Bear Shooters (1930)

Undescribable Perfection

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

. . . 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.

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.

"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.