Curley

Curley is a 1947 film produced by Hal Roach and Robert F. McGowan as a re-imagining of their Our Gang series.

The film was one of Roach's many "streamlined" features of the 1940s, running only 53 minutes, and was designed as a b-movie. Like most of Roach's latter-day output, Curley was shot in Cinecolor.

Bernard Carr was the film's director, and the film released to theatres on August 23, 1947 by United Artists. It stars Larry Olsen, Billy Gray, and Renee Beard, younger brother of original Our Ganger Matthew "Stymie" Beard. Our Gang was known for its integrated cast of black and white children ,and Curley followed suit. The Memphis, Tennessee Censor Board banned Curley for showing black and white children in school together and playing together. Lloyd Binford, head of the censor board, gave this rationale to Roach's distributor, United Artists: "[The board] was unable to approve your 'Curley' picture with the little Negroes as the south does not permit Negroes in white schools nor recognize social equality between the races, even in children."^[1]

When Hal Roach sold Our Gang to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1938, he was contractually bound not to produce any more children's comedies. When Roach decided that he wanted to produce this film, he got MGM's permission by giving up his right to buy back the name Our Gang.

Curley and its sequel, Who Killed Doc Robbin, performed mildly at the box office, and when Roach bought back the rights to the 1927 - 1938 Our Gang shorts in 1949, he had to rename the series The Little Rascals.

External links

• Curley at the Internet Movie Database

References

This 1940s comedy film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e