Movies by Johnny Downs

Thundering Fleas
The kids from Our Gang have to attend a wedding, and they bring along their flea collection--which gets loose.

Adventures of the Flying Cadets
Four youthful cadets are implicated in a series of murders, and must attempt to clear themselves of suspicion.

Thrill of a Lifetime
"Howdy" Nelson believes there is no such think as real love and that romance can be cooked up between any eligible persons (of the opposite sex.) He is so imbued with the idea that he has established a summer camp for that reason,and has written a play on the subject. The Yacht Club Boys visit the camp, misrepresenting themselves as Broadway producers, and the talented guest of the camp put on Nelson's play...which all ends up with a lot of marriage mating; Judy and Skipper, Betty Jane and Stanley and...Gwen and "Howdy,' the guy who was posi...

Coronado
Southern California's Hotel Coronado caters to and is frequented by members of the social upper-crust. Although she lives on the wrong side of the San Diego track, in a tent-city with her father. Otto, and ditzy sister, Violet, June Wray is a singer with the Eddy Duchin Orchestra appearing to the hotel. Johnny Marvin, an aspiring songwriter and the son of a wealthy automobile manufacturer, is staying at the hotel and, from they moment June and Johnny meet, they fall instantly in love. Trouble arises when Johnny's father objects to the romanc...

Bad Boy
Johnny Fraser leaves his mother in their small home town and sets out for the big city. He obtains a job with a large firm of architects. Steve Carson, a fellow employee, is constantly flaunting the money he has won at the race track. Johnny also bets the races, but loses heavily and takes some of the firm's money to cover his losses.

Monkey Business
An abused chimpanzee escapes from a zoo. On the run, he meets Farina, running away from home and his battling parents. The two become friends and inspire the rest of the gang to put on a show to make money from neighborhood kids. But the chimp has his own idea and runs off creating havoc all over town until chased down by the local cops.

I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby
In I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby, Broderick Crawford plays a sentimental gangster who abducts songwriter Johnny Downs and forces him to write a love ballad. It is Crawford's hope that the song will reach out and touch his long-lost childhood sweetheart. I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby was based on James Edward Grant's short story Trouble in B Flat; echoes of the basic premise later resurfaced in the 1957 "A" picture The Girl Can't Help It.

Behind the Eight Ball
The story takes place at a summer theater in the Berkshire Mountains, where heroine Joan Barry (Carol Bruce) is staging a Broadway-bound musical comedy. Only one problem: two guest stars are shot and killed on two successive evenings, right in front of the audience. Hoping to solve the mystery, detective William Demarest demands that everyone -- actors and theatergoers alike -- return the following weekend to restage the show. But with no major performer willing to assume the fatal guest-star slot, Joan is forced to hire the Three Jolly Jest...

One Wild Ride
The gang has a taxi, consisting of an old Model T with no engine, pushed by a horse. When the owner takes his horse back, they must rely on motorists to tow them to the top of the hill so they can coast down. Little Farina borrows the car and it runs out of control all over town, causing mayhem everywhere it goes.

Shootin' Injuns
Many of the "Our Gang" kids are in their secret clubhouse - so secret that some wannabe members have troubles trying to find the tunnel entrance - planning their next game, which will be a Wild West shootout. They run into some obstacles in playing the game, including objections from parents, and as such they decide to postpone it until the wee hours of the next morning and play it in the streets of the neighborhood. As it begins to rain during the middle of their shootout that morning, they decide to take refuge in a neighborhood house. Wha...

Official Officers
The kids in the tenements have no place to play except in streets where traffic is a hazard. Mickey gets the idea of building barricades to give our gang space to play at an intersection, but a beat cop, the nasty "Hard-Boiled" McManus, puts a quick end to that. A sympathetic constable and a detective who has kids of his own give our gang a chance to help law enforcement. The little rascals wear uniforms and keep an eye on things: Joe, for instance, eyes the bananas at Tony's fruit stand. When the now-fired McManus returns and seeks revenge,...

The Fourth Alarm
The rascals once again, now as a plumbers.

Bring Home the Turkey
Habitually mistreated at the deceptively named Happyland Home Orphanage, the Our Gang kids find a loyal and kindhearted friend in the form of a black grownup named Uncle Tom. Alas, Tom's own children -- including real-life siblings Allen "Farina" Hoskins and Jannie "Mango" Hoskins -- are carted off to Happyland by the cold-hearted county officials. Farina, Mango, and the other kids escape the cruel orphanage in the dead of night, while Uncle Tom, preparing for their return, "borrows" food, clothes, and furnishings from various merchants.

Uncle Tom's Uncle
The Gang stages their own revisionist version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in Mickey's barn. But Joe's mother thinks the back yard needs cleaning, and there are several interruptions when they lose a leading character. Mickey plays Simon Legree; Mary as Eva; Joe as Uncle Tom; and Farina essays the role of Topsy.

Clarence
The title character is a resourceful young man who knows a whole little about a whole lot of things, and who concentrates by playing his saxophone. Clarence ingratiates himself with the wealthy and eccentric Wheeler family, though daughter Cora can't stand the boy.

Once Over Lightly
The big Barber College competition between rivals Clipton and Beardsley is coming up and everything is on the line for professor and coach Kapouris. But thanks to a secret depilatory he developed, Clipton has the edge.

Seeing the World
In this Our Gang film, James Finlayson plays the gang's schoolteacher who takes the kids to Europe after winning a local contest. He takes them on a tour of Naples, Pompeii, Rome, the Vatican, Venice, London, and finally Paris, where problems arise on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Dog Days
The boys are showing off their dogs to each other when little rich girl Mary Kornman rides by in her pony-drawn cart. When the pony shies and runs away, Mickey comes to the rescue with his dog. In gratitude, Mary invites all the boys and their dogs to her party, much to the chagrin of her wealthy mother.

It's in the Stars
Musical short about a fraternity and a sorority that call a halt to dating between their houses to improve their grades.

What a Man!
Henry Burrows, timid, white-collar worker for the firm of Rankin and Phillips, returns to his bachelor apartment to discover Joan Rankin, whom he does not know, hiding there. She feigns illness, Henry goes for a doctor and returns to find that a gangster has been murdered on his doorstep and the police think he is implicated. They inform him that the gangster's moll, Constance, has escaped. Henry thinks they are talking about Joan.