Spooky Hooky (1936)
10/10
It's a night of spooks and a thunderstorm when the gang has to retrieve a phony note at the schoolhouse in order to go to the circus the next day.
8 May 2012
At the end of the school day the gang see's a circus truck ride by announcing with music that will be only for one day the next morning. Spanky writes a phony doctor's note and has Buckwheat and Porky place it on Miss Jones desk, and they pretend to sneeze and be sick. But Miss Jones tells them she bought tickets and plans to surprise the whole class. The gang has to go back later in the evening and break in through a window since the door of the school is locked and Sam the janitor who lives there in the basement wouldn't let them in to get the note earlier. Buckwheat is a lookout while standing outside in the thunderstorm, stepping on a noisemaker and seeing an owl which made Buckwheat rush back inside. Spanky doesn't believe in spooks but when he and his friends see a spook inside the class, but Porky was under a bed sheet to scare them and at the same time breaking light bulbs in the Janitor Supply Room. By doing this he wakes up Sam who leaves the basement and stands there in the dark which the storm knocked out the lights. The gang was hiding under the teacher's desk and Buckwheat was tiptoeing out of the corner of the supply room, behind a curtain was a skeleton clinging right to his back. He thought it was Porky but was scared and ran out of the room and passing Sam whose nightcap stood up on end. Sam saw Buckwheat with the skeleton coming back towards him, he screamed and went right through the door of the schoolhouse, while the gang who found the phony note, ran out of the cutout of the door that Sam made, he also ran away from there screaming. The gang was very sick with real colds the next day which prevented them from going to the circus.

Rosina Lawrence who played Miss Jones the teacher was pretty and very nice to Spanky and Alfafa when she believed they were catching colds, and hoped they get well to come the next day to school and be at the circus. Dudley Dickerson as Sam the janitor was very good in this episode, I liked him as he acted looking scared and wearing his nightshirt and nightcap. I also wondered what happened the next morning like the gang was seen sick in bed with colds, where did Sam go that stormy night? Did he have a girlfriend, or family close by, like a brother or sister who has a family of their own to sleep with them? I'm sure he got very sick that night too and what happened the next morning when he had to return to the school and explain to the teacher how he went through the door, the skeleton on the rug outside with the cutout of himself, and telling her that it sure was spooky last night. I also wondered how Miss Jones reacted when she saw Sam in his damp nightshirt and nightcap instead of being dressed for work, saw the door, the cutout and the skeleton as well. She had her work that morning on calling a carpenter to replace the door, and a electrician to fix the lights, getting ready to have herself and the children to go to the circus. How did a skeleton end up in the schoolhouse behind those curtains in that room? Was it left from a Halloween party from a previous teacher? Did another janitor earlier worked there knew about it or not? Did Sam still worked there after what happened if the teacher was nice enough not to complain to anybody? Did the children wonder what kind of strange shape the door has? I guess we'll never know all these answers but I can imagine anyway.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed