The Pinch Singer

Released: January 4, 1936
Director: Fred Newmeyer
Episode length: 16:39 (9/34)
Alfalfa's screen time: 6:31 (27/34) 39% (26/34)
Lines of dialogue spoken by Alfalfa: 18 (27/34)
Songs: "On the Road To Californy" (three different occasions), and "I'm In the Mood For Love"
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Skip episode synopsis and go directly to commentary

The kids are assembled in their "Eagles Club" headquarters, listening to the radio. An announcer says that an upcoming amateur talent contest will yield a first prize of fifty dollars. Alfalfa exclaims to the rest of the little Eagles that fifty dollars will be enough to buy new football suits for everybody (even, presumably, Darla and the rest of the girt Eagles.) Spanky agrees, but first reminds the kids that they have to identify a suitable candidate to perform in the contest. Alfalfa is the first to audition, a squeaky version of a song called "On the Road To Californy", accompanied by his brother Harold (see more at Alfalfa's Greatest Hits, or visit later). The gang's dog Petey is responsible for "gonging" each performer, at Spanky's signal: the pooch has a small hammer tied to his tail, which he wags against the gong.

Almost immediately after starting, Pete gongs Alfalfa after receiving Spanky's signal. Not discouraged, Alfalfa tries singing the same song two more times: once dressed as an old lady, and, another time, in blackface, while wearing farmer overalls and a straw hat. This latter sequence is almost always censored from local TV programming packages. Both times, Alfalfa gets the gong.

Meanwhile, two other boys try to become a star. A small boy in a porkpie hat tries unsuccessfully to recite "Peter Piper", and Buckwheat performs a whistling routine, which, it turns out, is aided by an off-stage phonograph.


The cast of "the Pinch Singer"
(sans Spanky). Notice Alfalfa
in blackface. Click image
to enlarge.


The ultimate winner of the gangs' Star Search is Darla, who sings "I'm In the Mood For Love". But the day of the contest arrives and Darla is nowhere to be seen. Spanky and Alfalfa wait in the lobby of the radio studio. Spanky paces nervously, but Alfalfa sits calmly, holding a briefcase labeled"2nd Manager", which is what he has appointed himself on Darla's management team (Spanky, of course, is 1st Manager). While the two boys are waiting, we see some frankly annoying acts performing on the show. One of them is comprised of a group of three adolescents (two boys, one girl), called "The Plantation Trio". The three are in blackface, singing "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?" This sequence, too, is almost always censored from TV screenings, and with good reason, in our view.

Then it is time to Darla to sing. Since she has still not arrived, and Spanky has gone off to find her, Alfalfa makes the executive decision to sing in her place. He walks up on stage and sees a gong off to the side. Thinking he might meet the same fate as his during his auditions in the Eagles Club headquarters, he discreetly lifts the gong from its stantions and slips it inside his briefcase. When it comes time to sing, the MC (who looks like Fredo Corleone in the first Godfather) asks Alfalfa if he wants him to hold the briefcase while he sings. Alfalfa refuses. The MC asks why not: can he sing better with it? To which Alfalfa replies "No, but I can sing longer with it."

While singing "I'm In the Mood For Love", (more info at Alfalfa's Greatest Hits, or visit later) the members of the Eagles Club, listening on the radio, rush to a drugstore to phone in their votes for Alfalfa. Thanks to this overwhelming support, Alfalfa is declared the winner, although his performance contains the requisite forgotten lines and off-key notes. The microphone into which he is singing starts sliding slowly down the stand; Alfalfa keeps ducking lower and lower to keep up with the sliding microphone (it has been speculated by some Little Rascals historians that the microphone was intentionally rigged this way without Alfalfa's knowledge, in order to achieve some added authenticity to the scene.)

In any event, Spanky finds Darla, and they rush on stage just as Alfalfa gets done singing (by this time, he is sitting on the floor). At first, Spanky is mad at Alfalfa for pulling an Alexander Haig, but he changes his tune after the MC tells them all that Alfalfa has won the contest and the fifty dollars. The episode fades to black over an image of Alfalfa, Darla, and Spanky embracing and smiling contentedly for the camera.


