tavm Review of Pay As You Exit

Pay As You Exit (1936)

Pay As You Exit was another funny enough Our Gang short

[8/10 · 11 December 2014]

This Hal Roach comedy short, Pay As You Exit, is the one hundred forty-eighth entry in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the sixtieth talkie. Alfalfa is the lead in the Romeo & Juliet play and tells the kid patrons the title phrase if they like the show. Leading lady Darla, however, leaves after the first act because she doesn't like Alf's onion smell. So Spanky does his "old" act during intermission and Buckwheat replaces Darla. I'll stop there and just say this was another funny outing in the series and it was nice to hear those LeRoy Shield scores once again after not being in many of the previous ones. By the way, Spanky's "weightlifting" act was previously in the silent short in the series, Back Stage. One of the audience members, Joe Cobb, should have been familiar with that one since he was one of the gang members at the time of that gag! So on that note, I highly recommend Pay As You Exit. P.S. Starting with this short, Buckwheat is definitely dressed as a boy thereby eliminating the confusion about his gender though the fact he replaces Darla in the play here might have made the audience at the time still wonder about that...