Bored of Education

I am a grouch. After having seen most of the sound Our Gang comedies, I really have come to hate Alfalfa (and, to a lesser extent, Darla). That's because starting in the Alfalfa/Darla era, there suddenly was singing and sometimes dancing in the film. And, in the case of Alfalfa, a little of his deliberately horrible singing goes a long way--at least for me.

In this installment, the boys are complaining about having to return to school after their vacation. Spanky gets the bright idea of having Alfalfa pretend to have a toothache so they can go home. But, the teacher overhears this and foils their plans. In the end, she makes Alfalfa sing--perhaps in an evil plan to torture Spanky (as well as the audience). All in all, this is a fair short but far from their best--which is very confusing since this one, inexplicably, won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short. Why? I have no idea.

What I remember from films of this era was the presentation of toothaches. With the poor quality of dentistry, the patient would wrap a kerchief around their head and hand the swollen jaw from it. In this episode, Spanky and Alfalfa figure an elaborate plan to leave during the first day of school. Unfortunately for them, the teacher eavesdrops on their plan. What follows is an unfortunate series of events caused by their efforts.

I'm not surprised that these children are a bit downhearted at the start of their school term. With over two hundred days until their next vacation, "Spanky" (George McFarland) and his friend "Porky" (Eugene Lee) come up with a wheeze to get them out of the day's lessons. Using a balloon and a headscarf bandage, "Spanky" feigns illness to the new teacher (Rosina Lawrence) who looks like she's straight out of a "Snow White" cartoon. She's no fool, though, so plays along with their gag whilst making sure that they will soon rue their actions. It's quite an engagingly mischievous ten minutes this with a fun team effort from the children and quite possibly the most tone deaf bit of singing I've ever heard! Give it a go for ten minutes, it is bound to raise a smile.

This is the only Academy Award winning Our Gang film for Best Short Subject Comedy. This should be prominently noted and displayed. It won, but there are other shows that were much better, like Love Business, Free Wheeling, and Mush and Milk. Enjoy.

By 1936, double features, with an assorted short film, became the norm. MGM studios, distributor to Hal Roach's "Our Gang" series, still found a wide audience for their little rascals, but wanted a more slimed down version than the previous 20-minute two-reeler. Producer Roach, who had wanted to end the series, agreed to go with the 10-minute format, with the first one-reeler premiering in August 1936's "Bored of Education."

The movie was the only Academy Award win for "Our Gang" under Roach's supervision, who accepted the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film (One Reel) during its 9th ceremony. As a remake of the gang's 1930 two-reeler 'Teacher's Pet,' the short was Gordon Douglas first directed film with the rascals. As an assistant director for Roach and the "Our Gang" series since 1934, he was an experienced hand in cinema, hired as a teenager at the Hal Roach Studios in the late 1920s. He handled the kids through 1938 before directing Laurel & Hardy feature films as well as a wide variety of full-length movies. He's known to have been the only filmmaker to have directed both Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.

Douglas was forced to streamline the kids' plot since the production was cut in half. Unlike 'Teacher's Pet,' the director got right down to the point in having Spanky and Alfalfa living in dread facing the new year at school with a brand new teacher, Miss Lawrence (Rosina Lawrence). Unbeknownst to the pair, the teacher ordered ice cream for the students to break the ice. Alfalfa, who's sporting a fake tooth ache by way of an inflated balloon in his mouth, gets permission to go home, escorted by Spanky. When they find out they're missing out on the ice cream, the two try to weasel their way back into the classroom, with interesting results.

Some film reviewers on the "Our Gang" series say the Oscar win for this particular episode, the rascals' 146th, was more "a product of whim or timing, rather than strictly a consideration of merit." They point to other shorts, such as the original 'Teacher's Pet,' as more deserving. Nonetheless, the rascals can cite something that most in the industry never received: an Oscar.