The First Round-Up (1934) Online

An OUR GANG Comedy Short. When the older Rascals go on a camping trip, inspired by their Western heroes, they refuse to allow the little Kids to come along. Arriving footsore at their destination, Cherry Creek, they find they've brought no food. The big jar of jelly brought by the little Kids -who beat them there by hitchhiking - is the cause of a mad scramble. Strange noises, wild critters, glowing eyes, fleas & a terrific lightning storm ensure all the Rascals won't forget THE FIRST ROUND-UP.

A typically hilarious entry in the Hal Roach series. Spanky & Stymie, as always, are first rate. This was one of the early films in which Buckwheat was played by a little girl, although Billie Thomas does make an appearance as an unnamed toddler.

This Hal Roach comedy short, The First Round-Up, is the one hundred twenty-eighth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the fortieth talkie. The gang wants to go camping. Wally gets permission from his father who assures the mother that they'll be back in about an hour. Spanky and Scotty are excluded but they arrive first since they hitchhiked. They're also the only ones to bring food which the rest of the gang grabs when they're finally allowed some. Then night comes...This was one of the more subtly humorous of the Our Gang shorts with not much exciting happening till the end. Buckwheat is here for the second time in the series but she's played by Willie Mae Taylor in this one while the eventual one, Billie Thomas, is also making his second appearance. Unlike most of these early talkies, the score is used sparingly here to good effect. Oh, and there's some amusing animation by Roy Seawright. So on that note, The First Round-Up is recommended.

The older kids decide they want to go camping. While one of the kid's mothers thinks this is a terrible idea, as they want to go by themselves, the dad thinks it's just fine--and predicts they'll all come running home by nightfall. The kids insist that Scotty and Spanky stay home--they're too little to go. But, when they arrive at the site, the two little ones are there--and prove to be a lot more brave and better prepared than the know-it-all older kids. Unfortunately, someone thought adding a lot of fake lightning to the ending was a good idea and it prevented this one from being a classic. Still, it was clever and cute--and worth seeing.

By the way, this was the first performance by Buckwheat....but it's not THE Buckwheat but a little girl! She went on to make a few more appearances before being replaced by the real McCoy!

. . . but THE FIRST ROUND-UP's "fleas and turtles and skunks" seem to merit an even shriller "Oh my!" Since ROUND-UP can see OZ's Wicked Witch with a were-dog, and raise her through multiple preternatural lightning strikes, minute-for-minute ROUND-UP must be regarded as MGM's Fright Fest Champ. Sleeping under the stars has never appeared more gruesome; seldom has Terror seemed so contagious. (Even the American language gets mangled here, as the word "nuisance" becomes "Newsome" more than once, and "shut-eye" defies definition.) A jar of jelly provides some food for thought, and these musings are NOT very nourishing. However, the single pair of parents making a cameo appearance during THE FIRST ROUND-UP is totally nonchalant about its tender tykes disappearing "for at least a week," since kids are a nickel a dozen during America's Great Depression, and there are plenty more available where these came from prior to The Pill's invention. Some viewers have criticized the Looney Tunes for being violent, but a close scrutiny of these "Our Gang" episodes will show that the featured "Little Rascals" probably would hold their own against Yosemite, Daffy, and Taz.

"The First Round-Up" is a black-and-white sound short film from 1934, so this one already has its 83rd anniversary this year and it features some of the biggest film stars from that time, namely the kids from Our Gang. The director is Gus Meins and you will find the likes of Wally, Stymie, Scotty, Tommy and Spanky in here for example. Peter the Pup is also on board once again, but does not have too much screen time. Speaking about time, it needs to be stated that the 11 minutes runtime listed here on IMDb are incorrect as this one goes on for 18.5 minutes roughly and is thus much closer to the 20-minute and not the 10-minute mark. Otherwise, it also would have been unusually short for a Rascals short film. So yeah, the title of the film does not say a lot here, but the gang goes camping this time and has occasionally spooky stuff happening, which is not too surprising as they are out on their own, so maybe they see stuff as spooky, which really is only on the creepy side from the age of a kid. Anyway, overall this film sadly was not a revelation in terms of acting, line delivery, writing or story-telling in general. And this description fits many other Rascals shorts as well. Don't think they have aged that well and I give this one a thumbs-down too. Not recommended.