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Reviews
Beginner's Luck (1935)
A Great Short
"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!