Search - The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection on DVD

"Beginner's Luck " is a spoof of the kiddie ameteur show craze that was sweeping the nation at the time and a hilarious victory over a stage mother by the gang.It starts with Spanky reciting to a group of his mother's friend's and the announcement by his mother that he will be making his stage debut at a local theater.His mom is forcing him to stay in and reherse his lines,the gang comes up with a plan to sabotage his act and end his acting days.

At the theater Spanky befriends a little girl who needs the prize money to buy her special dress but has fallen victim to stage fright.Spanky nobley asks permission if he wins can he give the little girl the money his mother agrees and is beaming as Spanky tells the girl " Girlie the dress is in the bag".Spanky must tell the gang of his change of heart and stop their assault.His mom volunteers to speak to the boys but she has no idea their was a plot to ruin the act and can't make the gang understand.Spanky goes on and the kids erupt with their noisemakers and peashooters,his act has turned from a Shakesperean recital to a slapstick comedy skit.Spanky is busy dodging peashooters and trying to get his lines out.Spanky's grandmother understands his act has turned into a comedic farce and she laughs along with his stage misadventures,on the other hand Spanky's mother doesn't see any humor in the laughter and wants it stopped and her son off the stage.Spanky's mother waves for him to come off but he is still trying to win the prize for the girl.The audience think this is all part of the regular act and love it as they laugh along.Spanky's act has turned into a laugh riot.Spanky's mother announces she won't have her son laughed at and pleads with the MC to take him off but she is rebuffed.She then tries to run on stage but is grabbed by the MC who won't let her ruin this comedy show.Frantic to get her little darling off,she then takes a pole and goes to the back curtain and tries to hook him and pull him off.The grandmother sees her chance by raising the back curtain she will expose Spanky's mother to the view of the audience and they will laugh at her and hopefully she will learn her lesson for putting Spank on the stage.The grandmother says "Here's where we stop the show" and starts to pull on the ropes of the back curtain and it is starting to rise ,the viewer sees a curtain hook moving up along the mother's legs and towards her dress and as if Spanky's poor mother hasn't had enough her dress hem gets snagged on the curtain hook.She lets out a scream as she realizes her situation as the audience erupts with howls of approving laughter as the rising curtain is taking her dress up with it as she tries to hold down the dress hem and get the hook out.She now is the hit of the show herself.Every man in the audience is watching with bulging eyes waiting for the dress to move higher up.The mother that wanted the crowd to stop laughing at her son has done it by getting the works on stage herself as they howl at her misfortune.Grandma who can't believe her luck that she has caught her daughter's dress and is really teaching her a lesson and making Spanky's mother understand the concept of what is funny.Spanky has just freed his visor and turns around to see what all the comotion is about as he sees his mother reluctentley has joined his act having her dress hiked by the curtain and the entire theater laughing their heads off at her.Spanky's mother fumbles trying to dislodge the hook as grandma delievers the coup de grase and pulls down and jolts the curtain to the top of the theater ripping her dress right off her.Spank's mom is thrown down to kneeling on the stage starring up to the ceiling looking for her dress she is frozen from fright or petrified by her experiance.Spank jumps to his feet to save his mother.He pulls a stage prop in front of her to shield her from the audience but as he gets it into place he hears a huge increase in the laughter as the the crowd is now near a pandamonium peak .He looks up and the prop is a caricuture of a squatting dog's body with his mother's head fitting perfectly posed on the top.The mother that didn't want her son laughed at is now humiliated as she is in a very degrading position on the stage.

"Beginner's Luck" is one of the better shorts where the gang takes care of a pompous adult.In this case it's Spanky's mother who is a stuffed shirt stage mother type who has forced her son to recite against his will.Spanky's mother is the villan of "Beginner's Luck" even though she does do good deeds like letting Spanky give the prize money to the girl and going to the gang to tell them of Spanky's change of mind.It is usually the way of the Our Gang comidies that the villan is taken care of in the end so this short delivers the villan in a most humbeling manner.It is not enough that she has the indignation of being degradingly defrocked on stage she then has the stage prop placed in front of her where she goes "tits up" behind it.This short seems to go overboard on the amount that is delivered to Spanky's mother boardering on a sadistic enjoyment of the fate of Spanky mom.There is also an erotic element watching this girl have her dress torn off her.But the best feature is that the gang has put a misguided adult in their place and Spanky's mother is made into a complete laughing stock on the stage.