delivering a dress she ordered, John refuses it, reducing Lillian to tears. Dickie promises to get Lillian a dress and she kisses him. Later, Dickie and Spanky go to the store and select a 1922 model dress. Unfortunately, they don't have $1.98 to pay for it. Stymie suggests they bake a cake with hidden surprises and sell each piece for 10 cents. So Stymie and Dickie try baking a cake and add objects to the cake like a hairbrush, a whistle and a pipe. Spanky and Jackie add some more objects like bubbles, powder, a snake, a long string and a mouse trap. The cake nearly explodes leaving a mess and makes some crazy noises! So the kids come and pay for the cake. When Dickie has enough collected, he runs to the store and picks up the dress. When he returns, he witnesses some of the kids are angry with some of the prizes and a cake fight erupts! John comes home and witnesses the fight and enraged, immediately throws all the kids out. Then he questions Dickie about inviting the kids and harshly spanks him. Lillian asks why he let all the kids in the house, he confesses he did it so he could afford a dress for her. John and Lillian hug Dickie. The next morning, John apologizes to Dickie and he forgives his Pop. Lillian has decided to wear her new dress to church. She has trouble walking in her new shoes to church, which Dickie says the store owner threw in for free!
What I liked: I liked the sound effects of the cake, like "Wawawawa!" and "Weeee-woooowww!"(supposedly the actor who played Soanky's Uncle George in The Kid From Borneo supplied them). I liked Lillian's performance as their mother. She's sweet, cheerful and sensitive. I also liked the transformation of Dickie's father John from a grumpy skinflint to a more loving man. Jackie was cute with her expressions and her accent "Aww doe tow!" Spanky was great with his smart allecky remarks "All I got was a belly ache!" Stymie was great with his suggestions and misinterpreting the baking instructions "Set on stove" and he sits on the stove! Finally, Dickie steals the show as the generous son who wants to please his mother. 9 pieces of cake out of 10!
Review of Birthday Blues
