Rushin' Ballet

Released: April 24, 1937
Director: Gordon Douglas
Episode length: 10:07 (25/34)
Alfalfa's screen time: 5:44 (18-t/34) 57% (25/34)
Lines of dialogue spoken by Alfalfa: 27 (18-t/34)
Song: None
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Skip episode synopsis and go directly to commentary

Butch then sees a basket of tomatoes on the ground and makes a move to take some, despite Buckwheat's protest that they are his "mammy's tomatoes". To teach the two youngsters a lesson, Butch and Woim smush a tomato each into each of their faces. After telling Butch "you'll be sorry", Buckwheat leaves, taking Porky with him.

The next scene opens with a shot of a sign reading:

THE SECRET REVENGERS CLUB
RONGS RITED AND THE WEEK PERTECTED

Buckwheat and Porky open the door to the club. Inside, Alfalfa is seated inside a "jury box", and Spanky is behind a large desk labeled"Judge". Alfalfa pulls out a large book which looks suspiciously like a phone directory. He takes Buckwheat's hand and places it on the book, and asks him to take an oath that what he is about to say is "anything but the truth". Then Buckwheat relays his version of what happened. After hearing Buckwheat's tale of woe, Alfalfa and Spanky decide that the situation calls for their intervention and put on Sherlock Holmes style hats. They ask Buckwheat and Porky to lead them to the perps.

After Porky ID's Butch and Woim, Alfalfa confidently strides over and tries to reason with them. But after some menacing posturing by Butch, he slinks away, even apologizing for the interruption and tipping his hat in deference. Spanky then tries a different route. He grabs two tomatoes and gives one of them to Alfalfa. The two walk back to where Butch and Woim are. Spanky calls out "hey you mugs!", and Butch and Woim look up just in time to have their faces pelted with tomatoes. They react with predictable rage, and start chasing our heroes, who close the door leading into the next section of the yard and hold it tight so Butch and Woim can't get through.

As the two bullies silently back up from the other side of the door to get a running start, Alfalfa and Spanky likewise tiptoe away from the door on their side of the fence. Butch and Woim crash through the door and fall through to the ground on the other side. Spanky and Alfalfa run away. Alfalfa takes hold of another door to which is attached a rope. He shuts the door and swings his legs up onto the door for extra leverage to keep it shut. But Butch and Woim simply walk through an opening in the same fence. Spanky runs off into a nearby Dancing School and yells to Alfalfa to do the same.

Alfalfa lets go of the door and runs into the Dancing School yelping in terror, with Butch and Woim in hot pursuit. Spanky and Alfalfa make it into the dressing room of the school and shut the door behind them, but Butch and Woim are prevented from following them by the harried, matronly dance teacher (Kathryn Sheldon, who played a similar role in the memorable "Arbor Day" the previous year). Porky and Buckwheat have taken advantage of the commotion to sneak into the school, but as the dance teacher turns to go back inside, she sees them and leads them back out as well. In the meantime, Butch and Woim have continued this game of musical chairs by re-sneaking back into the school as the dance teacher is escorting Buckwheat and Porky out. This time, they gain entrance to the dressing room. As they enter, we see a shot of Alfalfa and Spanky dressed in girls' ballet outfits and wigs (Alfalfa blonde, Spanky brunette). They are hiding among a series of similarly-posed and dressed ballet mannequins. Butch challenges them to make their presence known, and Alfalfa' still holding his pose as a mannequin, calls out absent-mindedly, "There's nobody down here 'cept us dummies!"

Spanky grimaces, but they both hold their frozen poses: Lug-headed Butch is unable to tell where the voice came from. Butch and Woim creep toward a laundry basket, thinking it is the source of the voice. As they root through the clothes in it, Alfalfa and Spanky are now directly behind them, unbeknownst to Butch and Woim because they have their backs turned. Alfalfa suddenly sneezes, but a quick-thinking Spanky grabs a ballet slipper and throws it towards the back of the dressing room. Butch and Woim hear the noise. Spanky and Alfalfa tiptoe in the direction of the exit as Butch and Woim rifle through a clothes rack near the sound of the noise. They find two ballet dummies, wearing the clothes and Sherlock Holmes hats that Alfalfa and Spanky had shed when they dressed in the ballet outfits.

Alfalfa and Spanky run back up to the recital, still in their ballet outfits, desperately trying to prevent Butch and Woim from exiting the dressing room. The next dance is about to start and the dance teacher shoos all the waiting girl dancers out onto the stage, including Alfalfa and Spanky, who have no choice but to reluctantly proceed to the stage. Meanwhile, the harried dance teacher is close to having a nervous breakdown.

