Beginner's Luck


Beginner's Luck is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 135th Our Gang short that was released. It was also the first short for seven-year-old Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and his ten-year-old brother Harold Switzer to appear.

Plot

Spanky has been entered into a kiddie amateur show by his pushy stage mother, who thinks he is the greatest actor of his day. Spanky wants nothing to do with this and would rather not act at all. The gang comes up with a plan to disrupt his recitation with peashooters and noisemakers and make him flop.
At the theater, Spanky befriends a little girl called Daisy Dimple "Dancer par excellance" who has bombed her act due to stage fright but needs the prize money to buy a special dress. Spanky has a change of heart and decides to win the prize and give the money to the girl. He promises her, "Girlie, the dress is in the bag." However, word does not get out the gang, who are in the audience prepared to embarrass Spanky any way they can.
Spanky's stoically performing his act with him having an amusing slow burn annoyance while enduring his friends embarrassing him surprisingly makes his act the hit of the show, with everyone laughing and loving it. So loved is his act, he easily wins the prize, which goes to Daisy so she could pay for her dress. The one who really ended up being embarrassed was Spanky's mother, who had inadvertently lost her dress, and she was hidden behind a screen prop.

Cast

The Gang