Henry and Dizzy

Genre: Comedy
Released: 1942
Directed by: Hugh Bennett
Starring: Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, John Litel, Mary Anderson, Trevor Bardette
Alfalfa portrays: Billy Weeks, the bratty son of a conniving boat slip owner.
Alfalfa's screen time: 4:50
Lines of dialogue spoken by Alfalfa: 12

Henry and Dizzy, two somewhat timid high-school age boys, are double-dating on a pleasant sunny afternoon. They want to take their girls out on the lake so they decide to rent a motorboat from one Henry Weeks, who owns a slip on the lake. Only problem is, Weeks is not in the office so the boys leave a note explaining they have "borrowed" the boat. Not only does the note blow away, but the boat sinks under the inept stewardship of Henry and Dizzy, soaking both them and their outraged dates (one of whom is played by a young Noel "Lois Lane" Neill.)

Mr. Weeks returns in time to haul the boys into his office. He forces them to sign a confession about stealing the boat, and also demands that they bring back $120 in two days to make reparations on the sunken vessel. While Weeks is dressing down the two boys, he is flanked by Billy, his bratty son, played by Alfalfa. Billy glares smugly at Henry and Dizzy while his father is speaking. The boys are balking at signing the confession that Mr. Weeks has written out...



Weeks [to Henry and Dizzy]: You sign that—or I'll call the police right now.
Alfalfa [excitedly hands phone to his father]: Here ya' are, pop, here ya' are!! [gets smacked by his father and then scowls]

Weeks repeats his threat to prosecute the two boys to the fullest extent of the law unless they bring $120 in two days. As the forlorn Henry and Dizzy are exiting the office, a snide Alfalfa bleats out a whiny, sing-song threat:

Alfalfa: My pop's gonna put you in ja-il, my pop's gonna—

Before he can finish, Henry cocks his arm as if to slap Alfalfa. Catching himself, Henry then makes believe he is only going to pat Alfalfa on the cheek, and when his hand nears Alfalfa's face, the snarling brat tries to take a bite out of it (see below). As the two boys make a hasty exit, Alfalfa turns to his father and smiles sweetly as the scene fades out.



Alfalfa is not seen again until the film's climactic sequence, a Father/Son July 4th picnic at Lake Wopacotapotalong. Henry and Dizzy have been unable to raise any cash, and their deadline is approaching for paying back Mr. Weeks. The First Prize at the picnic is—what else— a brand-new motorboat. Weeks and his son Billy are on line waiting to register for the competitions.

Alfalfa [chomping on a large all-day sucker]: Aw, gee Pop...why do we have to race for an old motorboat? We got lots of em' ain't we?
Weeks: Quiet! It's not good for business having other people win motorboats.
Alfalfa: Aww...I can't run against all these big fellas, Pop!
Weeks: You can run fast enough when you swipe somethin'...you better run if you know what's good for ya'!


Mr. Weeks (Trevor Bardette) registers his son Billy (Alfalfa)
for the Father/Son competition.

Weeks then registers his son, who, he tells the registrar, is ten years old (Alfalfa was about fifteen when the film was made.)

Henry, meanwhile, not confident of his own father's athletic prowess, recruits some shady-looking character to pose as his father, who has also come to the picnic but apparently does not yet know about the contest. Immediately, Henry is found out and a melee erupts at the registrar's table, incited by Mr. Weeks. Fists begin to fly.



Alfalfa: Look out, pop!!

His scheme failed, Henry trudges from the registrar's table with Dizzy, and is trailed by Weeks and Billy, who are teasing them about the collapse of the hapless scheme. Alfalfa takes particular delight in the situation:

Alfalfa [repeating his earlier sing-song threat]: My pop's gonna put you in ja-il, my pop's gonna—

Henry lunges at a fleeing Alfalfa, and we hear an off-screen Alfalfa yell "Ow!!", but it is Henry who re-joins Dizzy holding his stomach as if punched.

Throughout the Father/Son races, Alfalfa is dragged, punched, slapped, shoved, and stepped on by his desperate father. During the sack race, we see Alfalfa taking a Buster Keaton-like header to the ground as he trips over his sack.

Meanwhile, Henry has realized that it his best to team up with his real father, and together, they hold their own until the final competition, a relay race. Weeks barely nudges out Henry's father for the victory, and the motorboat, until it is revealed that a banana was somehow substituted in the baton exchange between Alfalfa and his father. The Weeks duo is disqualified for illegal use of fruit, and Henry and his father are declared the winners. Afterwards, Henry's father agrees that even though Weeks coerced his son to confess to stealing the boat, he will at least pay him something for the sinking of the craft. Weeks asks for the full $120; Henry's father counters with $25. Henry and Alfalfa begin bickering about the true worth of the boat. Alfalfa backs up his father's assertion that the boat is worth $120:

Alfalfa: It is too...it must be...the insurance company's already paid us $90—

Weeks immediately covers his blabbering son's mouth, and gets bitten for his trouble. Then Dizzy's father pushes Mr. Weeks into a nearby lake.


Opening credits for "Henry and Dizzy".


Henry and Dizzy is a fairly funny, although cornball, entry in the long-running Henry Aldrich series. Watch for Noel Neill as Henry's on-again, off-again girlfriend; Neill would later go on to play Lois Lane in the Superman TV series. About a decade later, Neill's Superman co-star Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen) would have a small part in "Redwood Forest Trail", a Rex Allen vehicle co-starring Alfalfa.

John Litel, who played Henry's father, would also appear opposite Alfalfa in 1952's "Two Dollar Bettor", in which Litel plays a button-downed banker who turns into a compulsive gambler. Trevor Bardette, who plays Alfalfa's odious father Henry Weeks, would turn up as the seldom-seen Wally, proprietor of the legendary Wally's Filling Station, in a 1960 episode of "The Andy Griffith Show".

This role as Billy Weeks, along with his turn as a compulsive bee-bee spitter in Bob Hope's "My Favorite Blonde", is probably Alfalfa's brattiest portrayal. He is hilarious early on when he taunts Henry and Dizzy that his Pop is going to put them in "ja-il", then tries to viciously bite Henry's hand when Henry makes believe he is going to pat the little darling on the cheek. And his performance at the end of the film in the Father/Son picnic races is full of very convincing pratfalls and other subtle mischief (such as turning to the boy on his left during the egg race and inconspicuously knocking the boy's egg from the spoon without missing a beat). Overall, a very satisfying entry from the early stages of Alfalfa's post-Rascals career.

Back to "Alfalfaddendum" main page

Home   •   Episode Commentary   •   An Alfalfa Appreciation
    Alfalfaddendum   •   Alfalfa's Greatest Hits
The Froggy Files   •   Alfography   •   Alfalfa Nation  •  Censored!!
Rascology   •  Dear Alfalfa   •   Alfalfalinks
News/Updates  •   Contact Us

Back to top