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| Episode Commentary |
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Little Papa Released:
September 21, 1935 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. Spanky has a brand new football that he and his buddies are anxious to put to use. Just as they are set to begin playing, Spanky's mother tells her son that he has to watch "the baby" while she goes out (as we shall see, it is not made clear whether the baby is Spanky's little sister, or his niece.) Figuring that if the baby can be induced to sleep they can still squeeze in a football game, Spanky tries to make the baby sleepy by walking her up and down (the only one who gets tired is Spanky), and by making her some warm milk. Nothing works. So Spanky and Alfalfa bring the child up to a bedroom, where the plan is for both of them to pretend to sleep, and, by the power of suggestion, convincing the baby to do likewise. This plan also fails, even though Alfalfa actually falls asleep himself (but the baby doesn't). Alfalfa and Spanky engage in a continuing series of misadventures in their attempts to make the child sleep. At one point, they even tie their own shoes together and trip over each other. Finally, Alfalfa tries to help by singing "Go To Sleep, My Baby", which, incredibly, seems to work (see more at Alfalfa's Greatest Hits, or stop by later). But not so fast: our heroes engage in more pratfalls, the baby wakes up again... and this continues on and on until the episode limps to a conclusion.
"Little Papa" is among the weakest Little Rascals episode teaming Alfalfa and Spanky. First, there is a lack of any substantive action in the film whatever. "Little Papa" is also full of inexplicable gaps in logic, and most of the gags that advance the story itself are contrived and strain the limits of plausibility. For example, the sequence in which Spanky walks the baby up and down in his backyard in an attempt to tire her out seems to stretch on forever, with no dialogue at all. The only thing we see is the image of Spanky dragging the baby back and forth. Couldn't we have at least been treated to some accompanying chatter from the Roman Chorus of Scotty and Spanky? Anything would have been better than the awkward, static silence of these shots. Then there is Spanky's scheme of cutting a hole in a chair, putting a pot on top of the hole, and starting a fire underneath the chair. The objective of this bizarre activity is to turn the chair into a makeshift cooktop, with flame underneath, which would be used to warm some milk to make the baby sleepy. Seems to be a lot of trouble to go to instead of just warming the milk in the kitchen and bringing it out when it was done (but maybe Spanky wasn't allowed to use the oven yet...) Then once inside the bedroom, Alfalfa and Spanky engage in a series of implausible gags built around the idea of getting the baby to fall asleep. The boys' banter during this scene is also pretty hard to take. For instance, when Spanky says he is going to sleep, Alfalfa asks him if that means they will not be playing football. Are we to believe that Spanky did not give Alfalfa advance notice that he was going to employ this tactic to induce the baby to sleep? Or that Alfalfa is so dumb that he doesn't understand what Spanky is trying to do in the first place? And is there really anybody out there who believes that the duo's shoelace-tying fiasco is even possible? To be fair, this was only the fourth Little Rascals episode in which Alfalfa and Spanky has significant interaction, and it is possible that the Hal Roach writers and story editors had not yet gotten the proper feel for the dynamics of the duo's relationship. (One other odd sidelight, inconsequential to the story as a whole, is the exact nature of Spanky's relationship to the baby. We are led to believe that she is his little sister, but at one point while trying to get the baby to sleep, Alfalfa says to the child, "Look at Uncle Spanky!" )
Alfalfa's rendition of "Go To Sleep, My Baby" is amusing enough, and one of the very few bright spots of the episode. One dreads to think how much more dreary the episode would have been without this highlight. It is perhaps a barometer of the high standards subsequently set by Alfalfa and Spanky that we look back on this rare weak outing with such a sense of disappointment. 4alfalfa.com
rating: 2 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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