Bear Shooters (1930) Online

"Bear Shooters," an "Our Gang" film from early 1930, contains many tried and true comedy elements from the series. The film is also notable for featuring a one-shot character, never to be seen again.

The Gang endeavor to go on a bear hunt. The have guns and weapons of various sizes, shapes, and accuracy! They go in their wagon of questionable stability to a creek. They stumble across a bootlegger's territory; the bootleggers decide to put a scare into the kids. Will the bootleggers be successful, or will the Gang have the last word?

"Bear Shooters" is a middling early talkie in the "Our Gang" series. The film contains enough laughs to see it through, but the plodding of early talkies such as this makes the film somewhat difficult to watch. Fortunately, with the previous release of "When the Wind Blows," the Hal Roach studio began to use background music in the films, which helped to move the films along. Before long, the background music became almost as famous as the films (particularly in this series, and in Roach's "Laurel and Hardy" films). Music is present here, and it does help.

Curiously, Leon Janney is added to the Gang as "Spud," and takes the lead in this film. This is Janney's only appearance in the series; he's good, but his character certainly doesn't add much, and the fact that Janney was thirteen when he made this film also added to his one-shot appearance.

"Bear Shooters" is a pleasant but unimportant entry in the series. 6 out of 10.

Released just prior to the time many experts feel the Our Gang series really hit it's stride, this is a pretty entertaining little number that is fondly remembered from watching it on TV during my childhood. The gang, including one time only member Leon Janney, wants to go camping and shoot a lot of bears. Janney must take along kid brother Weezer who has the croup. Lot's of fun situations arise as the gang reaches it's camp site. There are also a couple of moonshiners there who try to scare off the kids but as we know, these resourceful youngsters have no fear in fighting off the enemy and quickly turn the tables on the moonshiners in very funny fashion. All in all a pretty satisfying short that benefits from nice outdoor scenery.

Bear Shooters (1930)

*** (out of 4)

The gang decides to go campy and once out there they run into a crazed gorilla who they mistake for a bear. What the gang doesn't know is that they're camping on a criminal's hideout. This is certainly one of the better films from this early period and one that thankfully added a music score to help move things along. There are countless funny scenes here with all the children really getting to shine at one point or another. Perhaps I'm just a sucker for movies with gorillas as I've yet to figure out why so many older films featured them but I thought the ending had some hilarious moments. When the kids capture the "bear" and start shooting him with everything they can get their hands on, this comes off very funny. Another great gag is Chubby and his limburger cheese that he greases Wheezer with. Farina also has a nice little scene where he's fishing and Pete might steal the show with his reaction to the cheese.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

Wanting to become BEAR SHOOTERS, the Gang goes camping. Unfortunately, they settle on a spot occupied by a criminal hideout...

A very funny little film. Highlights: the `gorilla'; Chubby's limburger cheese. How would you like to grease Wheezer?

"Bear Shooters" is a 20-minute live action short film from 1930, so this one is already over 85 years old. It is a black-and-white sound film and if you read the names McGowan, Roach and Walker you maybe realize already that here we have another film about Our Gang / Little Rascals. Chubby, Wheezer and Farina are on board among others and Jackie Cooper is in it as well. And of course the biggest animal actor from its era is on board too. I am talking about Pete the Pup. In general these rascals short films were pretty animal-focused. You read in the title that the gang goes bear hunting and they encounter a gorilla on the way and are basically trying to be safe from the big ape all the time. Admittedly, there was very little story here for a film, even if it only runs for a third of an hour. And the comedy was hardly convincing either. This must be one of the worst Rascals films I have seen. Then again, I am generally not too big on them and I don't think their work has aged that well. The cuteness aspect is eventually all there is to these films. And of course, by today's standards, this simply isn't enough. Thumbs-down from me. Don't watch. Oh yeah and don't be fooled by the photo. No Laurel or Hardy in here, just the kids.

