Tiny Troubles (1939)
** (out of 4)
Another mildly entertaining but overall weak Our Gang short from MGM. This time out Alfalfa is forced to watch his baby brother who he can't stand because he's always crying all night and keeping Alfalfa up. He decides to trade the baby in for another and he thinks he's found the perfect baby but it's actually a midget criminal who poses as a baby. Yes, you can say this is a re-working of the Lon Chaney silent and sound film THE UNHOLY THREE but this here isn't nearly as clever. Throughout the short 9-minute running time I'd say there was probably just one decent laugh and the rest of the film just seemed lacking humor or anything special for that matter. The majority of the film has the gang chasing around the "baby" who they catch doing several things a real baby shouldn't and that includes smoking and drinking beer. I'm going to guess that the writers thought seeing a fake baby drink beer would be funny but it certainly wasn't. There's really not any good jokes in the film and for the most part the entire structure is just poorly set up and the film just keeps moving along without anywhere to really go. Fans of Our Gang will probably still want to check it out but others should just stay clear.