Our Gang Follies of 1938

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Our Gang Follies of 1938

Original theatrical title card for Our Gang Follies of 1938.
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Produced by Hal Roach
Starring Carl Switzer
George McFarland
Eugene Lee
Darla Hood
Billie Thomas
Henry Brandon
Music by Marvin Hatley
Gioacchino Rossini
Arthur Johnston
Sam Coslow
Cinematography Art Lloyd
Editing by William H. Ziegler
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) Flag of the United States December 18, 1937
Running time 21 minutes
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $58,815 [1]
Preceded by Mail and Female
Followed by Canned Fishing
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Our Gang Follies of 1938 (later reissued as simply Follies of 1938) is a 1937 musical short subject, the 161st entry in Hal Roach's Our Gang (Little Rascals) series. Directed by Gordon Douglas as a sequel to 1935's Our Gang Follies of 1936, the two-reel short was released to theaters in December 1937 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Deriving its title from the concurrent MGM feature film The Broadway Melody of 1938, Our Gang Follies of 1938 is a spoof of the Broadway Melody films and other movie musicals of the time. In the film, Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) decides to quits a pop music revue put on by Spanky (George McFarland) and become an opera singer, famously singing "The Barber of Seville" several times throughout the film. The bulk of the film is made up of a dream sequence, in which Alfalfa imagines himself twenty years later failing as an opera singer, while Spanky owns a Broadway nightclub with a lavish floor show.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The gang is putting on another big show in Spanky's cellar, complete with an orchestra led by Buckwheat (Billie Thomas), and planned performances by Darla (Darla Hood) and many of the other neighborhood kids. However, "King of Crooners" Alfalfa (Carl Switzer), the intended star of the show, crashes the show full of swing music with his off-key rendition of "The Barber of Seville" , having secretly decided that he's only going to sing opera from now on. After Spanky closes the curtain on Alfalfa and sends out another act to replace him, the would-be opera prodigy walks out on the show, taking his voice "where it'll be appreciated!"

With Porky (Eugene Lee) as his right-hand man/hanger on, Alfalfa turns up at the Cosmopolitan Opera House, wanting to appear in their next opera. Barnaby (Henry Brandon), the impresario of the Cosmopolitan, jokingly offers the young boy a contract - provided he come back in twenty years. Elated, Alfalfa returns to Spanky's cellar with Porky, gloating about his presumed good fortune and illustrious future in the face of Spanky's pleas for Alfalfa to appease his customers and take the stage. Spanky tears into his best friend, telling him that "someday I'll be a big producer on Broadway, and you'll be singing your opera in the streets with a tin cup in your hand!" Alfalfa brushes off Spanky's warnings, and sits down to rest (the opera singer at the Comopolitain told him to make sure he gave his voice "plenty of rest" and "kept it quiet").

Alfalfa falls asleep backstage, and dreams that the twenty years have elapsed and he and Porky are waiting at the steps of a Broadway opera house. Barnaby, now a wizened old man, has decorated Broadway with lighted signs heralding Alfalfa's opera debut, and invites Alfalfa in to perform. However, when the opera house curtains finally open, Alfalfa barely gets through a few bars of "The Barber of Seville" before the audience members being to boo him and pelt him with rotten vegetables. An angry Barnaby literally throws Alfalfa out into the streets. Bound by the iron-clad contract he signed twenty years ago, Alfalfa is forced to sing for pennies in the cold, snowy streets of New York. Hungry, tired, and broke, Alfalfa and Porky happen upon a shocking sight several blocks away: "Club Spanky", an ornate nightclub on Broadway. Sure enough, Spanky himself, now rich and famous, rides up in a limousine to greet them, and graciously invites them inside for something to eat.

Club Spanky is a child's dream fantasy of a New York nightclub, with decor derived from toy blocks and candy canes, and a menu which includes hamburgers, ice cream, and jellybeans. Darla, dressed in furs and diamonds, comes over to sit at Spanky's table. She tells Alfalfa that she performs at Club Spanky, and is now rich and making "hundreds and thousands of dollars." Alfalfa gets a second shock when he learns that Buckwheat (now "Cab Buckwheat") is still Spanky's bandleader, and is also rich, dripping with diamonds, and making "hundreds and thousands of dollars."

Spanky offers to let Alfalfa and Porky work for him again; Porky immediately accepts the offer, but the stubborn Alfalfa declares himself "a slave to my art" and refuses to "croon". Instead, Alfalfa sits and watches Club Spanky's lavish floor show, with featured songs by Spanky, Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky, and several other performers, supported by large, ornate sets and scores of dancers. At the show's conclusion, Alfalfa finds himself so impressed with the show that he decides to go back to "crooning". Spanky announces the return of the "King of Crooners" to a rapturous crowd, but before Alfalfa can begin to sing, Barnaby storms into the club, and begins to drag Alfalfa back out into the streets to sing opera. By now, Alfalfa is complaining that he doesn't want to sing opera anymore, but Barnaby only laughs and continues to drag Alfalfa towards the door.

