Johnny Doughboy

Genre: Musical
Released: 1942
Directed by: John H. Auer
Starring: Jane Withers, Henry Wilcoxon, William Demarest, Ruth Donnelly
Alfalfa portrays: Himself
Alfalfa's screen time: 3:55
Lines of dialogue spoken by Alfalfa: None, but some singing (see below)

Alfalfa sings "All My Life" as a seen-it-before Spanky looks on.
Click to enlarge.


"Johnny Doughboy" is an engaging though dated World War II-era propaganda vehicle for Jane Withers, who might be better known by many baby boomers as the perpetually cheerful "Josephine the Plumber" from TV commercials of the sixties and early seventies. Withers plays Ann Winters, a stressed-out teenage film star who secretly agrees to switch places with her identical lookalike (name of Penelope Ryan) in order to get some much-needed seclusion and R & R.

This film has extra significance for Little Rascals fans because it also features Spanky McFarland, in his next-to-last last film appearance prior to his re-emergence in the seventies and eighties (Spanky would appear briefly during a newsreel sequence in a 1944 Edward G. Robinson picture called "Woman in the Window".) This is the final time Alfalfa and Spanky would ever appear together on film. Our heroes are members of the "Twenty-Minus Club", comprised of former child stars, not yet twenty years old, who have been cast aside by the industry and are thought to be washed up. It is interesting to see this topic tackled with an honest, sort of tongue-in-cheek treatment, especially because the actors who comprise the Twenty-Minus Club were themselves, in 1942, thought to be "over the hill". The Twenty-Minusers are trying to convince Withers to appear in their upcoming GI benefit song and dance jamboree; without her endorsement and participation, they fear, the club will fold. The problem is that it is Penelope (Withers' lookalike) they are appealing to, and even though the two girls laugh alike and walk alike and at times even talk alike, Penelope can't sing like Ann so she has to reluctantly refuse. The kids, of course, have no clue about this lookalike thing and think Ann is just being a typical stuck-up Hollywood star.

Alfalfa's scene comes during the sequence in which the Twenty-Minusers are trying to convince Ann/Penelope to appear in their benefit. In a jam-packed barn-like structure (sound familiar?) Alfalfa, Spanky, and aging child stars Bobby Breen and Robert Coogan (brother of Jackie) perform their ditty called "All Done, All Through", a self-analyzing tune bemoaning their plight:

When they don't pick your option up,
Then life becomes a bitter cup
I know, because I've had to sip the brew

The brew, the brew, I've had to sip the brew

When they told me the awful truth
I forced a smile, a smile of youth
But it's really tough to smile when you are through

We then bounce back and forth to snippets of three other mini-acts: an adolescent big band, a tap-dancing girl, and an unusual bass and accordion duo. Following completion of the three acts, Spanky, Breen, and Coogan all stare directly at Alfalfa until he "reluctantly" gets up and sings his solo number, "All My Life":


Alfalfa sings. Click to enlarge.

All my life, I've been waiting for you
My wonderful one, I've begun living all my life
All my love has been waiting for you
My life is sublime now that I'm giving all my love

Seems so lovely, so far above me
I'm almost afraid to look
But I adore you, oh I place before you
A heart that's an open book

All my life, hold me close to your heart
Put all else above, hold my love
Darling, all my life!

During Alfalfa's screeching number, we see Spanky in the background, squirming uncomfortably until he can take it no longer and throws himself in anguish onto Coogan's ample girth. And near the last verse, Spanky, Coogan, and Breen quietly creep up behind Alfalfa and make like they're going to strangle him just as his song finishes (see below.)



After the song's conclusion, the four break into the "All Done, All Through" refrain again, capped by the lines,

All done, all through, and we've got a lot on the ball
(We mean the eight ball),
And we've got a lot on the ball!

As Alfalfa and company are singing this choda, their soft shoe routine trips them over the side of the stage, and Spanky and Alfalfa wind up toppling over each other.



Opening credits for "Johnny
Doughboy"



"Johnny Doughboy" won an Academy Award for Walter Scharf in the category of Best Music/Scoring of a Musical Picture. Indeed, most of the songs are quite nice, though again, are very much of their era. Even Alfalfa's solo, "All My Life" has a nice melancholy feeling to it which comes through despite Alfalfa's "unique" interpretation. And speaking of melancholy, watching the rehearsal scene described above is a bittersweet experience for Little Rascals fans—it is the very last time Alfalfa and Spanky will ever appear together on screen.


Alfalfa and Spanky listen to Johnny (the Doughboy)
sing "A Guy Like I".

"Johnny Doughboy" marked a quasi-reunion between Alfalfa and Jane Withers, who co-starred with Alfalfa (who played a character named "Zero") in 1937's "Wild and Woolly". An additional casting note: William Demarest plays Withers' manager, about twenty years prior to, as Uncle Charlie in "My Three Sons", making a second career out of yelling at the Douglas boys for messing up his just-cleaned kitchen.


Publicity poster for "Johnny Doughboy"


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