| Beginner's Luck | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Gus Meins |
| Produced by | Hal Roach |
| Cinematography | Art Lloyd |
| Edited by | Louis McManus |
| Music by | Marvin Hatley |
| Distributed by | MGM |
Release date |
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Running time | 18:24 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Beginner's Luck is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 135th Our Gang short to be released. [1] It was also the first short for seven-year-old Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and his ten-year-old brother Harold Switzer to appear.
Spanky has been entered into an amateur show by his overly aggressive stage mother. He wants nothing to do with this and would rather not act. The gang comes up with a plan to disrupt his recitation and make him flop which makes Spanky very pleased.
At the theater, the mother infuriates the MC saying 'My son is too much of an artist to open a show". After the first act, as the mother is putting on his costume the MC asks if he's ready which he isn't and the MC decides to have him go on last.
Spanky befriends a girl called Daisy who has bombed her act but needs the prize money to buy a special dress. Spanky has a change of heart and decides to win the prize. He asks permission from his mom. She says "All I want is that you are a hit". He promises Daisy, "Girlie, the dress is in the bag". Now he has to tell the gang. His mom won't let him go into the audience as he's about to go on. Instead, she volunteers to speak to the boys. She has no idea there is a plot and just gives them a pep talk about rooting for Spanky.
Spanky steps out on the stage clad in a Roman Centurion costume, reciting William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar . The gang erupts with noisemakers and peashooters. Spanky stoically performing his act with him having an amusing slow burn annoyance while enduring his friends embarrassing him surprisingly makes his act the hit of the show, with everyone laughing and loving it except his Mother.
Spanky tries to shut his visor on his helmet but it gets stuck shut he starts to roam around the stage like a Chinese dragon. The mother begs that he be taken off, but he is too much of a hit. She tries to run on the stage but the MC grabs her. The mother then goes behind the curtain with a stage pole to pull her son off. She felt she had to rescue him from this cruel, mean audience. She tries to put and end to the audience's enjoyment of laughing at her son. She moves the pole out trying to catch Spanky, only to insert the pole into an electrical outlet. This shocks her, she drops the pole and is knocked back to be sitting on her heels. She has accidentally opened the curtain grommet which holds the curtain halves together. She is kneeling there wringing the shock out of her hands.
She hooks Spanky and starts to pull him back, he is fighting her and she is being pulled out on the stage a little. It takes a little time but she has him close and it's only a few more minutes and she will have him. The grandmother sees the grommet hook dangling between the mother's legs in between her dress hem and shoes. The Old lady sees her chance to give a comeuppance to Spanky's mom. She turns to the MC saying "Here's where we stop the show". The MC says "GO AHEAD" knowing the audience is going to love this. The curtain raises and the hook fits right into the mother's hem, where it's impossible to remove. It worked so well the mother doesn't even know her dress has been snagged. Then the mother feels it and realizes her predicament. Spanky's mom lets out a screech. The mother is now the one who is being humiliated on stage as the curtain goes higher her dress goes up with the audience howling its approval. The dress is yanked off her and runs up on the curtain. The mother is thrown down to kneeling on the stage in her slip, she goes into shock and becomes petrified her head is back, mouth wide open and eyes looking straight up, she seems hypnotized by her dress dangling on the curtain. Spanky rushes to hide her from being ogled and places a stage prop in front of her, once this is in place he hears a wild increase in the laughter, the prop has a caricature of a squatting dog's body on it with the mother's head perched on top. Spanky looks at his mom, she looks so humiliated his eyes bulge and his helmet top starts to spin wildly. The audience is near a riotous level of howling at her. Spanky's mother's rescue has been a fiasco with her being made a spectacle of on the stage.
George Robert Philips McFarland was an American actor most famous for starring as a child as Spanky in the Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. The Our Gang shorts were later syndicated to television as The Little Rascals.
Carl Dean Switzer was an American singer, child actor, dog breeder, and guide. He was best known for his role as Alfalfa in the short subjects series Our Gang.
The Little Rascals is a 1994 American family comedy film produced by Amblin Entertainment, and released by Universal Pictures on August 5, 1994. The film is an adaptation of Hal Roach's Our Gang, a series of short films of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s which centered on the adventures of a group of neighborhood children. Directed by Penelope Spheeris, who co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur, the film presents several of the Our Gang characters in an updated setting, featuring re-interpretations of several of the original shorts. It is the first collaboration by Guay and Mazur, whose subsequent comedies were Liar Liar and Heartbreakers.
Alfalfa's Aunt is a 1939 comedy short subject, the 176th entry in the Our Gang series originally created by Hal Roach. Produced by Jack Chertok for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by George Sidney, the one-reel short was released to theaters in January 1939 by MGM.
Wild Poses is short subject in the Our Gang series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach Studios and first released on October 28, 1933 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the 125th Our Gang short to be released.
Our Gang Follies of 1938 is a 1937 American musical short subject, the 161st short subject entry in Hal Roach's Our Gang series. Directed by Gordon Douglas as a sequel to 1935's Our Gang Follies of 1936, the two-reel short was released to theaters on December 18, 1937, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Spanky is a 1932 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 113th Our Gang short to be released. The film focuses on Our Gang co-star George "Spanky" McFarland.
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Sprucin' Up is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 137th Our Gang short to be released.
Our Gang Follies of 1936 is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 140th Our Gang short to be released and the first of several musical entries in the series.
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Arbor Day is a 1936 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. It was the 145th Our Gang short to be released.
Pay as You Exit is a 1936 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 148th Our Gang short to be released.
Night 'n' Gales is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 156th Our Gang short to be released.
Mail and Female is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. It was the 160th Our Gang short to be released.
Canned Fishing is a 1938 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 162nd Our Gang short to be released.
Tiny Troubles is a 1939 Our Gang short comedy film directed by George Sidney. It was the 176th Our Gang short to be released.
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Marianne Edwards was an American child actress who appeared in the Our Gang film series from 1934 to 1936. She also appeared in several feature films in the 1930s, including Gold Diggers Of 1933, Babes In Toyland, and Stand Up and Cheer!.
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