Come Back, Miss Pipps

This M-G-M short, Come Back, Miss Pipps, is the one hundred ninety-ninth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred eleventh talkie. Notice I didn't put the word "comedy" between the studio name and "short". That's because there didn't seem much attempt at humor this time. Anyway, class ends early since it's Mickey's birthday and the title character decides to spend the rest of the day celebrating it with his classmates. But school board chairman Mr. Pratt thinks she's wasting her time and recommends to the rest of the members she be fired which is granted. The gang won't tolerate it so they stage a play in front of the board, with the help of the kindly janitor who keeps Miss Pipps from attending, showing how mean Mr. Pratt really is. Now while I said there wasn't much attempt at humor, that doesn't mean this wasn't entertaining. In fact, the adults-Sara Haden as the title character, Christen Rub as the janitor, and Clarence Wilson as Mr. Pratt are fine in their typecast roles since Ms. Haden played the kindly aunt in the Andy Hardy series, Mr. Rub was the voice of Geppetto in Walt Disney's Pinocchio, and Mr. Wilson was previously in OG as the mean man in Shrimps for a Day, Little Sinner, and Clown Princes. Actually, I have to point out the irony that I previously saw Ms. Haden as the mean truant officer in Shirley Temple's Captain January which also featured then-OG member Jerry Tucker as her likewise nephew! Anyway, I highly liked Come Back, Miss Pipps especially the wonderful surprise ending concerning Mr. Pratt. So that's a recommendation. P.S. This was Clarence Wilson's final film appearance as he died on October 5, 1941, before the short's release. Oh, and one of the players was Billy Bletcher as Froggy's father. He previously was in OG shorts The First Round-Up as Wally Albright's father, Teacher's Beau, and Divot Diggers. And the little girl who tells her father about mean Mr. Pratt is Giovanna Gubitosi-or Jean Blake, Robert Blake's sister.