The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: Directed by Robert A. McGowan
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I expected an Our Gang short titled War Feathers to be racist, but I was unprepared for how racist it gets. It opens with the kids torturing a train conductor–and Joe Cobb in blackface. Sorry, “chocolate” face. The poor conductor doesn’t just have to try to contain them, he’s also got them pretending to be…
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It’s hard not to like Boxing Gloves’s central sequence—a boxing match between Norman ‘Chubby’ Chaney and Joe Cobb—it’s two little fat kids in enormous boxing gloves duking it out. It’s also the sequence where McGowan shows the most directorial zeal. Unfortunately, it’s the place where the short’s particular sound situation (it’s a silent converted to…
The Stop Button 