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The
Defiant Ones "The Defiant Ones" and images © MGM/UA Home Video 
Alfalfa grooves to his transistor during a break from hunting down escaped cons Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. Click to enlarge. The Academy Award-winning "The Defiant Ones" was Alfalfa's final film appearance. Less than six months after its release, he would be dead. It is impossible to know whether his appearance in this highly-regarded film would have served as an impetus for more prestigious roles. As Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann relate in their book Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals (page 269), Alfalfa made these comments during an interview with Hollywood reporter Erskine Johnson just as "The Defiant Ones" was being released: "I look just like I did when I was a kid. It's hard for a child actor to start working again. I've never played a part over nineteen. I'm always a teenager and there haven't been many jobs until recently. I'll see how this turns out. If this doesn't do it for me, nothing will. I go all the way through the picture."  The search begins. Click to enlarge. Despite his remark about looking like he did when he was a kid, the Alfalfa of "The Defiant Ones" looked very much like an adult. Throughout his scenes in the film, he plays late fifties-era rock and roll music on his transistor radio. This is more or less a running gag; the officers in charge of the search fight a losing battle with Alfalfa in their attempts to keep the music turned down as they search the woods for escaped cons Curtis and Poitier. Alfalfa's only line of dialogue—the last of his career—comes late in the picture. Curtis and Poitier take refuge in a turpentine camp, and are quickly captured by the locals. The next morning, the leader of the camp, played by Lon Chaney Jr., unexpectedly turns the two loose. As Chaney is cutting the ropes from Curtis, we see why: Chaney's wrist bears the unmistakable mark of also having been restrained by a chain. Later, the sheriffs and deputies come to the camp and question the residents, none of whom provides much information. When Max, the leader of the search (played by Theodore Bikel), says that the party will have to resume looking for the escaped cons immediately, the exhausted deputies balk and clamor for some rest. Alfalfa: Aw Max, have a heart! 
Alfalfa delivers the final line of his film career. Click to enlarge. An interesting "what-if" regarding the casting of Alfalfa: There was a role in the film of a local who was in charge of the bloodhounds being used to track down Poitier and Curtis. In "real life", Alfalfa has extensive experience as a dog trainer (in fact, this side career would indirectly lead to his death). One wonders if Alfalfa might have first attempted to secure the somewhat more prominent dog trainer role than that of Angus. Other than the obvious human tragedy of Alfalfa's premature death in January of 1959, it seems as if he may have actually been positioned to begin a "second career" as a pure character actor. In any event, it is quite clear that he was ready, willing, and—we believe—quite able to leave behind forever the type of role he had, for example, two years earlier in "Motorcycle Gang". 
Although we will never know how Alfalfa's career would have evolved had he lived, it is clear that when he passed away he left a body of work that gave joy and laughter and memories to millions of people worldwide. And there's not a thing wrong with that. Below: Opening credits for "The Defiant Ones". 
  
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