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phillyboy-02189
Reviews
Beginner's Luck (1935)
Spank makes his Stage debut but it's his Mother who gets the curtain call
"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.