Shiver My Timbers

Production Notes[]

Length: Two Reel
Producer: Hal Roach and Robert F. McGowan
Director: Robert F. McGowan
Photography: Art Lloyd
Editor: Richard Currier
Titles:
Writer: Hal Roach
Released: October 10, 1931
Studio: M-G-M

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Billy Gilbert - Sea Captain
Charles Oelze - Pirate
Cy Slocum - Pirate
Dick Gilbert - Pirate
Harry Bernard - Pirate
Jack Hill - Pirate
June Marlowe - Miss Crabtree

The Short[]

Plot: The gang has been playing hooky and skipping school to go visit the Sea Captain and listen to his old tall tales from the ocean. When Miss Crabtree gets frustrated by these absentees, she visits the captain to get his help in chasing the kids back to school and, together, they plot a scheme to scare the gang straight. When they return, the captain makes the kids think the is taking them out to sea as pirates (the boat actually never leaves the dock) with the purpose of scaring them out of their minds. He hires his crew to act as pirates in an attempt to even further scare the kids. Sure enough, the scheme the school teacher and captain have cooked up works.
Quotes:

"We had a pole cat under our house once, and boy did we take a trip!" - Stymie
"Oh, you vacated, huh?" - Wheezer
"Vacated nothin', we fumigated!" - Stymie

Notes/Trivia:

This was the first short for Jerry Tucker.
The Rascals had previously played 'pirates' in The Buccaneers, but Shiver My Timbers is not a remake of that short.

This short may have inspired the Laurel & Hardy short, "The Live Ghost."
Charlie Oelze, the Our Gang prop master is one of the pirates. The role was orginally meant for a professional actor, but he did too good of a job in scaring the Rascals (as they showed fear of him in reality). Oelze replaced the actor because the kids knew who he was, and therefore knew he was only acting.
This and four other shorts were later remade by King World in clay animation form, using the original soundtracks from the films.

Sequence[]

Previous Short: Big Ears
Next Short: Dogs Is Dogs