Beginner's Luck

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	February 23, 1935 (1935-02-23)
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 (47th talking episode) that was released. It was also the first short for seven-year-old Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and his ten-year-old brother Harold Switzer to appear.

Plot[]

Spanky has been entered into a amateur show by his mother.Spanky 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 1st act the mother is putting on his costume as you hear a huge belly laugh which is Spanky's grandmother. The mother says " I don't this is so funny". The granny thinks of the fact they are in way over her head with this cruel audience and this hard boiled tough MC. The Old lady says "Well I do".

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 of his mom .He promises her, "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 centurion costume, reciting Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". The gang erupt with noise makers and peashooters.Spanky stoiticlly 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).

He tries to shut his helmet visor but it gets stuck and he roams around the stage like a Chinese dragon. The mother begs for him to be taken off but is refused as he is such a hit.Then the mother goes behind the curtain trying to pull him off with a pole. The mother slides the pole around trying to catch her son but only inserts the pole into an electrical outlet. This gives her a shock  which makes her jump up and is knocked back to sitting on her heels,she accidentally opens the curtain grommet which holds the curtain halves together.The mother hooks her son by his boot and begins to pull him off.As he is getting closer the mother wraps the curtain behind her. The grandmother sees the curtain grommet hook is dangling between the mother's legs.The old lady sees her chance to give her daughter some payback.She tells the MC "Here's where we stop the show". The MC says " GO AHEAD".She raises the curtain and the grommet hook catches the mother's dress and fits right into her hem and is now impossible to remove.The mother is now the one being humiliated as her dress hikes higher as the audience howl their approval. The dress is yanked off her and goes up the curtain. She freezes from shock kneeling on stage only wearing her slip staring up at her dress. Spanky rushes to hide her from being ogled and places a stage prop in front of her. This backfires as it has a dog's body on it with the mother's head on top.The crowd are near a riotous level of laughs watching as Spanky's mother has been made a spectacle of on stage.

Cast[]

The Gang[]

• George McFarland as Spanky
• Matthew Beard as Stymie
• Scotty Beckett as Scotty
• Billie Thomas as Buckwheat
• Alvin Buckelew as Alvin
• Jerry Tucker as Jerry
• Eileen Bernstein as Our Gang member
• Sidney Kibrick as Our Gang member
• Cecilia Murray as Our Gang member
• Donald Profitt as Our Gang member
• Merrill Strong as Our Gang member
• Pete the Pup as Himself

Additional cast[]

• Marianne Edwards as Daisy Dimple
• Laura June Kenny as Floradora Dolly
• The Cabin Kids as Themselves
• Bonnie Lynn as Little girl singing
• The Meglin Kiddies as the Floradora Dollies
• Carl Switzer as Arizona Nightingale
• Harold Switzer as Arizona Nightingale
• Freddie Walburn as Kid with the harmonica
• Jackie White as Tapdancer
• Bess Flowers as Friend of Spanky's mother
• Charlie Hall as Stage hand
• Tom Herbert as Master of Ceremonies
• Ruth Hiatt as Daisy's mother
• Kitty Kelly as Spanky's mother
• James C. Morton as Piano player
• May Wallace as Spanky's grandmother
• Ernie Alexander as Audience member
• Fred Holmes as Audience member
• Jack Lipson as Audience member
• Tommy McFarland as Audience member
• Robert McKenzie as Audience member
• Snooky Valentine as Undetermined role

See also[]

• Our Gang filmography

References[]

External links[]

• Beginner's Luck at IMDb

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