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.