The Big Premiere (1940) User Reviews

Makin' A Movie With The Little Rascals

[Ron Oliver · 7/10 · 6 May 2000]

After thoroughly disrupting the opening of a new Hollywood movie, the Gang decides to make their own film, The Misterryus Mistery. At THE BIG PREMIERE, with the neighbor kids in attendance, cinematic chaos ensues...

Few real laughs in this otherwise innocuous little film. Made after MGM got direct control of the Gang, and with the kids themselves noticeably growing up, it bears scant resemblance to the Rascals' classics of yesteryear.

Alfalfa's song

[Doug-169 · 7/10 · 1 January 2009]

The song that Alfalfa was singing was a remake of a very popular civil war song, Lorena. Of course the words are changed, but the original was well liked on both sides of the conflict and caused many soldiers from each side to go AWOL due to Homesickness. The actual lyrics are:

The years creep slowly by, Lorena The snow is on the grass again The sun's low down the sky, Lorena The frost gleams where the flowers have been But the heart throbs on as warmly now As when the summer days were nigh Oh, the sun can never dip so low A-down affection's cloudless sky.

A hundred months have passed, Lorena Since last I held that hand in mine And felt the pulse beat fast, Lorena Though mine beat faster far than thine A hundred months...'twas flowery May When up the hilly slope we climbed To watch the dying of the day And hear the distant church bells chime.

We loved each other then, Lorena More than we ever dared to tell And what we might have been, Lorena Had but our loving prospered well But then, 'tis past, the years have gone I'll not call up their shadowy forms I'll say to them, "Lost years, sleep on Sleep on, nor heed life's pelting storms."

The story of the past, Lorena Alas! I care not to repeat The hopes that could not last, Lorena They lived, but only lived to cheat I would not cause e'en one regret To rankle in your bosom now "For if we try we may forget" Were words of thine long years ago.

Yes, these were words of thine, Lorena They are within my memory yet They touched some tender chords, Lorena Which thrill and tremble with regret 'Twas not the woman's heart which spoke Thy heart was always true to me A duty stern and piercing broke The tie which linked my soul with thee.

It matters little now, Lorena The past is in the eternal past Our hearts will soon lie low, Lorena Life's tide is ebbing out so fast There is a future, oh, thank God! Of life this is so small a part 'Tis dust to dust beneath the sod But there, up there, 'tis heart to heart.

A few funny gags

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 24 September 2009]

After attending a big premiere the kids make their own movie and then stage a premiere of their own.

Just okay film has some very funny jokes and some dead spots as we watch the kids screen their movie for the other kids in the neighborhood. Its an amusing little film that has the look and feel of many of the films that I've seen turned out by friends and family over the years. The problem with the film is that its awfully scatter shot. The opening sequence seems like it belongs somewhere else, and if you're like me you'll wish they would have let us see th making of the movie in the movie. Tis is neither one of the good nor one of the bad of the MGMs, its one of the middle.

a talkie reworking of "Dogs of War," and almost as funny

[marjcbs · 12 December 2004]

It's nice to see the Gang on familiar grounds: seeing a real-life event with adults, and then trying to imitate it. It worked in "Robot Wrecks," and to a certain extent, it works in this short.

Just as in the adult premiere, several of the Gang members proudly make their entrance in the "big premiere" the kids plan. Buckwheat even tries to make "star footprints" by stepping into some gloppy cement which dries instantly ("Hey, I'm stuck!") What's rather funny is how he begins to doze off...which his feet still in the hard cement!

As for the movie the Gang makes, it's slightly funny at best...though there is one particularly amusing scene in which Darla proclaims, "Here comes my hero now, isn't he handsome?" expecting Alfalfa to enter on cue; instead, an errant goat wanders onto the set!

Finally, this short relies on the can't-miss gimmick of Alfalfa's unforgettably bad singing. This would be an otherwise ordinary scene, except that a hen roosted above, drops an egg in Alfalfa's mouth. After he swallows it, "cheep cheep" is heard through the rest of his song, followed by an animated chick coming out of his mouth. Probably one of the most ingenious comic scenes MGM delivered in an Our Gang film.

One of the few MGM shorts worth watching more than once!

