phillyboy-02189 "Beginner's Luck" has Spanky being forced to go on the stage by his Mother and the gang coming up with a plot to sabotage his act. Spanky meets a little girl who needs the prize money so he decides to win.This short starts off rather slow and there just aren't to many laughs at all. Even after they arrive at the theater it's really watching the actions of Spanky's Mother and the way she tries to handle the Master of Ceremonies after he is sick of waiting for Spanky to be ready he lets all other acts go on before him. Just before he goes on he tries to go tell the gang of his change of mind but his Mother won't let him only to insist she will talk to the boys. Of course any fan of the rascals will know she can't convince them of her son's change of mind but rather she makes them think Spanky wants their intervention more than ever.When Spanky finally takes the stage the gang erupt with peashooters and noise makers. The audience believe this is a spoof of Shakespere and begin to laugh along. Spanky is trying to recite while trying to dodge barrages of peashooters and wild noises coming from the gang. He uses his shield to fend off the waves of peas and the audience is really beginning to enjoy his act everyone is laughing at his antics except his Mother who is standing in the stage wings taking it all in and very upset that her son is being laughed at. Spanky's Mother watches as the peas are shot from the gang and then the laughter starts she then starts to wave for him to come off only to have the MC wave him to go on. it gets so bad you can see her trying to talk and no words come out.She turns to the MC and asks if he will take her son off ,the man can't believe his ears as this kid is a major hit and the audience is in near hysterics watching him. Of course he refuses her request as they both continue to watch him. Spanky eventually flips down his visor and can't free it and starts to fumble around the stage only adding to the level of the laughter. That's the last straw and the Mother demands he be taken off only to be rejected again then she decides she will run onstage herself but her actions were stopped by the MC who won't have this act ruined. The furious Mother goes to the back stage-curtain with a stage-pole and tries to hook her boy and pull him off. This too adds to the comical performance and raises the laughter as he attempts to avoid the pole. The short has made up for it's early boring parts with Spanky's stage show it is nothing short of side splitting laughter. The added bonus is Spanky's Mother's planned rescue of her son. At one point she takes off the piano players toupee another she inserts the pole into an electrical outlet and gives herself a huge shock kicking her to sit back of her heels writhing her hands. This last action is seen by only the Grandmother and the MC who both love watching the young Mother suffer.Each attempt she makes fails until she hooks his boot and starts to pull him off as he is fighting her all the way. The audience is near bedlam laughing at this kid being dragged off by someone unseen behind the curtain. The mother is using all her strength and starts to have him close just as this point the scene changes to Spanky's grandmother and the MC both laughing in the stage wings as the old woman looks behind the curtain at her daughter she taps the MC on the shoulder and says "Here's where we stop the show!" the MC bends over with laughter but gives his approval. The granny starts to pull down on the ropes rising the back curtain and catching the mother's dress and hiking that up with it. The audience is howling at the mother's attempt to keep her dress on as its keeps going higher until it finally tears off her. Spanky has freed his visor in time to see his mom has joined his stage act and how the grandmother has exposed her to the audience. Spanky's mother has frozen from her experience and just kneeling onstage in a petrified state. Spanky pulls a stage prop in front of his mother but this results in one of the funniest scenes of all the Rascals shorts a fine sight gag."Beginner's luck" far exceeds the perceived ideas the viewer has starting when Spanky starts his act and his Mother's various attempts to then stop the show and get him off the stage. Up to that point it's a major success but really turns into something else when Spanky's Mother goes behind the curtain and has herself turned into a laughing stock of. Watching her fall victim to the MC and the grandmother is priceless. The way they set her up throughout the short is something that greatly adds so much. Spanky's mother becomes the poor misfortunate fly the lands on the spider web and can't get herself out. Looking at her loosing the dress then the hapless way she stays on stage with the prop in place is one of the funniest things in the history of the Our Gang and a fine example of stripped humiliation. Of course it is all enjoyable as it is much well deserved that the Mother gets her comeuppance after watching her antics throughout the short. The Mother that wanted to stop the laughter her son was receiving had herself made an ever larger laughing stock.

