Readin' and Writin' Review: Breezy's Failed School Escape

Is this worth watching today? Honestly, yes, but only if you have a soft spot for grainy black-and-white kids being loud and slightly annoying in a cute way. If you’re looking for high-stakes drama or tight pacing, you’re gonna hate this. It’s basically a twenty-minute excuse to watch a kid try to be a rebel and fail miserably. 🏫

I watched this on a rainy Tuesday and it felt like the cinematic equivalent of eating a bowl of plain oatmeal. Not exciting, but weirdly comforting? It’s from that specific era where the Our Gang shorts were still figuring out how sound worked, so everything feels a bit slow and echoey.

The whole plot is just Breezy (Kendall McComas) deciding he’s too cool for school. He wants to go fishing or something, so he decides to act out so Miss Crabtree will expel him. It’s a very 'kid logic' plan. He thinks if he’s mean enough, he gets a permanent vacation. 🎣

The Miss Crabtree Factor

Can we just talk about June Marlowe for a second? She plays Miss Crabtree and she is just... too nice. Like, suspiciously nice. No real teacher would put up with Breezy’s nonsense for more than five minutes without losing it. She has this way of looking at the kids like they’re little angels even when they’re being total brats.

There’s this one shot where she’s just smiling while Breezy is reciting this awful, rude poem he wrote. It goes on for a bit too long. You can almost feel the camera operator waiting for the cue to cut, but they just keep rolling. It’s awkward, but it makes the scene feel more like a real classroom and less like a movie set. 🍎

"I'm a bad boy, and I'm proud of it!"

Breezy isn't exactly the most likable lead the series ever had. He’s a bit of a loudmouth. But seeing him try to act 'tough' is hilarious because he’s clearly just a nervous kid. It reminds me a bit of the energy in The Old Hokum Bucket, where the humor is just... people standing around being slightly weird.

Small Things I Noticed

• The chalkboard: The handwriting on the board is way too perfect for a bunch of rowdy kids. Someone in the art department clearly spent an hour on that.
• Stymie’s hat: Stymie (Matthew Beard) is in this one, and honestly, he steals every scene just by existing. His timing is way better than the older kids.
• The dog: Pete the Dog is just vibing in the background. He looks like he’s seen it all and just wants a nap.
• The audio: There’s a weird hiss in the background of some scenes that makes it sound like it was filmed inside a radiator.

There is this one specific moment where the kids are all laughing, and it feels actually real. Not like 'movie laughing' where everyone is in sync, but that messy, chaotic kid laughing where someone probaly actually fell over. It’s those little cracks in the production that make these old shorts worth it.

The 'expulsion' plan involves Breezy trying to get his mom to sign a note, but he ends up getting tricked. I won't spoil the ending, but it involves a lot of crying and realizing that maybe school isn't the worst place to be when the alternative is working a real job. 💼

It’s not as polished as some of the later stuff, and it’s definitely not as fast-paced as something like Pardon Me. It kind of just meanders. But that’s the charm, I guess? It’s just a slice of 1932 life that hasn't been scrubbed clean by a big studio.

If you like seeing kids with giant hats and hearing 1930s slang that makes no sense now, give it a look. If you can't stand high-pitched screaming or slow-moving plots, maybe skip it. It’s a very specific vibe for a very specific mood. 🎞️

Didja notice?

• The way the kids all scramble when the bell rings—it looks like a genuine stampede.
• The kid in the back row who is clearly just staring at the camera for a solid ten seconds.
• How clean the school uniforms look compared to how much they’re rolling around on the floor.
• The weirdly long pause after Breezy finishes his 'bad boy' speech. It’s like everyone forgot their lines for a second.

Anyway, it’s a decent enough way to spend twenty minutes. Just don't expect it to change your life or anything. It's just Breezy being Breezy.