Beginner's Luck is a 1935 Our Gang

Our Gang

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...

short

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed by Gus Meins

Gus Meins

Gus Meins was a German-American film director. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany.-Career:...

. It was the 135th Our Gang short (47th talking episode) that was released.

Plot

Spanky has been entered into a kiddie amateur show by his pushy stage mother, who thinks he is the greatest actor of his day. Spanky wants nothing to do with this and would rather not act at all. The gang comes up with a plan to disrupt his recitation with peashooters and noisemakers and make him flop.

At the theater, Spanky befriends a little girl (Marianne Edwards

Marianne Edwards

Marianne Edwards was a child actress who appeared in the Our Gang film series from 1934 to 1936. She also appeared in several feature films in the 30's, including Gold Diggers Of 1933, Babes In Toyland with Laurel & Hardy, Stand Up and Cheer! with Shirley Temple and The Wizard Of Oz.Edwards' most...

) who has bombed her act due to stage fright but needs the prize money to buy a special dress. Spanky has a change of heart and decides to win the prize and give the money to the girl. However, word does not get out the gang, who are in the audience prepared to embarrass Spanky any way they can.

Cast

• George McFarland
  George McFarland
  George Robert Phillips "Spanky" McFarland was an American actor most famous for his appearances as a child in the Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s...
  
   - Spanky
• Marianne Edwards
  Marianne Edwards
  Marianne Edwards was a child actress who appeared in the Our Gang film series from 1934 to 1936. She also appeared in several feature films in the 30's, including Gold Diggers Of 1933, Babes In Toyland with Laurel & Hardy, Stand Up and Cheer! with Shirley Temple and The Wizard Of Oz.Edwards' most...
  
   - Daisy Dimple
• Scotty Beckett
  Scotty Beckett
  Scott Hastings "Scotty" Beckett was an American child actor. He starred in the Our Gang and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series.-Early career:...
  
   - Scotty
• Billie Thomas - Buckwheat
• Matthew Beard - Stymie
• Jerry Tucker
  Jerry Tucker
  Jerry Tucker is a former American child actor, most notable for appearing as the "rich kid" in the Our Gang short subjects series semi-regularly from 1931 to 1938....
  
   - Jerry
• Tommy McFarland - Audience extra
• Donald Profitt - Our Gang member
• Sidney Kibrick
  Sidney Kibrick
  Sidney Kibrick is an American former child actor, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1935 to 1939. From 1937 to 1939, he portrayed "The Woim", the sidekick of the neighborhood bully "Butch", played by Tommy Bond.He is the brother of the late Leonard Kibrick,...
  
   - Our Gang member
• Alvin Buckelew - Alvin
• Carl Switzer
  Carl Switzer
  Carl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer was an American child actor, professional dog breeder and hunting guide, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series as Alfalfa, one of the series' most popular and best-remembered characters.-Early life and family:Switzer was born in Paris,...
  
   - Tom
• Harold Switzer
  Harold Switzer
  Harold Frederick Switzer was an American child actor, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series as an extra...
  
   - Jerry
• The Cabin Kids - Themselves
• Merrill Strong - Our Gang member
• Freddie Walburn - Kid with the harmonica
• Eileen Bernstein - Our Gang member
• Cecilia Murray - Our Gang member
• Pete the Pup
  Pete the Pup
  Pete the Pup was a Pit Bull character in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies during the 1920s and 1930s...
  
   - Himself
• Kitty Kelly
  Kitty Kelly
  Kitty Kelly, Sue O'Neil in the life , was an American stage and film character actress. She was best known as a member of the Ziegfeld Follies and her radio hosting with Columbia Broadcasting....
  
   - Spanky's mother
• Tom Herbert - Master of Ceremonies
• May Wallace - Spanky's grandmother
• James C. Morton
  James C. Morton
  James C. Morton was an American character actor. He appeared in 187 films between 1922 and 1943.-Career:...
  
   - Piano player
• Ruth Hiatt
  Ruth Hiatt
  Ruth Hiatt was an actress in motion pictures beginning in the silent film era. She is best known for performing in 1920s comedies directed by Jack White, Norman Taurog, and Mack Sennett.-Child actress:...
  
   - Marianne's mother
• Ernie Alexander - Audience member
• Jack Lipson
  Jack Lipson
  Jack "Tiny" Lipson was an American film actor. He appeared in over 85 films between 1927 and 1948.-Career:...
  
   - Audience member
• Bess Flowers
  Bess Flowers
  Bess Flowers was an American actress. By some counts considered the most prolific actress in the history of Hollywood, she was known as "The Queen of the Hollywood Extras," appearing in over 700 movies in her 41 year career....
  
   - Friend of Spanky's mother
• Charlie Hall - Stage hand