Michael_Elliott Thundering Fleas (1926) *** (out of 4)The Our Gang kids help a flea trainer try and find his missing fleas but when they don't find the main one the trainer gets upset and lets them keep the ones they did find. This doesn't work out too well because the kids take the fleas to Mary's sisters wedding and soon they get loose and cause everyone to start scratching. This is one of the better Our Gang shorts thanks in large part to some nice animation but also some fine supporting performances by Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson and Charley Chase. Hardy shows up in a funny bit as a cop and Finlayson plays the preacher. Chase is the guy at the wedding wearing the large mustache and he has a funny bit. The mixing of animation and live action was certainly in its early days here but I enjoyed what they did. Most of the animation deals with the tracks done by the fleas including riding a bike and we get several animated clips of the fleas getting on the Gang's dog. The stuff at the wedding with everyone scratching themselves as pretty funny but there's no question that the main reason to watch this is for the supporting players and the animation.

Jackson Booth-Millard This silent film is included in Laurel and Hardy film collection, and it only features on of the pair, but I had to see what he was doing before he got with his partner. This was part of a little Our Gang comedy series starring the "Rascals", and it is June, the month of weddings, where little Mary (Mary Kornman) has a pretend wedding to a little fat kid (who almost resembles Hardy), and the little black kid causes a little trouble throwing a black polish covered shoe after the other kids have laughed at the "couple" kissing. After getting away the black kid walks with his dog past Professor Clements (George B. French) displaying his flea circus, with the marvellous flea Garfield performing. Garfield jumps into the fur of the black kid's dog, as he walks away to greet Skooter (Scooter Lowry) of the newly moved Swiss Family Robinson, and he manages to drop their fish bowl, causing fish to jump on the floor, into his mouth, and over the baby brother. The Professor extracts another flea from another dog, and he notices that Garfield is missing, and he offers a dollar to the kid who finds his prize fleas. The black kid's dog manages to knock over the flea circus table, and the fleas get into his fur, and some he shakes out to go up the leg of a police officer (Ollie, as Oliver Babe), forcing him to paint a new pair on his britches. Kids are all over getting fleas from wherever they can, including in other dogs, in trousers, and in amongst a man's beard which is set on fire by the light of a magnifying glass. The Professor leaves rejecting all these fleas, and the kids have to get ready for the wedding of Mary's sister, but they quickly advance to the food table. The black kid's dog shakes some fleas around the musicians, and when the black kid is picked up crawling around by his legs, he manages to drop the jar filled with all the kids' caught fleas. Sheldon the groom (Jerry Mandy) is already nervous, and he twitches even more with fleas up his trousers, concerning the Bride (Martha Sleeper) and the Justice of the Peace (James Finlayson, without his trademark moustache). Soon all the weddings guests are scratching themselves as the fleas scatter, into trousers, on noses and in moustaches, forcing the bride, groom and the man marrying them to go outside. The kids manage to find a bug spray canister which the spray on all fleas they can find, one protects themselves with a gas mask, and the film ends with a man posing as a statue scratching himself as an artist tries to paint him. Also starring Charley Chase as Mustachioed wedding guest and Charlie Hall as Musician. The kids are annoying, there might some small giggles in the film, but ti isn't one I'd want to see that often to be honest. Okay!

tavm This Hal Roach comedy short, Thundering Fleas, is the fifty-first in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. Inspired by her older sister's upcoming wedding, Mary stages a mock one with Joe as the groom. He refuses to kiss her since he doesn't want the gang to laugh at him, however. They indeed do when Mary does the deed on Joe's lips. After one of them throws a shoe to Joe's face causing a track there, they point to Farina (who had nothing to do with it) who gets chased by the tracked-faced boy with dog Magnolia in tow. After Joe stops, Farina and the dog encounter a flea circus with the star attraction-Garfield. That flea (which is amusingly animated here) lands on Magnolia and decides to reside there with the dog now scratching herself. Along the way, Farina encounters a new friend, Scooter, who says his father is the vice-president of the U.S. They drop a bowl of fish with the amphibians jumping up and down. Scooter's mom then shows and sends Farina on his way. Meanwhile, Garfield's owner offers the rest of the gang $1 for finding his star flea. At this point, the rest of the owner's fleas are set free as Garfield tells his friends to "come on up" on the dog. It all ends in a hilarious disaster of Mary's sister's wedding...This has to be the most hilarious of the silent "Our Gang" comedies I've seen yet! Besides what I've just mentioned, there's plenty of now familiar faces of other Hal Roach comedies that provide additional pleasure starting with the up-and-coming Oliver Hardy as the cop who's the first victim of the fleas as he loses his trousers and paints his bright white long johns black to prevent further embarrassment, Charlie Hall as one of the wedding musicians, Charlie Chase with a big walrus mustache that hilariously moves from side-to-side, and James Finlayson without his usual prop mustache as the preacher reacting with his familiar fisheye reaction when the groom shakes his head as if to say "no" before the fleas then also lands on the preacher. Once again, kudos to the YouTube poster who added the familiar LeRoy Shield music from the "Little Rascals" talkies for providing the topper for this very enjoyable "Our Gang" entry, Thundering Fleas.

boblipton A sort of all-star Our Gang comedy, in which all sorts of Roach's regulars and mini-stars -- except Stan Laurel -- appear. The sole gag here is that a bunch of fleas gets loose at the gorgeous Martha Sleeper's wedding, causing all sorts of consternation. See if you can spot Charley Chase.