The First Seven Years is a 1930 Our Gang

Our Gang

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...

short

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed by Robert F. McGowan

Robert F. McGowan

Robert Francis McGowan was an American film director and producer, best known as the senior director of the Our Gang short subjects film series from 1922 until 1933.-Career:...

. It was the 96th (eighth talking) Our Gang short that was released.

Plot

Jackie is in love with Mary Ann, but she is not interested in any boy. Speck also is in love with Mary Ann. Mary Ann, after beating up Jackie (who got aggressive after seeking advice from Kennedy the Cop), decides to play along. She suggests that Jackie and Speck fight in a duel. Jackie tries to chicken out but winds up fighting Speck. They both use real swords and cut up tons of laundry on the clothes lines. The rest of the gang roots for Jackie. In the end, they drop their swords and fight with their fists. Jackie wins and Speck's father comes out and holds Jackie down and has Speck hit Jackie until Jackie's elderly grandmother steps in and knocks Speck and his dad out. The gang then cheers her on.

Cast

• Jackie Cooper
  Jackie Cooper
  Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
  
   - Jackie
• Bobby Hutchins - Wheezer
• Mary Ann Jackson
  Mary Ann Jackson
  Mary Ann Jackson was an American former child actress who appeared in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1928 to 1931. She was a native of Los Angeles, California.-Career:...
  
   - Mary Ann
• Donald Haines
  Donald Haines
  Donald Haines was an American child actor who had recurring appearances in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1929 to 1933.-Our Gang:...
  
   - Speck
• Allen Hoskins - Farina
• Norman Chaney - Chubby
• Pete the Pup
  Pete the Pup
  Pete the Pup was a Pit Bull character in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies during the 1920s and 1930s...
  
   - Petie
• Edgar Kennedy
  Edgar Kennedy
  Edgar Livingston Kennedy was an American comedic film actor, known as "the king of the slow burn". A slow burn is an exasperated facial expression, performed very deliberately; Kennedy embellished this by rubbing his hand over his bald head and across his face, in an attempt to hold his temper...
  
   - Kennedy the Cop
• Otto Fries
  Otto Fries
  Otto Fries was an American film actor. He appeared in 129 films between 1920 and 1938.-Career:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Fries became a dapper-looking supporting comic with a varied background in medicine shows and vaudeville. He easily transitioned to film in the early 1910s...
  
   - Speck's father
• Joy Winthrop - Grandma
• Emma Reed - Farina's mother