Baby Brother (1927) User Reviews

Oliver Hardy has amusing cameo in Our Gang's Baby Brother

[tavm · 7/10 · 21 August 2006]

This Hal Roach comedy short, Baby Brother, is the sixty-first in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. Joe Cobb is a wealthy child who longs for a baby brother. His nursemaid takes him to the other side where he meets some kids his age (the rest of Our Gang) where Joe offers three dollars for a baby. Farina finds a fellow African-American neighbor woman who lets him mind her infant which he then paints white and sells to Joe. The rest of the gang has set an assembly-line system that washes, dries, rocks, and feeds male and female babies. As Joe puts his through, the paint comes off but since it calls him papa he is still overjoyed. Then the real mother arrives making Joe put the child in his mother's lap at home. To get him over losing his "kid", his parents announce in advance that he's getting a pony for Christmas! This short is pretty amusing from beginning to end although one may get slightly uncomfortable at how the infants are treated in the name of "fun". Historically, this was the first appearance of Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, so rebellious that he already does his first Bronx cheer here! Also, look for Oliver Hardy just before his fateful teaming with Stan Laurel. As Joe embarrasses his girlfriend Anita Garvin by asking if she can find him a baby brother, Ollie does his famous camera look, then smiles bashfully before falling down in hilarious fashion! I saw this in a Cabin Fever VHS with three talkie Little Rascals issued around 1994. Well worth seeking out if you're an Our Gang and/or a Laurel and Hardy fan!

Adorable.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 8 February 2019]

This episode highlights Joe Cobb, the chubby member of the gang. Like several other episodes, continuity is meaningless and here Joe is a rich kid with some very indifferent parents. As a result, he's sad and lonely...and his parents essentially tell him to be quiet and stop crying! Nice folks, huh? Later his governess takes him out to meet some nice kids (the usual Our Gang kids) and Joe is immediately accepted. But when he notices all the gang members have baby brothers and sisters, he becomes sad. Farina offers to help him...and NOT for the noblest of reasons! First, he tries actually stealing a baby, he then thinks a midget is a little boy and gets beaten up when he tries to grab him and finally he paints his sibling white and passes it off to Joe!! I am sure super politically correct types might object to this...though it is funny. What's next? See the film.

I liked this short for two reasons. First, it gives Joe a chance to shine and I was impressed by his acting range considering he was a kid. Second, it's funny...need I say more?!

By the way, although nothing is mentioned, little Weezer looks as if he has or has just gotten over chicken pox or the measels and you can see his discolorations due to this.