Fast Freight
About Fast Freight
Joe, Jean, Farina, Wheezer, Mary Ann, and Harry hop a freight the way a tramp would, and duck into an empty house when the ride goes wrong. A phonograph plays spook noises. Wind blows a painting of a professor into a cracked doorway so the portrait seems to move. Sheriff Robert Dudley comes in the back and says he was sent to take them home. Farina and Pete the Pup get back on a car that is locked, full of skeletons and mummies bound for a research academy in Alexandria, Virginia.
Cast & crew
More about Fast Freight
Hal Roach and Robert F. McGowan produced Our Gang production G-19. Robert A. McGowan wrote the story, H. M. Walker the titles, Art Lloyd the photography, and Richard C. Currier the edit. Shot December 10–29, 1928. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the two-reeler on May 4, 1929. It is silent.
Themes
Making
The haunted-house gags are a phonograph, a portrait jammed in a door, and a freight car of museum skeletons, not a ghost plot.
Look
Art Lloyd photographed the two reels, including the freight-yard ride and the dark interior of the house.
Preservation
Prints survive, including 8mm reduction copies in private collections. A public-domain copy is in circulation.
Notes
- Copyrighted April 1, 1929, and renewed September 13, 1956.
- Wikipedia counts it as the 85th Our Gang short released. Some lists put Small Talk ahead of it and make this the 86th.
- James Finlayson is the face in the spooky wall painting. Robert Dudley plays the chief of police.
Scenes
- The professor's portrait slides into the doorway and seems alive.
- Farina and Pete find they are locked in with skeletons.
Also available
- Internet Archive (Our.GangFast.Freight1929)
