Helping Hands

Spanky and the Our Gang kids go to battle over pranks with a rival gang.

The gang wants Spanky to come out and play football, but he has to make sure his baby sister is asleep first.

Spanky and the gang discover a demonstration of a "human-like" robot named Volto and are inspired to create a robot themselves to do their chores for them. Slicker Walburn convinces them they will need "invisible rays" to bring it to life which he just happens to have to sell to them. As they rush off to get their money, Slicker gets Boxcar Smith to wear the robot's outer body so when he "brings" the robot to life, it will be Boxcar bringing it to life. The gang unsuspectedly gets their robot to mow the lawn at Froggy's house, but with a signal from Slicker, Boxcar runs amok and mows down everything in his path. Froggy gets to explain what happened to his parents who bust up the fraud and get the miscreants to work with the gang to clean up the mess.

Joe Cobb is suffering through a toothache as well as having to babysit his little brother Rupert who won't stop crying. Every effort to calm Rupert is undone by an immediate commotion to wake him up. Joe rocks him to sleep, but then the neighbor starts playing his bass fiddle. Joe then rocks the cradle so hard it falls apart, and he trips and stumbles moving Rupert to the baby carriage, which subsequently rolls down hill through traffic with Rupert and a neighbor's monkey enjoying the ride.

The gang is participating in a program sponsored by the Golden Age Dramatic League. They present their own fractured version of Quo Vadis. Things go from bad to worse when the neighborhood tough kids disrupt the show. The pie fight is given a new twist by use of some slow motion sequences.

While under a hypnotic spell, Alfalfa thinks he's one of the Three Musketeers and challenges Butch to a duel.

Mickey and Froggy are candidates running to be president of the Gang's club. When the vote continues to end in a tie, the club winds up split. Buckwheat then reminds everyone of the lessons learned from Abraham Lincoln when America was once divided.

The kids from Our Gang have to attend a wedding, and they bring along their flea collection--which gets loose.

Alfalfa imagines himself as a western movie hero battling with Butch for Darla's heart.

Spanky and Alfalfa want to do a show based on the "Aladdin's Lamp" story with Darla in the cast, but Darla doesn't want to participate.

Alfalfa and the gang decide to turn to a life of crime, but Spanky tries to trick them with a fake burglary.

To impress Darla, Alfalfa drinks a concoction of Butch's "dynamite" brew.

The kids go to the hospital to visit Darla, who's recovering from a tonsillectomy. Chaos soon ensues.

Darla pretends to like Butch, hoping to motivate Alfalfa into a better performance in the football game against Butch's team.

On Mickey's birthday, Miss Pipps, the school teacher, serves cake and ice cream during school hours. Sour old Mr. Pratt, head of the school board, stumbles on the festivities and has Miss Pipps fired. The Our Gang conspire to save her job by inviting all the parents to a special meeting. There the gang stage a melodrama, with Mr. Pratt portrayed as Simon Legree. The parents react by demoting Mr. Pratt to janitor. They appoint kindly Mr. Swanson, the current janitor, to head the school board. And of course they reinstate Miss Pipps as school teacher. Sometime later, in an act of forgiveness, Miss Pipps and the gang hold a birthday party for Pratt who is then humbled by the experience.

Alfalfa "trades in" his whining baby brother for another baby--who turns out to be a midget criminal.

Habitually mistreated at the deceptively named Happyland Home Orphanage, the Our Gang kids find a loyal and kindhearted friend in the form of a black grownup named Uncle Tom. Alas, Tom's own children -- including real-life siblings Allen "Farina" Hoskins and Jannie "Mango" Hoskins -- are carted off to Happyland by the cold-hearted county officials. Farina, Mango, and the other kids escape the cruel orphanage in the dead of night, while Uncle Tom, preparing for their return, "borrows" food, clothes, and furnishings from various merchants.

One of a handful of currently unavailable Hal Roach/MGM “Our Gang” silent films, School Begins was a series of gags built around the unenviable ritual of returning to school during the first week of September. School begins and some gang members are forging notes from their mother wanting out. Then too-young Wheezer parades by the school with escaped circus seals following him, causing a disturbance.

Our Gang member Alfalfa comes face to face with his wealthy lookalike Cornelius.

The gang prevails upon old-time minstrel impresario Walter Wills to help them stage a fund-raising musical show.