Publicity still from "The Pinch Singer"

Commentary
"The Pinch Singer" contains several amusing vignettes that for some reason never seem to add up to a satisfying whole. Kicking off the proceedings is the radio spot that announces the $50 talent contest, a prize that, as Alfalfa exuberantly notes, is enough to buy "new football suits for everybody!" Inexplicable during this sequence is Spanky's admonition to the rest of the club: "That's just what I've been tellin' you kids!"What has he been telling those kids? Presumably, Spanky has been suggesting to the club members that they embark on some sort of performance project, but the effort had fallen on deaf ears until the enticement of a $50 prize is announced. A rather odd exclamation from the Spankmeister.

Contemporary Hal Roach Studios
publicity poster for "The Pinch
Singer". Spanky and Darla are
pictured; Alfalfa is left out.

In any case, the actual auditions are very entertaining. Alfalfa is, as usual, convinced that his singing prowess will win the day but all three of his renditions of "On the Road To Californy" are quickly gonged by Pete the Pup at Spanky's signal. During the blackface sequence, Spanky gawks at Alfalfa as if he is in shock until finally Pete sounds the gong repeatedly and emphatically, almost as if the pooch is saying, "You know Alfalfa, I've seen many things in my career as the Little Rascals dog, but I must say that you've gone a bit too far!" Indeed, this sequence is almost always cut from local TV programming packages, so Alfalfa's blackface routine can be considered in many ways a "lost" bit of Alfalfania.

Darla's performance of "I'm In the Mood For Love" that ultimately gets the club's nod as their representative for the contest seems, uncharacteristically, a little on the cutesy side, and this presages the tone of the actual contest that we soon see. Darla's performance during this whole episode, in fact, lacks her usual sparkle; she seems oddly detached throughout.

"The Pinch Singer"'s preoccupation with blackface singing continues at the studio. We get a glimpse at some of the other (over-rehearsed) acts, one of which is comprised of three adolescents (two boys and one girl) in blackface, named collectively "The Plantation Trio". Many of the perceived ethnic stereotypings that are included in Little Rascals episodes are no doubt unfortunate but inadvertent, innocent reflections of the day and age in which the episode was produced. However, the inclusion of an act called "The Plantation Trio" does seem to smack of a blatant lack of sensitivity, and is hard to defend or excuse. Incidentally, during the Trio's performance of "Has Anybody Seen My Gal", the scene cuts quickly to a shot of the kids back at the Eagles Club, and, when one of them comments on how good they are, Buckwheat (of course) replies "You said it!"


Hal Roach Studios publicity still, ca. "The Pinch Singer".
Click image to enlarge.

Alfalfa is at his best in this episode after it becomes clear that he must substitute for the delayed Darla. He decides by emphatically pumping his fist and resolutely saying to himself, "I'll do it!" Watch closely his journey across the stage as the MC is reading off the preliminary voting results. As he passes the MC and makes his way towards the orchestra, it is startling to see how small he really is as compared to the adults. When the tiny crooner reaches the orchestra, he politely says to the orchestra leader "Here's my music", then nods deferentially and courteously backs away like a little gentleman.

Alfalfa's climactic rendition of "I'm In the Mood For Love" is thought by many to be his most famous singing performance, and while it is very amusing, it goes on a bit too long for our taste. In the midst of his rendition, we see repeated cuts back and forth to Spanky's struggle to get a late-arriving Darla to the studio, and of the other Eagles Clubbers rushing to a drugstore to flood the bank of telephone booths in a mass-vote for Alfalfa as their choice for contest winner.

The film's closing shot has been universally panned by commentators as being terminally cute: Alfalfa, Darla, and Spanky joining arms and mugging for the camera. Although this shot certainly is out of character for the Hal Roach era, we don't find it quite as annoying as many other observers have.

"The Pinch Singer" is certainly not a bad effort, but its self-conscious cuteness and the overly-rehearsed studio contest acts—including the did-I-hear-what-I think-I-heard "Plantation Trio"—all adversely affect the film's appeal.

We give this one

3 cowlicks (out of a possible 5)

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