This Hal Roach comedy short, Cradle Robbers, is the twenty-eighth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. The gang are being left in charge of keeping on eye on their infant and toddler ones except for Joe who doesn't have any younger siblings and wants to go fishing. Mary arrives and tells the gang about a baby contest. The rest of the gang rush to the event but find out the only one still in progress is the one for "fattest baby". Joe reluctantly poses as that one but is soon found out by a cop who gives chase. There's some amusing gags here and a nice pace. The beginning gag concerning fishing poles and carriages will eventually be repeated in the talkie short Forgotten Babies. So on that note, I say give Cradle Robbers a watch. P.S. This was Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison's final Our Gang appearance.
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tavm24 September 2014
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planktonrules3 September 2021Mary tells the gang that her sister is in a baby contest and the gang go to see if any of their brothers or sisters could possibly win something. However, nearly all the judging is over...apart from the Fattest Baby competition and so they enter Joe! However, when the judges want to undress him and weigh him, he takes off like a cheetah!
As a result, the kids decide to hold their own baby contest...including human and animal babies. But this means rounding up all the babies in their families and neighborhood and soon, naturally, the parents miss them and wonder what's happened to the babies. Then, they assume that the Gypsies* who have been seen in town MUST have stolen them...though what would they want all those babies for anyway?
In addition to promoting a nasty stereotype, this isn't the funniest Our Gang comedy....though I did like seeing Joe jump out of the baby basket and run. Not really a bad short...but one that lacks laughs compared to others of the day.
*The term 'Gypsy' isn't very accurate and the more politically correct one is 'Romani'. It also says a lot about the times when folks would just assume these folks would steal their children! Pretty weird as well as a heck of a stereotype!