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I got the new Our Gang blu-ray and that has incredibly badly framed and out of focus shots in a few of the early titles. My guess is that they didn't have coverage on those shots and they slugged in what they had hoping to do a pickup later. The image is so jarring, I can't imagine they expected it to pass. It must have slipped through.

Hal Roach films, and especially the Laurel & Hardy films were not shot the usual way where the lighting and focus were set up for each shot. Stan Laurel insisted that for indoor scenes that the lighting be flat (i.e. bright all over) so that the actors could roam the set if they wished. While the action was planned, there was plenty of room for improvisation. They would keep a good take that was funny even if it was slightly out of focus.

In the early sound Our Gang films, I'm sure that the crew was learning how to coach the child actors, as they could no longer prompt them from behind the camera while filming. If I remember correctly, Shivering Shakespeare has several out-of-focus shots.

martinola wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 02, 2021 9:51 am

[snip]

If you look at the cameras of the 20’s and 30’s you’ll see little provision for the type of follow-focus setup that we have today. Indeed, the very early sound-proof blimps may have little or no provision for focus adjusting during a take. The Mitchell BNC of the late 1930s is the first camera that I can think of that allowed for changing focus during a take.

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Check out the boom shot in the Paris sequence, late in the film. Amazing!