When It Comes To Evil, Rotten Stepmothers, This One Is Hard To Beat!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   When I think of rotten stepmothers on film, darlings, three come first to mind.  Two of those being Disney, the Wicked Queen in 1937's "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs," and the Wicked Stepmother in 1950's "Cinderella."  But then there is, live action, Blanche Payson, in the 1931 "Our Gang" short, "Dogs Is Dogs."

                                     I always got an uneasy feeling, when I saw this was being shown. As a child, there were a lot of things about it I did not understand, things implied, which I came to understand later.  What is understandable is that Wheezer and his sister, Dorothy, plus Petey, have been left with Payson, and her spoiled son, Sherwood, nicknamed "Spud."  ("Spud fell in the well?  Well, well, well!")  Payson indulges Sherwood, who is just as rotten to Wheezer and Dorothy, as Payson is, and all are rotten to poor, sweet Petey, even though Sherwood's own dog, a mean, German Shepard (no offense to the breed, dolls!!!!!) named Nero, is the nasty one; killing the neighbor's chickens, and all.  But Petey gets blamed, and sent to the dog pound.

                                      You can't help weeping for Wheezer.  First, he gets smacked by Payson twice, in the opening moments of the film; she is so verbally abusive the youngest viewer can understand that they are watching some form of child abuse.  And who can forget the heartrending close-up of Wheezer, weeping at Petey through the cage, because no one will give him two dollars to get him out????  I have tears, just writing
about it.  But Providence comes along, in the form of a kindly woman, who turns out to be Wheezer's and Dorothy's aunt--their father's sister.  She says their father has been very sick; Payson later says to her, "Your brother never was any good. He never did want to work!," which made me guess, years later, that they were suggesting the father was an alcoholic, who was drying out, in a rehab clinic.

                                       This short, heartbreaking as it may be, is a great example of my belief in what goes around, comes around.  Payson gets her butt kicked to the stoop of her front door, by the aunt, Sherwood is now in for abuse, at the hands of Payson, because, who else does she have to knock around?  Bet the father, Payson's husband (who is never mentioned) either walked out, or was killed by her.

                                        But "Dogs Is Dogs" is a glimpse into the darker aspects of both childhood, and childhood during the Depression--poverty, alcoholism, abuse, all play a part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          The final shot, at the end, of Stymie, riding in the tire of the tailback of the car, is priceless!!!!!!!!!!

                                           If I had been Petey, I would have taken a big nip out of Blanche Payson!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                            I did not intend this to be a scary month, girls!  Stay with me, I promise things will get more lighthearted!!!!!!!!!!!!!