The Club Spanky patrons' cries of "we want Alfalfa" melt into those of the kids in Spanky's cellar. Alfalfa awakens to find Spanky, not Barnaby, tugging at his arm, begging for Alfalfa to at least join in the last act and croon for the kids. Alfalfa needs no further convincing, and rushes onstage with Spanky, Porky, Darla, and the other kids to sing Bing Crosby's "Learn to Croon" for the show's finale.

[edit] Production overview

Spanky, Darla, and Alfalfa in the "Club Spanky" dream sequence from the 1937 short Our Gang Follies of 1938
Spanky, Darla, and Alfalfa in the "Club Spanky" dream sequence from the 1937 short Our Gang Follies of 1938

Often pointed out as one of the best entries in the series [2], Follies of 1938 was produced as a special one-shot return to the series' original two-reel (twenty minute) format, after a season and a half of shorter one-reel films. In addition, Follies of 1938, particularly its extended dream sequence, feature lavish production design and filmmaking typical of feature length MGM musicals. [3] MGM in fact helped finance the short beyond its usual contributions to the Roach shorts; as a result its opening titles read "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents Our Gang Follies of 1938, A Hal Roach Production". as opposed to the usual "Hal Roach Presents Our Gang in..." [3] At a negative cost of $58 thousand [1], Follies of 1938 was the most expensive Our Gang short ever produced. [1]

The short's cast includes over one hundred children. Nearly all of the parts in the film (even the "adults" in Alfalfa's dream sequence) are played by kids. The lone exceptions are Henry Brandon's "Barnaby" character (not named onscreen, but named as such in the script), [3] and the other three adults seen at the Cosmopolitan Opera House. Brandon's villainous Barnaby character was re-purposed from another Hal Roach production, Laurel & Hardy's 1934 feature Babes in Toyland. [3] One of the featured singers in Spanky's cellar show is Annabelle Logan, a little girl who sings a swing rendition of the traditional Scottish song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". Logan would grow up to become Annie Ross, a successful jazz singer and actress. [4]

Today, Our Gang Follies of 1938 is one of a handful of Our Gang films in the public domain, as its copyright was not renewed in the 1960s.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main Our Gang cast

[edit] Featured Our Gang performers

[edit] Our Gang bit players and dancers

Frances Bowling, Tom Braunger, Bill Cody, Jr., John Collum, Patsy Currier, Charles Flickinger, David Freeman, Betsy Gay, Joe "Corky" Geil, Bobbie Hickman, Philip Hurlic, Gloria Hurst, Dickie Jones, Darwood Kaye, Georgia Jean LaRue, Henry Lee, Ada Lynn, Philip MacMahon, Tommy McFarland, Billy Mindy, Raymond Rayhill Powell, June Preston, Josephine Roberts, Jimmy Sommerville, Harold Switzer, Bobs Watson, Kenneth Wilson, Robert Winkler, Gloria Browne, Bobby Crockett, Tim Davis, Billy Diamond, Dorothy Heinrichs , Paul Hilton, Dorothy Horner, Don Hulbert, Patsy May, Roger McGee, Norman Salling, Clifford Severn, Nora Rita Stein, Helen Westcott, Camille Williams, Laura June Williams, and Rhoda Williams

[edit] Adults

[edit] Songs

Known songwriters are listed in italics.

  1. "Stagecoach Conversation" (Marvin Hatley) - Buckwheat and His Orchestra (instrumental)
  2. "Follies Introduction/King Alfalfa" - Spanky , Darla, and "Follies" chorus girls
  3. "The Barber of Seville" (Gioacchino Rossini) - Alfalfa
  4. "The Barber of Seville" (Reprise #1) -Gino Corrado and Alfalfa
  5. "Loch Lomond" - Annabella Logan
  6. "Honolulu Baby" (Hatley) - Buckwheat and his Band (instrumental)
  7. "The Barber of Seville" (Reprise #2) - Alfalfa
  8. "Follow the Leader" - "Cab Buckwheat" and His Orchestra
  9. "The Love Bug'll Get You (If You Don't Watch Out)" - Darla, Spanky, Porky, Buckwheat and Georgia Jean LaRue
  10. "That Foolish Feeling (In My Heart)" - Georgia Jean LaRue
  11. "There's No Two Ways About It (You're the One for Me)" - Philip MacMahon and Ensemble
  12. "Learn to Croon" (Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow) - Alfalfa
  13. "Follies Conclusion" - Alfalfa, Spanky, Darla, Porky, Harold Switzer, Henry Lee, Gloria Browne, Gloria Hurst, and Laura June Williams

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Maltin, Leonard and Bann, Richard W. (1977, rev. 1992). The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang, p. 238. New York: Crown Publishing/Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-517-58325-9
  2. ^ Erickson, Hal (2007). "Review of Our Gang Follies of 1938". All Movie Guide. Retrieved January 24, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d Maltin and Bann. (1977, rev. 1992). p. 187-189.
  4. ^ [Maltin and Bann. (1977, rev. 1992). p. 278.

[edit] External links

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American films of the 1930s
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