As the dance starts, Butch and Woim have escaped the dressing room and are watching the dance from the wings, next to two boys dressed in ballet costumes and awaiting their cue (one of the boys is played by Harold Switzer.) It becomes quickly obvious to the dance teacher and the audience that something is not quite right. As Alfalfa and Spanky attempt tragicomically to keep up with the rest of the dancers, the teacher is mortified ("My Russian ballet is being ruined!"), but the audience eats it up. At one point, Alfalfa looks off-stage at Butch and cockily nods in his direction, as if protected by the mere fact he is on stage.

Immediately after, Butch and Woim leave to switch costumes with the two off-stage boys, returning wearing masks to conceal their identities. The dance number finally concludes. The angry dance teacher grabs Spanky but Alfalfa eludes her and stays on stage by himself. The audience is cheering wildly. The orchestra takes the cue and begins playing new music to accompany the 'encore". As the band plays, the prancing Alfalfa is soon joined by the disguised Butch and Woim. Alfalfa thinks they are the two ballet dancers who were waiting in the wings, and ask them to work with him, because there are two tough guys after him. But Woim and then Butch dramatically take off their masks, much to Alfalfa's horror.

Soon Alfalfa is being stomped, manhandled, and then twirled in the air by Butch (causing Alfalfa to dizzily cross his eyes and moan). Butch completes the carnage by flinging Alfalfa offstage, much to the continued delight of the audience, who thinks this is all part of the show. Butch and Woim begin proudly taking their bows. Spanky escapes the grasp of the now-apoplectic dance teacher and runs across the stage to the other side to check on Alfalfa.

As Butch and Woim continue to take their bows, they are each unexpectedly hit in the face with tomatoes, courtesy the newly-emboldened Buckwheat and Porky, who then blissfully join arms and saunter out of the school as the episode fades to black

Commentary
"Rushin' Ballet" is among the all-time greats of Little Rascals lore, not only in the Alfalfa era, but of any era. Like most of the best Little Rascals films, one of its chief attributes is that it moves very quickly and gets a great deal accomplished in the time allotted—in this case, within the ten-minute one reel format. Watching a masterful episode such as this one reminds us how challenging it must have been for the Hal Roach writers and directors to put together a typical one-reeler, and how easy they made it look, considering all the issues they had to address in a brief ten-minute window. The episode's theme had to be set, characters had to be introduced, and situations developed. A cogent story line needed to be established. Dialogue had the twin responsibility of being witty as well serving to advance the story line. Then, within this framework, individual characters had to be spotlighted and their talents showcased. Finally, and above all, the whole thing had to be funny. In ten minutes or less.

"Rushin' Ballet" was a complete success on all counts, and was quite possibly the definitive Butch vs. Alfalfa episode. It contained a David vs. Goliath "theme within a theme": The episode opens with Butch and Woim harassing Buckwheat and Porky, and evolves into a classic battle of Butch/Woim vs. Alfalfa/Spanky, acting on behalf of the original, younger victims. And the episode is wrapped up into a neat package by the bookend effect of Buckwheat and Porky exacting their own revenge by presenting their tormentors with their own tomato surprise. One would be hard-pressed to identify another Little Rascals episode (or another Alfalfa episode at least) that is as structurally well-organized and proceeds so efficiently and confidently ("Pay As You Exit" comes to mind.)


William "Buckwheat" Thomas,
ca. "Rushin' Ballet".

Tommy Bond as Butch has never been better than he is in this entry, especially in the scene where he and Woim try to find Alfalfa and Spanky in the basement dressing room. The latter two are of course right behind Butch disguised none too convincingly as ballet dummies (Alfalfa even accidentally blurts out their
presence as such), and it is fairly obvious that only an absolute idiot would not be able to find them. But the scene—which might stretch the limits of credibility in the hands of other less talented performers—is instead totally credible, mainly because of Tommy's skillful acting. His handling of the scene manages to be broadly comical without sacrificing the subtlety that makes the whole thing work so flawlessly.


Sid Kibrick and Tommy Bond.

This episode also seems to have particular appeal for younger viewers. Not because it is sophomoric or juvenile, but because of its simple themes and memorable moments such as the tomato attacks (there are three of them in "Rushin' Ballet") and the ballet recital scene. This sequence features Alfalfa and Spanky in a situation that generations of little boys probably considered to be their worst nightmare. The classic close-up of a cross-eyed Alfalfa being twirled around by Butch and Woim, is also a perennial favorite of viewers of all ages.

The performance of Kathryn Sheldon as the apoplectic stage director also deserves special mention. Sheldon played a similar, albeit non-speaking role in "Arbor Day" eleven months earlier, and her wonderfully hammy portrayal is the final ingredient that helps make this episode such a classic.

The last great entry of Alfalfa's Little Rascal "middle period", "Rushin' Ballet" is one of a handful of episodes that seem to get better and better with each repeated viewing.

4alfalfa.com gives this one

5 cowlicks (out of a possible 5)

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