Hello fright fans - just a head's up that today (Wednesday, January 5th, 2011) Turner Classic Movies is running two of the classic Our Gang horror-comedy shorts I've previously reviewed here on "Scared Silly."
First up at 12:45 PM is "Shootin' Injuns." You can read my review by clicking here.
Later, at 5:15 PM TCM runs "Shivering Spooks." Click here to read that review.
Both of the above are from the silent era. Not long after the talkies came in, the shorts introduced arguably the two most well-known Rascals, George "Spanky" McFarland and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer. Spanky was so popular in fact that the Speed-O bike company used him as a pitchman (pitchkid?) in this rare newsreel footage - enjoy!
Here's hoping someone finally releases the silents on an official DVD relase. I can't keep all these on my DVR forever. Another great highlight, not horror-related but probably of interest to many reading the blog, was 1926's "Thundering Fleas" with animated effects and cameos by Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, and Charley Chase.
ReplyDeleteThanks to TCM for showing so many of these! Note that Laurel and Hardy's "Live Ghost" will be shown Tuesday January 11 at 9:30 PM as part of the Roach L&H Marathon.
I hear from reliable sources that official American DVD releases of Roach produced silents and talkies including Our Gang, Charley Chase and Laurel & Hardy may finally be in the offing in the (hopefully near) future.
ReplyDeleteAs for TCM - in addition to "The Live Ghost" the station is also showing "Oliver the 8th," "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" and "Dirty Work" during its Hal Roach marathon next week - I'll be posting about those airings, too.
I hope those DVDs pan out. Wish I knew about TCM's showings sooner. I just caught The Uninvited with Ray Milland (not a comedy but has it's lighter moments).
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