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| Episode Commentary |
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Hide and Shriek Released:
June 18, 1938 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. Alfalfa has started up a detective agency and dubbed himself "X-10". Buckwheat and Porky pay him a visit one day, seeking to get into the detective racket themselves. Alfalfa sends the two of them out to find a case. Soon enough, they return with Darla, Leonard and Junior. Darla suspects that Leonard and Junior have stolen some candy that her uncle gave her. Alfalfa cross-examines the duo, after which he mysteriously lets the two suspects free on their own recognizance. Why? Criminals always return to the scene of their crime, as "Sherlocks Home" always says. Alfalfa, with Porky and Buckwheat (designated by Alfalfa as "X-6" and "X-6 and a half") trail Leonard and Junior after they leave. Alfalfa and Porky wear fake dark beards to disguise themselves; Buckwheat wears a contrasting white beard. Leonard and Junior evade the three detectives, who wind up hiding in a trunk on the back of a delivery truck. The truck's destination is a spook house on a nearby pier. Once inside the spook house, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, and Porky encounter various goblins and frightening props until they find the exit. They rush back to the detective headquarters. Waiting there is Darla, eating candy with Leonard and Junior. Darla explains that the candy was actually concealed in her doll carriage all along. But Alfalfa doesn't want to hear any of it. "Please don't mention candy or detectives to me again!" he tells Darla as the episode, and the Hal Roach era, fades to black.
Commentary "Hide and Shriek" is a good film with lots of interesting visuals but it by no means would make it to the Little Rascals "A" list; still, the overall quality of this comparatively unremarkable episode far exceeded anything produced throughout the six or so years of episodes released under the MGM imprimatur. There are numerous nostalgic touches throughout "Hide and Shriek". Since it was a custom of the Hal Roach studios to recycle gags, props, and background music, it is difficult to state with certainty that the handful of "blasts from the past" in this episode represented a final nod to past Roach productions (from Rascals and non-Rascals films). They also could have been simply a co-incidental continuation of a practice common to Roach films over the past seventeen years. •The
disguise that Alfalfa dons near the middle of the episode that gives
him an uncanny resemblance to the notorious Barnaby character made
famous (or infamous) by Henry Brandon, first in the Roach feature
"Babes In Toyland" (a.k.a. "March of the Wooden Soldiers")
and then reprised in "Our Gang Follies of 1938". •The figure that pops out of the door in the spook house is one of the"bogeymen" from the above-referenced "Babes In Toyland". •When Buckwheat waits by himself for Alfalfa and Porky, the organ that he backs into plays the same tune that accompanied the skeleton dance from "Our Gang Follies of 1936"; in this same sequence, a skeleton floats down from above and lays his hand on Buckwheat's shoulder, just like in "Spooky Hooky". •And
as an additional bit of irony, the very last image that we see in
the final Hal Roach-produced Little Rascals film is a sign that
Alfalfa hangs outside of his now-former detective agency that says
"Out of Bizness", which is precisely where things stood
for the Hal Roach-produced Little Rascals upon the wrap-up Little
Rascals fans should be glad that the Hal Roach era ended on this
comparatively high note, rather than on a downer like "The
Awful Tooth", the film that immediately preceded "Hide
and Shriek". Alfalfa, rescued from the dentist's chair from
"The Awful Tooth", returns to fine form in his portrayal
as X-10. He is aided by additional impressive performances all around.
Particularly effective is the cynical Percy, who keeps saying "Phooey!"
to Alfalfa, under whose supervision he and Junior had been dragged
in for questioning about the disappearance of Darla's candy (they
were ultimately cleared). The attractions inside the spook house are very memorable and undoubtedly have frightened generations of young (and old?) viewers. In fact, Eugene Gordon "Porky" Lee, as an adult, recalled in an interview (Maltin and Bann, The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang, Three Rivers Press, page 272) that he and Buckwheat were genuinely frightened by the various creatures and goblins that appeared in the episode. One of the memories that stuck out in Porky's mind most clearly from his entire Little Rascals career was running on the treadmill which deposited he and Buckwheat into the basement of the spookhouse. Apparently, to preserve a sense of spontaneity, Buckwheat and Porky were given very little advance information about the creatures that would be jumping out at them during filming; so their frightened reactions to them were at least partly genuine. 4alfalfa
gives "Hide and Shriek" 3 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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