User Reviews

Despite the politically incorrect title, this short (clocking in at about 22 minutes) is a nice comedy vehicle for legendary Black film comedian Sunshine Sammy Morrison, probably best known today for his run as a member of the before-the-Bowery Boys "East Side Kids" at Monogram in the early 40's. If the birth year given on the IMDb for Morrison is correct, he's only 9 in this film, and he already has a great comic presence. He's initially working in a store, then is attracted to a young black girl who comes in the store, then splits to the woods where he helps a greenhorn camper go fishing, then a guy in a bear suit AND a real bear tear things up, then Sammy eventually finds his way back to the store, hides in the stove, and is carried off by his dad. Sammy's character is a clever, inventive boy who is depicted as both smarter and stronger than the white kids taunting him in the first scene, and there's not really any demeaning "racial" humor. This may predate his membership in Hal Roach's OUR GANG shorts. Director is James "Paul" Parrott. Interestingly, the camper plays his role in the Paul Parrott fashion, and the policeman played by George Rowe even LOOKS like Paul Parrott--in fact, I looked up Rowe's credits just to prove to myself that there WAS such an actor, and it wasn't just a pseudonym for Parrott. Sunshine Sammy Morrison was a true film pioneer, one of the first Black stars and certainly the first Black CHILD star, and there's little that's demeaning or cringe-producing the way there is in, say, some performances by Stepin Fechit or Fred "Snowflake" Toones, as brilliant comedians as those men were. Roach comedies generally play well even today, and this one is no exception. Strangely enough, while the young girl in whom Sammy is interested is played by a Black girl, I think that the two Black women who come into the store and the actor who plays Sammy's dad may be Caucasians in black-face--it's difficult to tell with the picture quality, but I think so...in case you're interested. I'll see if I can dig up some more early 20's Morrison shorts from my collection...at age 9, he can carry a film by himself, quite an achievement!

Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison has gone down in history as the very first African-American performer to get a long-term Hollywood contract, at Hal Roach Studios when he was only 7. He previously had worked with Roach's wife Margaret on the Baby Marie Osborne films for Pathe-the distributor of Hal's productions at the time. It was said that Ernie had accidentally become involved in films when the person he replaced cried too much times on set. Be that as it may, after appearing in various comedians' shorts-including superstar Harold Lloyd's-Roach decided to try Morrison in his own series starting with this one. This short did not take off well enough for further entries but when Hal then created the Rascals/Our Gang series, Sunshine Sammy was the first one he cast in it and he delighted audiences at the time for a few years there. Anyway, this short, despite the title, has Little Casino-Ernie's character-working for the local grocer where he gets distracted by a pretty girl of his race (possibly his sister Dorothy as he recounted to Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann in their book "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang") and helps gets worms by having the backyard chicken pick them up! He also gets some fish of his own with the help of a baby and also gets tangled with bears-both real and someone in costume! By the way, despite many blacks being portrayed in a stereotypical way at the time, there's nothing too humiliating concerning him or others of his race here. So on that note, The Pickaninny is something that's still quite funny to this day.

Great short if you do not get caught up in the politically correct nonsense that seems to be permeating society now. Sunshine Sammy proves that he can carry a film all by himself without the Our Gang troupe.