Helping Grandma: Difference between revisions

'''''Helping Grandma''''' is a 1931 ''[[Our Gang]]'' [[short subject|short]] [[comedy film]] directed by [[Robert F. McGowan]].<ref name="NY Times">{{cite web |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/225652/Helping-Grandma/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520165913/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/225652/Helping-Grandma/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 20, 2011 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |publisher=[[Baseline (database)|Baseline]] & [[All Movie Guide]] |author=Hal Erickson |title=New York Times: Helping Grandma |author-link=Hal Erickson (author) |date=2011 |accessdate=September 19, 2008|work=NY Times}}</ref> It was the 103rd (15th talking episode) ''Our Gang'' short thatto wasbe released.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maltin |first1=Leonard |last2=Bann |first2=Richard W. |title=Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals |date=1977 |publisher=Crown Publishers |pages=122–123 |url=https://archive.org/details/ourganglifetimes0000malt/page/122/mode/2up |access-date=3 March 2024}}</ref>

An olderelderly woman, Mrs. Margaret Mack, owns a small grocery store, and the gang helps her to run it by waiting on customers, delivering groceries, and keeping her company. They call her Grandma, thoughalthough she is not any one kid's grandmother but everyone's grandma. She loves the gang, and the gang loves her. A chain store company wants to buy her store for more than market value while a swindler also wants to buy it for next to nothing.

A chain store company wants to buy her store for more than market value, while a swindler also wants to buy it for next to nothing. The gang thinks both parties want to practically steal the store away from her. The swindler stops in and tries talking Grandma into selling her store immediately for $1,500. She balks at the low price, and then goes downtown to run some errands, leaving the gang in charge. Among her instructions is to tell anyone who calls on the telephone to call back later.

Chain store officials then stop by, and Jackie, Farina and Chubby try to scaredeterring them away from buying the store, telling them, among other things that, "You couldn't sell many chains in this town, anyhow," and, "Even the banks close on Saturday afternoon.". The chain store officials are amused by the kids and leave some papers for Mrs. Mack to study,. andAfter they leave, as well. Thethe swindler returns and, sees it's is a $3,500. contract of sale, and takesswipes it with him.

Meanwhile, Stymie is supposed to get 10ten cents worth of "it", but can't remember what "it" is. He has a note naming it, but neither he nor Wheezer can read the note, so Wheezer asks Stymie if he'd would remember it if he saw it, and. Stymie says no, but that he might remember it if he tasted it. ThenSo, Wheezer and the other kids have Stymie sample a potato, Peet Bros., soap, shoe polish (?), gasoline, moth balls, glue, Limburger cheese, and, finally, fish-meal fertilizer, to which Stymie saysdeclares, "yepYep, that's it.".

Then Dorothy is doling out candy to Wheezer when the phone rings. It's is the chain store representatives, who want to increase their offer. Wheezer picks up the receiver, but does not speak to the representatives, because he is distracted by Dorothy. Thinking she's is not giving him enough candy (and, therefore, not hearing their offer), Wheezer shouts at Dorothy, "T'aint enough!", then into the phone, "Call later!". The chain store reps think that "T'aint enough" was also meant for them, andso they decide tothey will call back. This gag takes place repeatedly through the scene, with the chain store guys increasing their price andto, finally making, a "flat offer of $5,000.00." .

Grandma returns along with the swindler, who is in a rush to gethave her to sign away her store. After several interruptions by the children, she signs the paper. and assumesAssuming she has signed the store away;, she tellsinforms the kids that she just sold the store. The man thenrefers callsto the kids as hoodlums and tells them the store is his and he is the boss and they must leave. Grandma refuses, to letwhich him throw themGrandma outobjects. The chain store officials arrive, and the swindler states that the store now belongs to him. He shows them the paper she signed, but it wasis blank;. theThe real contract of sale was not signed., so Thethe swindler then accuses Grandma of tricking him.

The officials repeat their phone bid, saying they will give Grandma $1,500. more than the original price agreed upon;on. Grandma realizes that the swindler had pretended to beimitated her over the phone, andso she sockspunches the guy so hard he falls across the room. AfterWhen he threatens Grandma by saying "I'll get you!"', Wheezer hits him on the head with a hammer.

This episode was heavily edited onfor the[[Our Gang|''The Little Rascals'']] television syndicated prints, beginning in 1971. Scenes with Stymie tasting the store items were all cut out, due to perceptions of racism toward African -Americans. Most, but not all, of the deleted scenes were reinstated onfor the TV prints shownaired on [[American Movie Classics|AMC]] from 2001–20032001-2003, and on [[MeTV]] in 2016.