Review of Little Miss Pinkerton

This M-G-M short, Little Miss Pinkerton, is the two hundred seventeenth entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred twenty-ninth talkie. Notice I didn't put "comedy" between the studio name and "short" since in this one...well, here's the synopsis: The gang are participating in the staged murder mystery promotion of the Greenpoint Department Store but it's always crowded so they can't get close to the scene. A kindly janitor offers to let them inside on Sunday when the store's closed but, unfortunately for him, a couple of thieves also come in and rob the safe which he witnesses getting him killed instantly! (Yes, that's right, a REAL murder in what's supposed to be a comedy series!) The gang overhears the shots but think it's tires blown off but when those thieves arrive with the body, they hide and would not have been noticed except Mickey sneezes before the robbers could leave so the gang are now hostages. Well, except for Janet who was in a chest separate from the rest of the gang so she goes to the police but because of the promotion, he doesn't believe her. She goes to her friends who give chase (While I admire their bravery, did they think about what to do if they get confronted by the bad guys?) Anyway, that policeman gets a call about what I just described and leaves, finding Janet and taking her with him to the hideout. When I was a kid, I remember being really concerned about those kids and watching as an adult, that remains. Still, when Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann mention that Janet Burston, in particular, suffers from the case of the "cutes", I can't help but partially agree with them. Nice of her playing the heroine here, for once, though. And despite the more serious tone, there are still some laughs courtesy of Froggy at the end. Don't want to reveal any more so on that note, Little Miss Pinkerton is worth a look, at the least. This was director Herbert Glazer's last film as he'd go back to assistant director after this. He'd die on December 19, 1966.