Beginner's Luck (1935)

"Beginner's Luck" has Spanky being forced to go on the stage by his Mother and the gang coming up with a plot to sabotage his act. Spanky meets a little girl who needs the prize money so he decides to win.This short starts off rather slow and there just aren't to many laughs at all. Even after they arrive at the theater it's really watching the actions of Spanky's Mother and the way she tries to handle the Master of Ceremonies after he is sick of waiting for Spanky to be ready he lets all other acts go on before him. Just before he goes on he tries to go tell the gang of his change of mind but his Mother won't let him only to insist she will talk to the boys. Of course any fan of the rascals will know she can't convince them of her son's change of mind but rather she makes them think Spanky wants their intervention more than ever.When Spanky finally takes the stage the gang erupt with peashooters and noise makers. The audience believe this is a spoof of Shakespere and begin to laugh along. Spanky is trying to recite while trying to dodge barrages of peashooters and wild noises coming from the gang. He uses his shield to fend off the waves of peas and the audience is really beginning to enjoy his act everyone is laughing at his antics except his Mother who is standing in the stage wings taking it all in and very upset that her son is being laughed at. Spanky's Mother watches as the peas are shot from the gang and then the laughter starts she then starts to wave for him to come off only to have the MC wave him to go on. it gets so bad you can see her trying to talk and no words come out.She turns to the MC and asks if he will take her son off ,the man can't believe his ears as this kid is a major hit and the audience is in near hysterics watching him. Of course he refuses her request as they both continue to watch him. Spanky eventually flips down his visor and can't free it and starts to fumble around the stage only adding to the level of the laughter. That's the last straw and the Mother demands he be taken off only to be rejected again then she decides she will run onstage herself but her actions were stopped by the MC who won't have this act ruined. The furious Mother goes to the back stage-curtain with a stage-pole and tries to hook her boy and pull him off. This too adds to the comical performance and raises the laughter as he attempts to avoid the pole. The short has made up for it's early boring parts with Spanky's stage show it is nothing short of side splitting laughter. The added bonus is Spanky's Mother's planned rescue of her son. At one point she takes off the piano players toupee another she inserts the pole into an electrical outlet and gives herself a huge shock kicking her to sit back of her heels writhing her hands. This last action is seen by only the Grandmother and the MC who both love watching the young Mother suffer.Each attempt she makes fails until she hooks his boot and starts to pull him off as he is fighting her all the way. The audience is near bedlam laughing at this kid being dragged off by someone unseen behind the curtain. The mother is using all her strength and starts to have him close just as this point the scene changes to Spanky's grandmother and the MC both laughing in the stage wings as the old woman looks behind the curtain at her daughter she taps the MC on the shoulder and says "Here's where we stop the show!" the MC bends over with laughter but gives his approval. The granny starts to pull down on the ropes rising the back curtain and catching the mother's dress and hiking that up with it. The audience is howling at the mother's attempt to keep her dress on as its keeps going higher until it finally tears off her. Spanky has freed his visor in time to see his mom has joined his stage act and how the grandmother has exposed her to the audience. Spanky's mother has frozen from her experience and just kneeling onstage in a petrified state. Spanky pulls a stage prop in front of his mother but this results in one of the funniest scenes of all the Rascals shorts a fine sight gag."Beginner's luck" far exceeds the perceived ideas the viewer has starting when Spanky starts his act and his Mother's various attempts to then stop the show and get him off the stage. Up to that point it's a major success but really turns into something else when Spanky's Mother goes behind the curtain and has herself turned into a laughing stock of. Watching her fall victim to the MC and the grandmother is priceless. The way they set her up throughout the short is something that greatly adds so much. Spanky's mother becomes the poor misfortunate fly the lands on the spider web and can't get herself out. Looking at her loosing the dress then the hapless way she stays on stage with the prop in place is one of the funniest things in the history of the Our Gang and a fine example of stripped humiliation. Of course it is all enjoyable as it is much well deserved that the Mother gets her comeuppance after watching her antics throughout the short. The Mother that wanted to stop the laughter her son was receiving had herself made an ever larger laughing stock.

Noticeably absent from all other comments I've read are these two: 1. The script doesn't make even a reference to Spanky's dad, and; 2. Kitty Kelly's (Spanky's mom) "shocking" experience when stage hook meets blown foot light socket.1. Where's Dad? Surprisingly for a '30s Roach short, the presence of at least a disinterested father in contrast to such a matriarchal mother figure was absent. Was Spanky's mom divorced/separated? Did dad pass away? Was he in the audience that fateful "talent" Friday night? Or was he just a busy guy at work and play so to stand clear of mom's equally boorish treatment of him (like son)? Without a father figure figuring into the script, it leaves the Rascals rescue crew (and Spanky's live-in grandma) to stand in for daddy. In the end. it was a rather hyper-matriarchal decision of director Gus Meins to leave dad completely out of the picture. Even a henpecked buffoon of a dad would've been comical!2. Static Cling-on. Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but Gus Meins really put some production value into this sight gag very near the marquee climax. So, consider this possible setup that the director may well have thought of, though not entirely clear...Question: Could the enormous amount of static electricity stored in Spanky's mom's dress following the "shocking socket" scene also account for why the rather dull-tipped metal curtain hook managed to so relentlessly snag onto her dress hem in the end?Well, gang, chew on these two for awhile as I look forward to your comments! Also, which if any Rascals and Stooges stunts have you tried to publicly duplicate? Candid Camera, anyone?

