Mama's Little Pirate

Production Notes[]

Length: Two Reel
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Gus Meins
Photography: Art Lloyd
Editor: Bert Jordan
Titles:
Writer: Hal Roach
Released: November 3, 1934
Studio: M-G-M

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Claudia Dell - Spanky's Mother
Gilbert Hullett
Joe Young - Spanky's Father
Marylin Bourne
Paul Rodriguez
Tex Madsen - The Pirate
Billy Bletcher - The Pirate (voice)

The Short[]

Plot: Over breakfast, Spanky's Father reads a newspaper story about a pirate fortune found off the coast. Spanky is so wrapped in the story he doesn't notice how much sugar he's spooning into his oatmeal, but once he realizes, he just dumps it all into his pop's bowl. Spanky rounds up the gang and find a cave, but it's too dark so Spanky returns home to get a flashlight he isn't allowed to handle. Spanky is grounded for disobeying his mother (who has forbidden him to go, as it's too dangerous and he might end up breaking something irreplaceable), and in his bedroom Spanky is confronted by his conscience and inspired to sneak out with candles and go back to the cave with the gang.

The gang goes exploring and after a few minutes Stymie discovers an immense chest, and when he flips the lock up, it vomits forward a flood of gold coins, rubies, diamond-covered crowns and fine jewels. It's far more than they can carry, but they make their best efforts to fill and carry away in their pockets as much as possible. Their plan to leave, which involved tying a long string to Buckwheat outside, fails when he is found in the room outside the treasure. As the gang looks for an exit, they find a cavern with much larger furniture than normal dotted with enormous footprints. Then loud roars come from outside the cavern and a seven-foot-tall bass-voiced pirate dressed in fur enters and goes on about his own business before discovering them, their booty pouring from their pockets as they try sneaking out. Incensed they would try to rob him, he races after each of them, hanging the kids on meat hooks as he grabs them. Just as Spanky is about to be the last to be caught by the giant, he wakes up. The whole thing was a dream and he wakes to realize the gang's calls were coming from his bedroom window calling for him. Haunted by his dream and seeing what might happen, Spanky refuses to join in.

Quotes:

'That boy's a whirlwind when he gets going." - Spanky's Father
"Aw, a fellow can't do nothin'. " - Spanky
"Well, men, should we take it all?" - Spanky
"Well, it certainly ain't no midget!" - Spanky
"Certainly ain't no midget!" - Stymie

Notes/Trivia:

Actress Claudia Dell replays Spanky's mother in Anniversary Trouble.
In this short, the Little Rascals hometown, later named Greenpoint, is placed in California, but in the late MGM shorts, it was moved to New York.
The cave set is recycled from the Laurel & Hardy feature, "March of the Wooden Soldiers" (aka "Babes In Toyland"), which also starred Rascals Johnny Downs, Jean Darling, Scott Beckett, Jerry Tucker (actor), Jackie Lynn Taylor and Marianne Edwards. Coincidentally, Henry Brandon would resurrect his character of Barnaby from that movie in Our Gang Follies Of 1938.
Billy Bletcher, who dubs in the voice of the pirate, also played Wally's father in The First Round-Up and performed the huffing and puffing for the Big Bad Wolf in Disney's "Three Little Pigs."
Leonard Maltin calls this short the possible inspiration for Steven Spielberg's 1985 feature film, "The Goonies."

Sequence[]

Previous Short: Washee Ironee
Next Short: Shrimps For A Day