tavm Review of Unexpected Riches

Unexpected Riches (1942)

Unexpected Riches turned out to be Spanky McFarland's final Our Gang short

[5/10 · 2 February 2015]

This M-G-M comedy short, Unexpected Riches, is the two hundred eleventh entry in the "Our Gang" series and the one hundred twenty-third talkie. After seeing the gang get their weight and fortune card saying the above title as their prediction, an older boy manages to trick them into digging in his yard for buried treasure. That leads three of the four boys to reveal their dreams of what they'd do with that treasure...The lesson in this short-reward should be earned by hard work-isn't heavy-handedly taught here like in others in the series. Instead, we're getting in the thoughts of what Froggy, Mickey, and Buckwheat would do with the vast fortune. Froggy dreams of building a ship, Mickey gets his parents a house with all the amenities, and Buckwheat arrives in his neighborhood in style with watermelon and fried chicken for everybody! Okay, that last one conforms to the stereotype of his race at the time but it's still perhaps the one closest to what an earlier version of Our Gang would dream about-not unlike that similar sequence in the silent entry Young Sherlocks where fresh clothes, good food and toys, and no grownups around made a perfect day! Curiously, there's no such sequence for Spanky, perhaps because this turned out to be his very last OG short. After eleven years-more than any other Our Ganger with Farina being second at nine years-George Robert Phillips McFarland left the series after ninety-five eps-more than any other except Farina, who appeared in one hundred six short entries including his reunion appearance in Fish Hooky which Spanky was also in. Spank would be reacquainted with his fellow former members over the years starting with Alfalfa a few months down the line in Johnny Doughboy. He'd also see Alf a couple of years before his death, later commenting he hadn't changed much, to Alf's possible detriment. Publicly, he'd reunite with Darla on Mike Douglas' show in 1973 and the following year, they'd both meet again with Buckwheat and Stymie on Tom Snyder's "Tommorow" show. Even Robert Blake would see Spank again when they both attended Sid Kibrick's 1984 reunion in Palm Springs which I managed to see when Leonard Maltin covered the story for "Entertainment Tonight". Both would hang around quite a bit to the point that in 1989 they, along with Maltin and his co-author of the Little Rascals book, Richard W. Bann, would meet with Whoopi Goldberg for dinner so she could be introduced to Spanky. Blake would hug Spanky throughout. Back to '84, Spank would pay Hal Roach back for his years of employing him when he-along with fellow member Jackie Cooper-presented him with the Honorary Oscar. It was there that he met Michael Jackson and they later found they had something in common-when Michael looked at Spanky's scrapbooks, he was astonished to see that the house Spank lived in was the exact same one Michael's family moved in decades later! Despite film parts drying up not long after Our Gang, McFarland eventually settled into sales at Philco-Ford, got married and had kids, you know, the normal life. Before he died on June 30, 1993, however, he had one more hurrah: On one of the last eps of "Cheers", Cliff Clavin thinks he's recognized Spanky and asks if that's who he is. Before he can answer, Cliff goes on how he loves The Little Rascals to the point when he asks again, Spanky says no before Cliff leaves. Then Norm asks again, Spanky says yes, Norm asks if he's ever going to tell Cliff, and Spanky says-as only he can-"N-o-o-o-o-o-o!" Cue LeRoy Shield's "Good Old Days" theme...