BigStar303 . There are many Our Gang shorts that I love dearly, and many that bring a smile or a warm feeling inside. Out of all of them, this is the one that can truly cause me to laugh out loud. Of course, the laughter of the audience is infectious and tends to help things along, but Spanky's continued stumbling about as one disaster after another befalls him is priceless.Something to note about the reviews: one reviewer, who has posted under several different names here, is clearly obsessed with this film. I have encountered him over the years on other forums besides this one, and his thoughts on "Beginner's Luck" remain the same. He can be identified (across his multiple identities) by his habit of not putting spaces after periods — and alternately, of putting a space BEFORE a comma and none after!Leaving aside the content of his reviews, how anyone who reads the English language could get the idea that it can or should be written this way is beyond me.

jt74455 There is an unwritten rule that runs through the rascals shorts that the villain always gets theirs in the end .We have seen this come into play with the bully ,the brat, the dishonest businessman,the cheat all getting theirs and are usually made the laughing stock of in the end.With a few exceptions such as Dickie's father in "Birthday Blues" who beats his son savagely and has nothing happen to him at all to Wally's mother in "Honkey Donkey" who actually is only guilty of being very wealthy and has a mule chase her after she sneezes all over the house ,down the stairs and out into the spacious gardens.Wally's mom is chased till the donkey knocks her into a fountain and she emerges from under the water to spew water from her mouth like some type of fancy ornament,as the donkey laughs hysterically at her. This brings us to "Beginner's Luck" where Spanky's mother is the villain.She has put her son into a local talent show against his will and he has received help from the gang who promise to hiss and boo and destroy his act.However Spanky has a change of plans ,as he now needs to win the prize so he can help a little girl buy a special dress.Spanky asks his mom can he go into the audience and tell his friends of his change of plans but she refuses as he is about to go on and insists she will deliver his message to them.She has no idea that Spanky wants to flop and the gang was ready to bombard him with peashooters and noisemakers.Spanky's mom does use her power as a mom and an authority figure as she says to the gang"Remember boys we want Spanky to win",but she fails to make them understand and they agree to go ahead with their plan and give him the works.Spanky's mother is beaming as she walks away from them and back to the stage wings thinking that the audience will fall in love with Spanky as a Shakespearian actor ,she could never imagine the cruel twist of fate that awaits her for failing to deliver the correct message .Spanky's mother is a true stage mother trying to relive some faded glory that eluded her through her son.She did not ask Spanky if he wanted to pursue this venture and didn't listen to her own mother when she tried to intervene and save Spanky from this.She has shown herself to be pushy as she has had numerous run ins with the MC backstage.She has one goal for Spanky to win first prize and be a hit on the stage. Well the gang goes ahead with their plan to ruin Spanky's act .Spanky's mom rushes to save her son from the cruel audience laughter and pull him off from behind the back curtain.The MC informs the little girl that Spank has won the prize as a comedy act.Grandma raises the curtain to deliver lesson to her daughter for putting Spanky on the stage.A hook snags Spanky's mother's dress hem and it starts to rise along with the curtain ripping her dress off on the stage amid howls of uncontrollable laughter from the audience.Grandma has made a comedic burlesque stripper out of her daughter to be ogled as a sex object by the male audience members who love to see this pretty girl wiggle about frantically trying to free herself as her dress hikes higher and higher.She is being laughed at by everyone including the gang who mustlove seeing this happen.Spanky rushes to hide his now frozen mother from the vicious audience laughter as she kneels on stage gazing up to see where her dress went with a piece of scenery resulting in her head on top of a caricature of an animals body.Spanky's mother is degraded and humiliated in her attempt to rescue Spanky from being laughed at and now is herself made much more of a laughing stock with the audience in complete bedlam at the sight of her.She did get everything she wanted ,Spanky has won first prize and was a big hit,although she never expected that she would wind upjoining the act .Spanky's mother may have actually enjoyed being the center of attention in her truly unforgettable stage appearance. She has been given the most embarrassing comeuppance of all the rascals villains ,but I don't believe she was all that bad and really didn'deserve her fate.Maybe she got this treatment from the Roach studios for being a stage mother which they must have had to deal with all the time. The viewer enjoys watching Spanky's mother being made a hysterical spectacle of and the viewer laughs along with the the theater audience at the fate that is dealt out to Spaky's mom.

Ron Oliver An OUR GANG Comedy Short.To his embarrassment, Spanky's mom enters him in a talent contest. He immediately gets the Gang's help in a plan to lose. Once on stage, however, Spanky meets a sweet little girl & his plans change. Now he'll need real BEGINNER'S LUCK to have a chance of winning...A very funny little film, with Spanky in rare form. Highlight: Spanky's performance on stage. This was the film debut for Alfalfa (he sings `She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain').