Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Big Town (1925)

In 1922, Hal Roach created a new series of comedy short films starring a group of young kids who, although they were officially named Hal Roach’s Rascals, quickly became popularly known by the title of one of their earliest films, Our Gang (1922). Roach soon learned that he had tapped a gold mine, and produced far more than 100 Our Gang films from 1922 through 1938, when the rights to the series were sold to Our Gang distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The series featured a number of talented and popular child performers who inevitably grew too old to remain participants in the series and were replaced by other children. Fans of the Our Gang series grew to love Mickey, Jackie, Joe, Farina, Mary, Wheezer and others, and later grew attached to Spanky, Alfalfa, Porky, Buckwheat, Darla and Butch in the golden era.

— Carl Bennett

This DVD-R edition has been mastered from a good 16mm reduction print, which is quite flat in a narrow range of greytones.

The film is accompanied by vintage jazz recordings.

Far from a good presentation, this may be the only home video edition of the film available.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from REELCLASSIC DVD through . . .

Other SHORT COMEDY FILMS of the silent era available on home video.