Our Gang in "Hi'-Neighbor!" (1934)

Release Date: March 3, 1934. Director: Gus Meins. Cinematographer: Art Lloyd. Editor: Louis McManus. Producer: Hal Roach. Cast: Our Gang (Spanky McFarland, Wally Alright, Stymie Beard, Scotty Beckett, Jerry Tucker, Jane Taylor, Tommy Bond, Pete, Bubbles Trin, Cotton Beard, Tommy Bupp, Tony Kales, Jean Aulbach, Donald Proffitt), Tiny Sandford, Tiny Ward, Charlie Hall, Harry Bernard, Ernie Alexander.

Hello my friends, it is time to look at one of the all time great talkie Our Gang shorts, Hi'-Neighbor.

This short introduced a new director to the Our Gang shorts, Gus Meins. Before going into films, Meins worked as a cartoonist for the Los Angles Evening Herald. Before working on Our Gang though Meins had experience directing short comedies staring kids. He directed some of the silent Buster Brown series starring Arthur Trimble (This series also featured Pete the Pup before the dog joined Our Gang) and the some of the silent Newlyweds and Their Baby series. He would direct nearly all the Our Gang shorts from 1934 to 1936. Producer Hal Roach would later state about Gus Meins "He was a good director for the gang and always did a very good job." Marvin Hatley the musical director for the studio would call Meins, "a fine director with a wonderful personality - a very happy sort of person." As well as these Our Gang shorts, Meins also directed some feature films for the Hal Roach Studio including Babes in Toyland (1933 with Laurel and Hardy), Kelly the Second (1936 with Patsy Kelly) and Nobody's Baby (1937 with Pasty Kelly). On the last of these films, Meins would get into an argument with Roach leading to him getting fired. Tragically Meins life would end in 1940 at the age of 47 due to suicide. This caused much shock among the Hal Roach studio staff.


Similarly this film introduced a new member of the Our Gang group, Scotty Becket. Born Scott Hastings Beckett on October 4, 1929 in Oakland California, Scotty was only four years old at the time of his Our Gang debut. Scotty moved to Los Angles and got his start in movies at the age of three. His debut film was Gallant Lady (1933). Scotty played a character at age three and interestingly the same character at age six was played by other Our Gang regular, Dickie Moore. The two would later both appear in the movie Dangerous Years (1947, remembered today as the film debut of Marilyn Monroe). Scotty would only be a member of the gang for two years, but he certainty left his mark. During his time with the gang he would often be paired with Spanky as the two would often prove themselves smarter than the older kids who underestimated them. These two were often the highlight of the shorts. After leaving the gang he still maintained a good movie career appearing in such films as Kings Row (1942), A Date With Judy (1948), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) and Days of Jesse James (1939). He had a brief career on television as well playing the character of Winky in Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954). Tragically he would also die of suicide at a young age (38).



A new neighbor moves into the gang's neighborhood. He has a brand new shiny toy fire engine and the gang wants to take a ride. However the neighbor won't let them. When Jane walks by the new boy offers her a ride. A jealous Wally states that they have a better fire engine. Since they don't the gang builds their own fire engine. A massive one that holds all of the kids. The new kid is not impressed calling it a piece of junk. Soon he challenges the gang to a race downhill. The new kids crashes his fire engine and the gang is victorious.


Spanky would later state in an interview, "You couldn't make a series like ours today, the kids are too jaded. Remember we started out in the Depression years, when building a clubhouse or a homemade fire engine out of junkyard scraps was a fabulous imagination peaker for the kids, especially the way our prop department could put them together. Today if Little Jimmy wants a bike or a clubhouse, Dad just goes out and buys him one." It is true that a short like this reflects a different time period that will never come back. However that does not mean it has dated. This film is just as charming today as it was in 1934. That is because this film still represents what many of us wish our childhood could have been like and what kids today would still find appealing. The Our Gang kids may have been poor, but they were happy and filled with much determinism. The new kid may have been rich, but he looked down on our heroes and extremely underestimating them. How much would we today still like to show people who view us this way, up the way the Our Gang kids do. The idea of building your own fire engine is a fantastic one. It appeals to the child inside each of us. How could you not wish you could have done something like this as a kid, and what kid all these years later could not think this is the coolest idea ever? This film will still charm anyone who watches it today and in generations to come.

The big race features a mixture of footage shot on location and use of a process screen. The process screen was used rather sparingly though making the sequence look all the more real. The effect works very well here.


During later reissues this film would be retitled Hi Neighbor. 

The later Our Gang short, Three Men in a Tub (1938) would rework the basic story points of Hi'-Neighbor. In that film Darla is wowed by Waldo's motorboat making Alfalfa jealous. Alfalfa, Spanky, Buckwheat and Porky create their own boat to show him up and challenge him to a race.

The following are some exhibitor reviews for Hi'-Neighbor.

Motion Picture Herald, November 10, 1934"Hi, Neighbor: Our Gang - This is the best Our Gang Comedy in many months and I certainly hope their will be many more to come. This pleased all of my patrons both young and old. Plenty of laughs and excellent entertainment for all. Running Time 18 minutes. - J.J. Medford. Orpheum Theatre, Oxford, N.C."

Motion Picture Herald, June 2, 1934"Hi, Neighbor: Our Gang - One of the best of the Our Gang series and they are all good. Running time 20 minutes. - B. Hollenback, Rose Theatre, Sumas, Wash. Small Town Patronage."


Motion Picture Herald, May 12, 1934"Hi, Neighbor: Our Gang - This comedy has laughs in it and the kids seem to like them. Running Time, 19 minutes. - A.H. Edwards, Orpheum Theatre, Orwigsburg, Pa. Small town and rural patronage."

The following is a review from The Film Daily (dated March 1, 1934).

"Kiddes will principally enjoy this one which relates the arrival of a snooty rich kid with a large new fire engine auto. The gang gathers but is refused a ride by the rich kid who takes the girl of the gang riding. Kids proceed to build a fire engine with spare parts. Then follows a race down a long hill with amusing windup."


An issue of the Motion Picture Herald dated December 29, 1934 listed this as one of its "Short Subjects of 1934 Suitable for Junior Matinees." Other Our Gang comedies listed include For Pete's Sake, Honkey Donkey and Mike Fright. This list also lets us know that the silent Charlie Chaplin short The Count (1916) received a reissue in 1934.

The following video is the short itself




The following video is a great comparison of how the original shooting locations looked in 1934 and in 2018.




The following is a later colorized version of the short.




Here is the partial remake, Three Men in a Tub.




In the 1980's Hanna-Barbera made Animated TV cartoons off the Our Gang series as part of their The Pac Man/ Little Rascals/ Richie Rich Show (1982-1983). The following is a clip from one of those cartoons which involved a snooty rich kid moving into the neighborhood, but this time it was a girl that all the boys fawned over, making Darla feel left out.




Here is the theme to that show.





Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann's incredible book, The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang served as an amazing resource for this article.












-Michael J. Ruhland

   

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