Better MGM effort

[kpetnews · 6/10 · 27 February 2007]

Spanky, Mickey, Buckwheat, Alfalfa and Darla are chased out of a movie premiere through some not-terribly-adept slapstick. Undeterred, they shoot their own movie with Waldo's camera and make a premiere of their own.

It's like they have all the elements of a good comedy but the pacing is all off. Buckwheat tries to put his feet in cement and ends up stuck. While this has the possibility for amusing consequences, it just lays there as a joke. The kids' movie itself is somewhat amusing, as the kids combine Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe and Cinderella into an incomprehensible story, and Robert Blake is actually cute when he isn't shoving kids aside to stay on camera. The kids' acting is also not as forced, but it certainly isn't as natural as it used to be. And the punchline, though not great, is acceptable. So it's not a complete waste of time, but no one could ever point to it as a how-to of comedy.

Where's Waldo? THERE'S Waldo!!!

[WaldoLydecker1 · 7/10 · 9 August 2022]

Maybe I've been living in ignorance for decades, but I never knew an "Our Gang" short was the origin/genesis for the "Where's Waldo" craze or fad or what you will. But here he is, complete with striped shirt and round horn-rimmed glasses!

One of their lesser efforts

[alfiefamily · 4/10 · 1 November 2007]

"The Big Premiere" is a big let down. After the Our Gang series went to MGM, the quality of these short films really went down hill. This is another one that just doesn't have much to recommend about it.

Spanky, Darla, Alfalfa, Mickey, Buckwheat and Waldo are all on board, but the writing is so lame and tired that it's hard to watch. The basic story centers on the gang trying to make their own movie after they've attended a big premiere.

I counted two bits of business that were pretty good. One involving Buckwheat with cement, and the other involves a chicken.

Don't go out of your way to catch this.

4 out of 10

The Big Premiere was the last time Alfalfa sang solo in the Our Gang series

[tavm · 8/10 · 19 January 2015]

This M-G-M comedy short, The Big Premiere, is the one hundred eighty-ninth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred first talkie. The gang attends a premiere of a new movie in Hollywood but are chased off the premises after seeing Waldo with his camera as they trespass on the cement grounds just as an actress was about to get her footprints in the stuff. So they make their own movie and imitate what they just saw...This was another funny entry in the M-G-M-only produced series with the topper involving another song sung off-key by Alfalfa. This being his last solo spot in the series, the writers may have been plotting their revenge by having a chicken drop an egg in his mouth and getting a chick flying out! That last scene was, I'm sure, achieved by photo-animating him. This short also brings to mind some of the silent entries of the series like having the audience conk their heads upside down when the film turns out that way for a while like what happened in Better Movies. Also, the film-which mixes Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Robinson Crusoe, and Robin Hood-is titled The Mysteeryus Mistry which recalls actual OG silent short The Mysterious Mystery! So on that note, I highly recommend The Big Premiere. P.S. This was Shirley "Muggsy" Coates final appearance in the series. As of this writing, she seems to still be living.

Reflexive

[tedg · 22 December 2005]

After about 50 Gang shorts, you fall even more back on formula than before.

This time, it is a "folded" story. This is a movie about kids making a movie. The movie we see and the movie they make is blurred, and both are blurred with "real" movies which are referenced at the beginning.

This is three years before "Citizen Kane," but when "Sullivan's Travels" was being filmed.

Its less funny than the early stuff just because it is so routine.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Lights, Camera, Action

[Michael_Elliott · 18 February 2013]

The Big Premiere (1940)

** (out of 4)

The gang travels to a big movie premiere where they see a famous actresses getting to put her feet in concrete so that future generations will be able to see it. The kids decide that they want to have their own premiere but first they need to make a movie. THE BIG PREMIERE pretty much re-works an earlier Our Gang picture and while there are a couple cute moments here you still have to consider this another disappointment for the MGM series. I think the film works best when the kids are at the real premiere and keep pestering a cop who doesn't have all the answers that they're wanting. This includes a cowboy star showing up at the premiere but without his horse. The second half of the picture has the kids inviting the neighborhood over so that they can see the movie and in order for there to be sound, the kids must stand behind the screen and speak the parts. Again, there are a couple funny moments here but the overall feel of the film is pretty weak as there's just never any real energy to pick things up. It's too bad because this material could have been handled much better.