Fantastic!

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

"Beginner's Luck" has Spanky being forced to go on the stage by his Mother and the gang coming up with a plot to sabotage his act. Spanky meets a little girl who needs the prize money so he decides to win.This short starts off rather slow and there just aren't to many laughs at all. Even after they arrive at the theater it's really watching the actions of Spanky's Mother and the way she tries to handle the Master of Ceremonies after he is sick of waiting for Spanky to be ready he lets all other acts go on before him. Just before he goes on he tries to go tell the gang of his change of mind but his Mother won't let him only to insist she will talk to the boys. Of course any fan of the rascals will know she can't convince them of her son's change of mind but rather she makes them think Spanky wants their intervention more than ever.When Spanky finally takes the stage the gang erupt with peashooters and noise makers. The audience believe this is a spoof of Shakespere and begin to laugh along. Spanky is trying to recite while trying to dodge barrages of peashooters and wild noises coming from the gang. He uses his shield to fend off the waves of peas and the audience is really beginning to enjoy his act everyone is laughing at his antics except his Mother who is standing in the stage wings taking it all in and very upset that her son is being laughed at. Spanky's Mother watches as the peas are shot from the gang and then the laughter starts she then starts to wave for him to come off only to have the MC wave him to go on. it gets so bad you can see her trying to talk and no words come out.She turns to the MC and asks if he will take her son off ,the man can't believe his ears as this kid is a major hit and the audience is in near hysterics watching him. Of course he refuses her request as they both continue to watch him. Spanky eventually flips down his visor and can't free it and starts to fumble around the stage only adding to the level of the laughter. That's the last straw and the Mother demands he be taken off only to be rejected again then she decides she will run onstage herself but her actions were stopped by the MC who won't have this act ruined. The furious Mother goes to the back stage-curtain with a stage-pole and tries to hook her boy and pull him off. This too adds to the comical performance and raises the laughter as he attempts to avoid the pole. The short has made up for it's early boring parts with Spanky's stage show it is nothing short of side splitting laughter. The added bonus is Spanky's Mother's planned rescue of her son. At one point she takes off the piano players toupee another she inserts the pole into an electrical outlet and gives herself a huge shock kicking her to sit back of her heels writhing her hands. This last action is seen by only the Grandmother and the MC who both love watching the young Mother suffer.Each attempt she makes fails until she hooks his boot and starts to pull him off as he is fighting her all the way. The audience is near bedlam laughing at this kid being dragged off by someone unseen behind the curtain. The mother is using all her strength and starts to have him close just as this point the scene changes to Spanky's grandmother and the MC both laughing in the stage wings as the old woman looks behind the curtain at her daughter she taps the MC on the shoulder and says "Here's where we stop the show!" the MC bends over with laughter but gives his approval. The granny starts to pull down on the ropes rising the back curtain and catching the mother's dress and hiking that up with it. The audience is howling at the mother's attempt to keep her dress on as its keeps going higher until it finally tears off her. Spanky has freed his visor in time to see his mom has joined his stage act and how the grandmother has exposed her to the audience. Spanky's mother has frozen from her experience and just kneeling onstage in a petrified state. Spanky pulls a stage prop in front of his mother but this results in one of the funniest scenes of all the Rascals shorts a fine sight gag."Beginner's luck" far exceeds the perceived ideas the viewer has starting when Spanky starts his act and his Mother's various attempts to then stop the show and get him off the stage. Up to that point it's a major success but really turns into something else when Spanky's Mother goes behind the curtain and has herself turned into a laughing stock of. Watching her fall victim to the MC and the grandmother is priceless. The way they set her up throughout the short is something that greatly adds so much. Spanky's mother becomes the poor misfortunate fly the lands on the spider web and can't get herself out. Looking at her loosing the dress then the hapless way she stays on stage with the prop in place is one of the funniest things in the history of the Our Gang and a fine example of stripped humiliation. Of course it is all enjoyable as it is much well deserved that the Mother gets her comeuppance after watching her antics throughout the short. The Mother that wanted to stop the laughter her son was receiving had herself made an ever larger laughing stock.

