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| Episode Commentary |
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Divot
Diggers Released:
February 8, 1936 Skip
episode synopsis and go directly to commentary "The Little Rascals" and Little Rascals characters © and TM King World Productions, Inc. This website based in part upon a television series distributed by King World Productions and Turner Entertainment Company / MGM. Somehow the kids have gained entry to a posh country club golf course. A blonde-tressed Darla (fresh off a Laurel and Hardy movie called "The Bohemian Girl", for which she had to dye her hair blonde) is seen sinking a putt, under the watchful eye of her caddy, Buckwheat (wouldn't it be interesting to follow them around for an afternoon?). Spanky is then seen preparing to make a shot with a long ladle that he has pulled from his bag of "clubs". Spanky comes up empty on several swings, so, after making sure nobody is watching, throws the ball up onto the green, a short distance from the cup. Spanky then tells his "caddy" (Jiggs the Chimpanzee) to come along. To sink his putt, Spanky chooses a hammer with a long handle. He is interrupted by a bee, and begins swatting at it with the hammer (Watch for: In the middle of Spanky's attempts to swat the bee away, we see a close-up of him in which he is swinging not the hammer he is using to make the shot, but a regular club). As
Spanky sinks the putt with the unexpected assistance of the bee,
he beckons Alfalfa to move it along. Alfalfa is busy trying hack
his way out of a sand trap with a shovel. As Porky marks his score
on a handheld chalkboard, our hero finally makes the green. He marches
up from the sand trap, singing his anthemic "She'll Be Comin'
Round the Mountain" (learn more at
Alfalfa's Greatest Hits,
or visit later.) To make his putt, Alfalfa uses a pool cue, which
he chalks up before shooting (while lying flat on his stomach).
His shot is long by about six inches, but Porky taps it in with
his well-aimed pea shooter, turning Alfalfa's momentary despair
to glee.
As Mr. Hatley is searching the landscape for candidates, he gets conked on the head by Spanky's tee shot. Mr. Hatley yells out at the kids, who then flee, thinking Mr. Hatley is angry at getting hit. But all he wants to do is offer them the chance to make some dough by serving as caddies, a chance at which they all jump. The
substitute caddies proceed to inflict the predictable havoc on the
foursome's game, led most notably by the devilish chimp. At one
point, Alfalfa and Porky speed down a long hill in a wagon. One
of the golfers grabs onto the back of the wagon as it speeds by
and gets dragged to the ground for his efforts. The golfer gets
up and claims that the bag in the wagon is not his. Alfalfa calmly
tells the golfer that the chimp has his bag. The culmination of "Divot Diggers" sees Jiggs commandeering a grass-mowing tractor, resulting in the kids scrambling for cover. In one shot we see Alfalfa and Buckwheat ducking into a little shed, peeking out to see if the coast is clear. Alfalfa then makes a run for it, followed far behind by the tottering Buckwheat. The kids then lean against a wooden picket fence, and the piece against which they lean falls down and starts sliding down a steep hill on the course. The kids ride it all the way down like a sled, recalling past Little Rascals episodes like "Free Wheelin'" and "Hi, Neighbor". The fence/sled knocks down several golfers, and catapults three others high in the air, borrowing from another beloved Little Rascals convention from the recent past. "Divot Diggers" concludes with the fence crashing into a chicken coop, emerging from the other side with all the kids covered in feathers. Buckwheat has an unhatched egg lodged in his mouth, and when Spanky comes over to assist him, the egg falls into Spanky's hand and hatches, resulting (with the help of some cute animation) in a new-born baby chick as the episode fades to black.
Commentary This
episode was the final Little Rascals short directed by Robert A.
McGowan, who was the dean of Little Rascals directors dating back
to the silent era and the very first Little Rascals short (entitled,
appropriately, "Our Gang".) McGowan's health had been
deteriorating and he made this one-film comeback (after not having
directed the previous sixteen episodes prior to "Divot Diggers")
to see if he could resume the rigors of directing. But the nervous
exhaustion that had first prompted McGowan to take a hiatus from
directing just wouldn't go away. But what a swan song McGowan left
us. Its out-of-doors setting is reminiscent of the "Golden
Age" of Little Rascals films of the early thirties. The climactic
"sled" sequence recalls a sort of physicality, an athleticism
if you will, that became increasingly absent from the series as
subsequent directors (most notably Gordon Douglas) introduced a
more studio-bound feel. These later films were frequently excellent
and brought with them their own style and charm, but it is still
sad to consider that this sprawling, outdoor type of venue would
be seen very infrequently throughout the remainder of the Hal Roach
era. One particularly cute sequence during the fence ride worth mentioning is when Darla has the presence of mind to reach down every couple of seconds to snatch flowers from the grass as she is careening down the hilly course. Soon she has assembled a full-scale bouquet while the rest of her cohorts are screaming and holding on for dear life. Just one of the many subtleties that make "Divot Diggers" such a joy. 4alfalfa.com
gives this one 5
cowlicks (out of a possible 5) |
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"The Little Rascals" and Little Rascals characters © and TM King World Productions, Inc. This website based in part upon a television series distributed by King World Productions and Turner Entertainment Co./ MGM. Episode commentary © 4alfalfa.com |
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