Bored of Education
Bored of Education | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gordon Douglas |
Written by | Robert F. McGowan Carl Harbaugh Hal Law Hal Yates |
Produced by | Hal Roach |
Starring | George McFarland Carl Switzer Eugene Gordon Lee Billie Thomas Darla Hood Rosina Lawrence |
Cinematography | Art Lloyd |
Edited by | William H. Ziegler |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 10' 06 " |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Bored of Educationis a 1936Our Gangshortcomedy filmdirected byGordon Douglas.[1]Produced byHal Roachand released to theaters byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer,it was the 146th entry in theOur Gangseries to be released.[2]
Plot
[edit]It is the first day of school and the kids wait on the school steps with long faces and pouted lips. Worried about the new teacher they'll be getting this term, Spanky and Alfalfa come up with a scheme to get themselves excused from school: Spanky has Alfalfa pretend he has a toothache, going as far as to stuff a balloon in his mouth to sell the idea.
Unknown to the kids, however, the new school teacher, Miss Lawrence, has overheard Spanky and Alfalfa's scheming and has ordered ice cream as a first-day surprise for the class. She sees right through Alfalfa's fibs about being too sick to sing "Good Morning to You"with the rest of the class, and knowingly grants him an excuse to go home (and Spanky an excuse to take him home). The two boys' triumph backfires when they see the ice cream man as he makes his delivery to the rest of their class. Now needing to find a way to get back into school, Spanky pops the balloon in Alfalfa's mouth, and explains to Miss Lawrence," Funny thing, teacher; he's all well now ".
Miss Lawrence agrees to let the boys back in for the ice cream party, but only if Alfalfa will make up for not singing "Good Morning" by rendering another song. However, Alfalfa has accidentally swallowed the stopper from the balloon that constituted his "toothache", so as he steps in front of the class to sing ' "Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms' ", a strange wheeze accompanies every breath he takes between lines. At the conclusion of his song, Spanky and Alfalfa go to get their ice cream only to find that it has melted, but the kind and clever Miss Lawrence hands the boys two fresh ice cream bars.
Notes
[edit]A remake ofTeacher's Pet,Bored of Educationwas also the firstOur Gangentry in the series' revamped one-reel(ten-minute) format, after 14 years of two-reel and three-reel entries.Bored of Educationwon Hal Roach his onlyAcademy AwardforOur Gang,the 1937Academy Award for Short Subjects (One-Reel).[3]
Bored of Educationwas also the firstOur Gangfilm directed byGordon Douglas.Douglas, who had served as assistant director onOur Gangfor some time, made his directorial debut on a 1935 Hal RoachAll Starsshort,The Infernal Triangle.Douglas would remainOur Gang'ssenior director through 1938. With the series now in one-reel format, Douglas had to modify the looser approaches of his predecessors,Robert F. McGowanandGus Meins,and turned theOur Gangseries into slicker, more streamlined shorts based aroundsituation comedy.[4]Ironically, Douglas has a walk-on part inTeacher's Petas a caterer)[5]
By 1936, producer Hal Roach, who had built his studio around popular two-reel comedies, had slowly begun phasing out his short subjects production as movie theaters opted fordouble featureprograms instead of the traditional program of selected short subjects and one feature. Roach had successfully moved his biggest stars,Laurel and Hardy,to full-time feature production in 1935. Rather than cancelOur Gang,however, Roach continued the series at the behest of his distributor,Louis B. Mayerof MGM.[4]Keeping the series in production, however, required Roach to halve the lengths of theOur Gangfilms from two-reels to one.
Also formally introduced toOur GanginBored of Educationwas Roach actressRosina LawrenceasOur Gang'snew schoolteacher "Miss Jones".[4]Lawrence appeared in five moreOur Gangshorts during the 1936-37 cycle of shorts.
Bored of Educationwon Roach theAcademy Award for Short Subjects (One-Reel),the onlyOur Gangfilm so honored. In their review for the short in their bookThe Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang,film historiansLeonard Maltinand Richard W. Bann felt that the award seemed to be "a product of whim or timing, rather than strictly a consideration of merit", noting earlier and later shorts–Teacher's Petamong them–they felt were overlooked.[4]
Bored of Educationwas preserved by theAcademy Film Archive,in conjunction with theUCLA Film and Television Archive,in 2013.[6]In 2022,Bored of Educationwas digitally re-scanned from the original35mm filmmaster prints using updated transfer technology, and further restored by ClassicFlix, who licensed the entire Hal Roach-eraOur Gangseries for release onBlu-ray.[7]
The short's title is a pun on the term "Board of Education", a government agency in the United States that is responsible for the overall management of its public school system.
Cast
[edit]The Gang
[edit]- Darla Hoodas Darla
- Eugene Leeas Porky
- George McFarlandas Spanky
- Carl Switzeras Alfalfa
- Billie Thomasas Buckwheat
- Pete The Pupas Himself
Additional cast
[edit]- Rosina Lawrenceas Miss Lawrence
- Jack Egan as Ice cream attendant
Classroom extras
[edit]Patsy Barry, Daniel Boone,John Collum,Joe "Corky" Geil, Barbara Goodrich,Sidney Kibrick,Robert Lentz, Patsy May, Tommy McFarland, Dickie De Nuet, Donald Proffitt,Harold "Slim" Switzer,
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^"Silent Era: Small Talk".silentera.RetrievedSeptember 16,2008.
- ^Maltin, Leonard; Bann, Richard W. (1977).Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals.Crown Publishers. pp. 192–193.RetrievedMarch 3,2024.
- ^"The 9th Academy Awards (1937) Nominees and Winners".oscars.org.Archivedfrom the original on July 6, 2011.RetrievedAugust 7,2011.
- ^abcdMaltin, Leonard & Bann, Richard W (1977, rev. 1992). The Little Rascals: The Life & Times of Our Gang. New York: Crown Publishing/Three Rivers Press. p. 169-171.ISBN0-517-58325-9.
- ^Maltin, Leonard & Bann, Richard W (1977, rev. 1992). The Little Rascals: The Life & Times of Our Gang. p. 99.
- ^"Preserved Projects".Academy Film Archive.
- ^"The Little Rascals - the Complete Collection (Centennial Edition) Blu-ray - ClassicFlix".