I have found this short to be very strange,cruel,disturbing and really sets a poor example.I have also thought it to be very predictable as well.Knowing the rascals shorts one can see once Spank tells the girl he is going to win the prize for her and his mother has spoken to the gang to try and stop their planned assault what is going to happen.Spanky's mother runs afoul of the MC who is a real hard boiled type after he selects her son to open the show and she tells him "My son is too much of an artist to open a show".The MC decides to hold their act till the finale but doesn't tell them.From this point on the MC is nothing but pure obnoxious to Spank and his mom.When the little girl runs offstage the audience erupt with pretty wild laughter at her expense you know how cruel they are.Spanky has done a good deed by offering the prize after he wins and his mom also has done a good deed by agreeing and giving the girl and great big smile.Spanky's mom also does another good deed when she says she will talk to the gang.When Spanky starts off everything goes wrong,the act is now a comedy .His mother pleads with the MC but he won't take him off and is violent when she tries to run on stage.The good Samaritans have no allies at all even his granny is laughing at him.Granny then takes matters into her own hands and asks to raise the back curtain saying "Here's where we stop the show" and proceeds hiking the curtain as it snags the mother's dress and is taking it up with it.Grandma can be seen laughing hysterically as the audience joins in as it sees whats happening.What is going on with her-she is stripping her daughter in front of this wild crowd.No one comes to their aide and Spanky has to see his mother humiliated like this.Spanky tries to protect his mom and puts a theater board in front of her to hide her ,the audience laughter hits near riot level as she has her head on top of a large dog art work board.This is pure sadistic and cruel and way over the top .Very disturbing to see an adult woman and one of the kid's mother get this type of treatment.Once that prop goes into place you know the mother is degraded.It sets a bad example laughing at their misfortune.

"Beginner's Luck is a charming mix of high and low comedy forms done at the zenith of the Hal Roach M-G-M era.It is the first appearance of Alfalfa and the last of Stymie."Beginner's Luck" was not scheduled to be produced but was forced upon the studio by theater owners who demanded more shorts like "Mike Fright" in which the gang performed in some sort of talent show."Beginner's Luck " went on to be the highest in critical acclaim and the biggest money maker.There are many twists in the production that made this a gem.Kitty Kelly was brought in to play Spanky's mother and replace Ruth Hiatt ,who winds up playing Daisey Dimples mom, and Kitty did a tremendous job.Alfalfa and his brother were added to the short during production and Alfalfa wound up joining the gang for many years.There are a good number of great lines that hint of what is to come such as "Girlie the dress is in the bag" and "I won't have my son laughed at "and You can't break up that act".The story has Spanky reciting to a group of his mother's lady friends and then being informed ,along with everyone else,that he will be appearing in a children's talent show .Everyone ,including Spank and his grandmother are stunned by the announcement by his mother.Spanky's mom is beaming with joy and extremely confident that he will win first prize and be a tremendous hit.The gang comes to his rescue with a plan to destroy his act with noisemakers and peashooters and thus end his acting days.However at the show Spanky befriends a little girl who just came off the stage after falling victim to stage fright and desperately needs the prize money to buy a dress.Spanky comes to her aide and asks his mother can he give the girl the prize money ,the mother says yes and says she only wants him to be a big hit.Now ,however ,he must tell the gang of his change of plans but his mother won't allow him to go into the audience and insists she will tell the gang his message.His mother has no idea there is a plan to ruin the act and she only asks the boys to root for Spanky.This winds up being a BIG MISTAKE for her.The gang decides to go ahead with the original plan and give him the works.Spanky steps out for his Shakesperean debut only to be assailed with the gangs weapons.His act quickly turns into a farce.Spanky's mother is upset and gallantly tries to rescue him from the cruel audience with a pole from behind a back curtain.At that moment the viewer is informed that he won the prize as a comedy act.Just at the point that the mother is beginning to reel him in she herself is about to be reeled in.Spank's grandmother sees a chance to make a fool of her daughter for putting Spank into this by pulling down on the curtain ropes and raising the back curtain thus exposing Spanky's mother on the stage.Grandma must see humor in seeing the mother's rescue attempt made public ,but she couldn't have thought she would make Spanky's mother join the act and wind up bringing down the house as events soon will dictate .As the curtain starts to rise the viewer sees a hook on the bottom of the curtain moving up between Spanky's mother's legs towards her dress hem and the viewer knows grandma will be exposing more than she thought.As Spanky's mother gets herself hooked and she realizes her situation she lets out a shrill squeal and jumps to her feet to try to save her dignity.The grandmother cannot believe her eyes as she now has caught her daughter on stage with her dress rising with the curtain and quickly tries to reel her in as if she were a fish .The audience now turns their attention away from Spanky and greet his mother with howls of laughter.Spanky's young,blonde and beautiful mother has now fallen victim of the cruel treatment of the audience as she is forcibly giving them an up skirts view of herself.The male audience members must have been aroused at the sight of her and hoping that all her clothing would come off her and this little cutie would wind up on stage in her birthday suit.She frantically tries to save herself as her own mother is laughing and quickly trying to finish her sadistic task.With a rip the dress is yanked off her and heads towards the ceiling.Spanky's mother freezes from shock on stage looking up at the remnants of her dress.The girl that went to save her son from the audience laughter needs someone to save her.Spanky rushes a piece of stage scenery to hide his now scantily clad mother's T and A that were on view for the audience.This has a caricature of a squatting animals body with her head protruding on the top.The audience are in a state of bedlam and lambaste her with laughter.This mother and well respected member of society has had a completely unexpected turn of events turn her into a total laughing stock.Spanky's mother looks out on the audience helpless ,slip clad and her head perched atop the prop, she has a look of complete mortification as the audience roar with uncontrollable laughter at her humiliating predicament.Spanky's mother could have never imagined that Spanky's act would turn into a comedy and herself being served up to the audience in a most degrading manner as the most hilarious aspect of the act!