Shivering Spooks (1926) watch online HD

Overall, I'd say this is a pretty good silent Our Gang film.

Essentially, the gang stumbles into the lair of a crooked spiritualist aptly named Professor Fleece, who with his partners in crime try to scare the gang away. That sums up the plot without giving away the ending, but in spite of the slim storyline, a lot happens within these 20 minutes! The opening scene is rather shocking, as it seems that Farina and Scooter are running away form a man shooting point blank at them, but our horror quickly turns to relief and (depending on how sensitive you are) laugher when the camera reveals that we are not watching what we think.

Yes, there are a few unsettling scenes, such as the gang forcing Farina to enter a tunnel out of a cave by saying, "If you get killed, we know it ain't safe." (With friends like these...). However, the bit with the Klan-like ghost scaring Farina, who if you don't know by now was the series' Black star of the 20s, is neutralized by the fact that the phony ghost scares ALL of the children in the film. But the gag involving Farina turning white at the site of the ghost and the exchange with Mary Kornman about seeing "Colored ghosts" in the dark are relatively mild in comparison to some of the far cruder gags involving modern Black comedy (Chapelle's Show and Def Comedy Jam, anyone?) . The humor of the latter scene is clearly based on the innocence of children as opposed to mean-spiritedness (as was the case in some later Gang films as "Spook Spoofing" and the horribly cruel and unfunny "Glorious Fourth").

Yes, Allen "Farina" Hoskins has defended his work with the Gang/Rascals, but how much sensitivity and political correctness could one expect considering he was a small child when these films were made? As in many films of this period, he steals the show years before his tenth birthday! So yeah, the film shows its age and PC types will call their heart surgeons over some of the humor. But much of the film is undeniably amusing and as is the case with the Our Gang Rascals, the pros outweigh the cons.

Shivering Spooks (1926)

*** (out of 4)

Fun our Gang short has the kids (minus Mickey Daniels) in their secret cave when the opening collapses on them and they must find another way out. At the end of the cave they manage to get into a room where a medium is performing a fake séance. Soon the bad guys are trying to get rid of the kids by using various haunting techniques. SHIVERING SPOOKS is perhaps one of the most controversial films in the series as there are many jokes aimed at Farina that most people are going to be offended by. The entire film has all the kids in peril but little Farina gets the most abuse including the kids forcing him to enter a certain place even though it could kill him. Another sequence has Mary telling him a story about ghosts and he asks why there aren't any black ones and she replies that you wouldn't be able to see them at night. Those familiar with these silent movies will know that in 1926 this type of humor is what people wanted so when viewing them with eyes today it's important to remember that this film was simply made in a different era. The rest of the film is actually pretty good as we get various laughs with the kids trying to avoid all the ghosts that keep stalking them. One running gag has Joe losing his pants with kids trying to hold onto him and this includes a rather cute sequence with him and Farina trying to get away from a ghost.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Shivering Spooks, is the fifty-second in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series. Farina and Scooter find themselves running between a cop and his prey as they keep shooting at each other. This prey is helped by a store owner in going to a hidden staircase inside. That staircase leads to a séance filled with "suckers" located underground, mostly women who want to talk to their dead husbands. Above this ground, the rest of the gang are playing baseball. This fake spiritualist, Professor Fleece, gets distracted by them and tells them to go away but they don't listen. In fact, when they go underground to their hideout which is nearby, a minor cave-in occurs forcing them to dig a hole which cuts through to the séance. Farina goes through the hole first, followed by another of the gang. As they're now in a dark room near the performance, audience members starts to ask questions like one man asking, "What must I do to be successful?" followed by one of the kids saying, "Stop blubbering and sit down!" which presumably was taken for the answer by him! After several more scares, the jig is up as the gang drop vases on the faker and his henchmen and they in turn get arrested by the police...Okay, I'd like to offer a somewhat rebuttal to the previous poster: Okay, maybe the kids did call Fleece a slur but the exchange between Mary and Farina was innocent with no harm intended whatsoever. Besides, it was funny. Also funny was Scooter and Farina's constantly pulling Joe's pants as they're all running, the phosphorescent ghost and Farina when the film temporarily turns negative, and Farina's being levitated when he crawls in such a table. Fast-paced in both laughs and thrills, Shivering Spooks should provide a chillingly funny good time! Update: 9/30/14-I just watched this again on Internet Archive with the LeRoy Shield score as performed by the Beau Hunks band. My rating stays.

This is about a fake psychic named Professor Fleece who took advantage of gullible women by claiming that he could find their dead husbands.

When Fleece stepped on one part of the floor, a light would come on in another room and one of Fleeces assistants would pull a switch and the table would rise on the floor.

When the assistants were playing ghosts to scare the suckers, they just had a sheet over their head.(The ghost will be more shocking later.)

When the kids were playing baseball, Fleece told the suckers that "Excuse me I,ll chase the dear children away. When Fleece told the kids to leave the kids told him,"Aw chase y'r own self Y big Turk!" (Racist for Turkish but only gets worse!)

When Mary was reading a ghost book Farina asked a question that would totally shock you!(I will not call him Allen Hoskins because he thought that the films that he was in was just fine!)

Farina; Why is ghosts allus (always) white? Ain't there no colored ghosts?

Mary: Colored people cant see ghosts, how could you see them in the dark?

Farina: They could carry lanterns couldn't they? (Yes two children were actually saying this racist nonsense!)

When they had Farina walk around alone he got scared and dropped the candle on the floor and when the lights went out, you could only see the whites of his eyes. (Shockingly unbelievable!)

During this time Skooter kept doing this to Joe Cobb which I will keep this to myself because I don't want to give sickos any ideas!

When Farina was still alone the assistant moaned through an air hose and Farina said OOO-HH with a strange look on his face and for reasons beyond me he went on the bottom part of a heavy table and when the assistant pulled the switch, the table rose between 5 and 6 feet off the ground which if the table would have fallen on the hard studio floor the child would have been very seriously injured or dead!(I,m not kidding!)

When the assistant said through the hose that "I will cut your ears off!" Farinas face turned white. (About as funny as a drunk vomiting on somebody's couch!)

Then when the ghost with a pointy head (A bunch of terrorist cowards of which I won't mention here!) touched Farina his face turned white again.

After awhile the kids dropped the ceramic vases on the seven bad guys and one cop pointed his gun at the seven con men and arrested them!

This so called children's comedy film is a bunch of racist garbage with very sick humor!

I feel that Robert McGowan, Hal Roach ,H.M. Walker and other uncredited assistants should have served prison time for child endangerment, and blatant racism!

I rate this trash a negative infinity!