Hiding criminals are no match for the early talkie cast of "Our Gang". It is a day in the great outdoors where Jackie. Chubby, Mary Ann, Weezer and the others, not only dealing with a man in an ape suit (which they natively identify as a bear) but the mix-up of Limburger cheese for lineament. I actually prefer this gang to their replacements a few years later because they seemed to have more fun and were less deliberately cutesy. Of course, the fact that Hal Roach has the gang integrated was amazing for its time. Children today may not relate to these adorable kids because they had to often use their imagination to find their fun and did it without the benefits of technology.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Bear Shooters, is the ninety-eighth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the tenth talkie. In this one, Spud can't go on a hunting trip with Jackie, Farina, and Chubby because he has to watch little brother Wheezer who has coughing jags. He tries to palm him off to sister Mary Ann who only agrees if she's allowed to go on the trip. So off they all go into the woods...I liked the gag of Wheezer accidentally getting Limburger cheese spread on him by Chubby and some of the reaction shots that entailed but otherwise, I thought this was one of the more underwhelming shorts in the series. The climax involving what happens at the end wasn't as hilarious as I had hoped so on that note, Bear Shooters is worth a look at least once.

The Our Gang and friends go bear shooting but run into gorilla and criminals on the run. These short films were often showed before a film presentation. Jackie Cooper is adorable. As somebody who grew up watching the Little Rascals in syndication. The kid actors here and in others always seemed to have more fun and adventure. For the Our Gang, Hollywood came of age even during the Great Depression. The Little Rascals traveled a little bit before the overdevelopment of the soon to be metropolis of Los Angeles. Hollywood was still a small town during the Our Gang days. These short films with Little Rascals are always memorable. The kids in these shorts always try to act like adults.

This is an early sound Our Gang comedy featuring Jackie Cooper, Farina, Spud, Mary Ann, Wheezer and Chubby among others. By the way, Chubby is probably the oldest of the gang in this film, as he had a serious medical condition that stunted his growth and made him so fat--and he died just a few years later as a result of his glandular condition. I always feel a bit sad about that when I see him in films--especially since he was 16 at the time he did this film, though he looked about 8 or 10.

The film begins with the gang planning on going on an outing to kill a bear! The problem is that Jackie has to stay home and watch Wheezer, so they are forced to bring this little pest along for the outing. The wagon they use is amazing to look at--you'll just need to see it to understand. There happen to be some poachers about and in order to scare off the kids, they dress up in a gorilla suit and chase them--talk about contrived!!! However, what was NOT expected was the gang's reaction. These kids were NOT wimps, so they set about to catch the gorilla instead of running! This is a cute but pretty average film from the series. Worth seeing, but not exactly a must-see.

. . . as anyone who's been burned by Canadiayapper "lemons" will immediately recognize that the lopsided, ramshackle wagon transporting this deplorable "Our Gang" bunch of juvenile delinquents (starting at 7:45 of this 20-minute episode) could only have originated in the so-called nation of Canadia (aka, America's Northern Threat). Cars, trucks, and SUVs that are total duds are called "lemons," of course, because that sounds slightly more benign than the original Bad Car Epithet: lemming (after Canadia's National Rodent, famous solely for stampeding off cliffs in great herds). Whether you call Our Gang's BEAR SHOOTERS wagon a lemon or a lemming, this 1930 live-action short will remind everyone of what they exclaimed when they drew the short straw and purchased that one vehicle from Hell: "This Junker must have been slapped together in Canadia!" As the Miscreants running Canadia Today are plunging ahead with their plot to bury all of that alleged nation's Nuclear Waste along the Great Lakes shoreline a few yards from our American Homeland, Leader Trump can kill THREE birds with one nuke by flattening Canadia's largest Vehicle "Assembly" Plant. This will A)keep Canadia from dumping their radioactive garbage next to OUR drinking water, B)Lessen the number of Lemmings on U.S. Highways, and C)Leave North Korea shaking in their hip waders.