Boys Will Be Joys (1925) User Reviews

The version I originally saw of Boys Will Be Joys was abridged to one reel but now I've seen the two-reel version

[tavm · 6/10 · 4 February 2008]

This Hal Roach comedy short, Boys Will Be Joys, is the forty-second in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. The version I saw was on Goodtimes' VHS of "Our Gang Comedy Festival II". It was a shortened one-reel version of an originally two-reel film. And since this version was handled by a company other than the original Hal Roach Studios or their distributor Pathe Exchange, the series title was "Those Lovable Scallawags with Their Gangs" with the episode title being "Carnival Time". With the original H.M. Walker intertitles removed, here's the synopsis, in my own words, I partly got from the definitive book on the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series by Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann: While the gang has plans for a new amusement park in an acre of their choosing, the surveyor tells them it's being used for a future factory. Undeterred, they see the sixty-year-old president of the land-owning company who has the heart of a ten-year-old. After hearing the gang's story, he decides to make their dream come true and walks out on his own meeting! The board of directors follow him hoping to get the chairman to agree to get him voted off. In the end, with the kids and some of the men helping in operating the makeshift rides, the president tells the board he's retiring and vows to think as young as the gang are...Not very amusing and the rides seem not too convincing as simply the creation of the kids-even with the financier's fun-loving aid. There is an interesting angle of a fluidly moving shot of a boy going backwards on a slide in a wheel-less vehicle that was partly fascinating. I was also amused by Farina's displaying of a "Wild Animal" in his tent-which turns out to be a skunk. Otherwise, Boys Will Be Joys was just an average "Our Gang" short. Update: 9/26/14-I've now seen the original two-reel version with original opening credits and intertitles. There's now another funny scene involving the company president playing baseball with some strangers. Guess where the ball winds up? For that reason, I'm now upping the rating from 3 to 6.

Fun Our Gang

[Michael_Elliott · 28 January 2011]

Boys Will Be Joys (1925)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Pleasant entry in Hal Roach's Our Gang series sees the kids getting kicked off some property where they have been playing since school let out. They decide to go visit the man who owns the property and it turns out that he's a big kid himself so he puts an amusement park up on the property so that the kids can have fun. BOYS WILL BE JOYS isn't the greatest film in the series but it's mildly entertaining thanks in large part to the amusement park that is built up in the second half of the picture. I think there was quite a bit of imagination in this section as the rides are built in a rather interesting way and I really loved the look of some of the rides including one where a car is used without its wheels. Another funny bit involved Farina and his wild animals, which includes what he thinks is a dog but it turns out to be a skunk. The movie has a fairly good story and the director at least keeps the film moving at a pretty good pace. The first part of the movie has a couple good moments including the property owner stopping to play a quick game of baseball.

Very enjoyable.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 6 March 2012]

This is the best silent Our Gang short I have seen--and I've seen just about all that are still in existence (most have not survived over the years--though apparently all the sound ones have). This is one you just need to see for yourself.

The boys create their own home-made amusement park on an empty lot. The problem is that a company owns the land and plans on building there. So, the boys go to see the company president--who turns out to be a nice and very eccentric guy. He LOVES kids and loves to play! So, when he hears about their park, he's thrilled! But, he not only lets them keep their park but improves on it and has his board of directors come to man the rides! It's all very cute and the star of it clearly are the prop department guys who actually built this amazing set. As I said, you just have to see this one yourself. It's very sweet and most enjoyable.

By the way, you see an animal in the film with the words "Spark Plug" on it. This is a reference to the horse from the Barney Google cartoon of the time.