In its heyday MGM was the Tiffany of studios, and the place where film comedy went to die. In the 1920s it took Buster Keaton, robbed him of control, and made him do musicals and use stuntmen. In the 1930s it took the Marx Brothers and, after a good start, made them the zany hosts of increasingly shoddy musicals. in the 1940s it took Laurel and Hardy and simply told them what to do, removing any creative comic spark, sanded Abbott and Costello until they were smooth and shiny, and made Red Skelton a utility comic relief player. In between all that it took over Our Gang and turned them into minstrels, forcing what once had been a group of real kids into a road company Mickey-and-Judy act obsessed with putting on a show. "Ye Olde Minstrels" is the classic example of that. Even as a kid, watching this on TV, I realized how awful it was. If you really must see a white performer in blackface singing "Lazy Moon," watch Oliver Hardy's rendition in 1931's "Pardon Us," where the blackface at least has story motivation. And Ollie could sing.
Review of Ye Olde Minstrels