This short is an offshoot from the previous Our Gang short "Mike Fright". Which featured the gang performing in a children's radio talent show. In that short the Roach studio first brought in the obnoxious stage mother but not in a major way. That changes with "Beginner's Luck" where the stage mother has a major focus.It opens with Spanky reciting to his mother's friends and it is quite clear that he has no talent at all but his mother announces that she arranged for him to appear in a local children's amateur show, it's obvious that his mother thinks he is a mega star. The grandmother and Spanky protest all to no avail. Later the gang comes to tell Spanky they will sabotage his act.When the arrive at the theater Spanky befriends a sweet little girl who needs to win the prize to buy the special costume she's wearing. She suffers from stage fright and flops. Spanky decides to win the prize and give the girl the money to get the dress. He must get the word to the gang to stop their bombardment but his mom won't let him leave the stage and she delivers his message to the boys making a huge mistake in the process. The gang thin he still wants to loose.Spanky walks on the stage and the kids start their razzing. He stands there trying to recite and dodge peashooters and speak over their noisemakers. The audience think it's a spoof of a Shakespeare recital and start to laugh. The mother is standing there and she can't believe her eyes and begins to wave to tell him to come off the stage. The MC is standing next to her and sees what his mother is doing so he waves for the kid to go on. In the process of avoiding the peashooters Spanky flips down his visor which gets stuck and he is now wandering around on the stage blind and trying to lift his visor. The act has turned into a laugh marathon. The mother has had enough and asks the MC to take him off but she is rebuffed so she then decides to go out and take him off but the MC grabs her and pulls her back. Then she goes back stage with a pole and tries to pull her son off. She starts off having trouble with the pole peeking under the curtain and making wild swings on the stage then the mother winds up taking off the piano players toupee then sticking the pole into a stage light. The grandmother and the MC are looking at Spanky on the stage and then looking behind the stage and laughing at the mother's antics. Eventually the mother hooks him and starts to pull him back. The Grandmother tells the MC "Here's where we stop the show"! They turn Spanky's mother from a person trying to rescue her son into a girl in need of rescue herself. The audience loves this turn and laugh at Spanky's mother at a near riot level. The grandmother took her actions to teach her daughter a real good lesson for putting Spanky into this situation. Spanky reacts to seeing his Mother in a humiliating situation and tries to rescue this backfires and mortifies her much worse.Even though Spanky has little actual talent through a series of turns he winds up winning first prize. When the gang informs Spanky they will ruin his act he stops the pet parrot from warning His Mother by putting a fish bowel over the bird. Then the Mother's error of arriving at the theater not having Spanky dressed and her run in with the MC who then holds his act till the end. Because Spanky was still standing waiting he meets Daisy and then decides to win the prize for her. Then you have the mother not letting Spanky go speak to the gang and doing it herself which results in the kids not understanding Spanky's message. The grandmother is first annoyed that the Mother put Spanky into this acting experience then as the mother and Spanky are having run ins with the MC The grandmother bursts out with loud laughter laughing at how funny it is watching the mother who's in it way over her head. The grandmother has watched the daughter take it way to serious announcing she wouldn't have her son laughed at. In the end the Mother's rescue attempt is thwarted by the grandmother who decides to teach Spanky's mother a lesson and put her the position of the butt of the audiences laughter as Spanky's Mother winds up falling victim to the gang, MC and Grandma.Clearly the Roach Studios were taking a shot at the armies of stage mothers they had to deal with running a series with child actors. They certainly loved watching the character of Spanky's Mother suffer.This is a very good short with the stage performance of Spanky being hilarious.

Noticeably absent from all other comments I've read are these two: 1. The script doesn't make even a reference to Spanky's dad, and; 2. Kitty Kelly's (Spanky's mom) "shocking" experience when stage hook meets blown foot light socket.1. Where's Dad? Surprisingly for a '30s Roach short, the presence of at least a disinterested father in contrast to such a matriarchal mother figure was absent. Was Spanky's mom divorced/separated? Did dad pass away? Was he in the audience that fateful "talent" Friday night? Or was he just a busy guy at work and play so to stand clear of mom's equally boorish treatment of him (like son)? Without a father figure figuring into the script, it leaves the Rascals rescue crew (and Spanky's live-in grandma) to stand in for daddy. In the end. it was a rather hyper-matriarchal decision of director Gus Meins to leave dad completely out of the picture. Even a henpecked buffoon of a dad would've been comical!2. Static Cling-on. Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but Gus Meins really put some production value into this sight gag very near the marquee climax. So, consider this possible setup that the director may well have thought of, though not entirely clear...Question: Could the enormous amount of static electricity stored in Spanky's mom's dress following the "shocking socket" scene also account for why the rather dull-tipped metal curtain hook managed to so relentlessly snag onto her dress hem in the end?Well, gang, chew on these two for awhile as I look forward to your comments! Also, which if any Rascals and Stooges stunts have you tried to publicly duplicate? Candid Camera, anyone?

This Little Rascals short is the funniest one of all of them. It involves Spanky being entered in a talent show by his somewhat overbearing mom, while her own mom disapproves. The acting, story & outcome are classic, and anyone who has watched this on television growing up remembers it fondly. I think the whole gist of this was to highlight overbearing stage moms, and this film did it perfectly. You see good acts, not so good acts etc, but the film never loses its zest. Spanky's mom in the film, the pretty Kitty Kelly, gives a standout performance which, judging from the comments here, is unforgettable. No need to divulge the fate of Spanky's mom here. If you've seen this, you know. If you haven't, find it. You'll love it.