General Spanky (1936)

 

            I am working on a list of my favorite performances by pre-teen characters and it reminded me of a movie I saw a long time ago and never wrote a review of.  My generation fondly remembers the Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals) shorts.  Hal Roach first produced the shorts in 1922.  In 1931, its most popular child star joined the cast.  George McFarland played Spanky.  Later, Buckwheat (Billie Thomas) and Alfalfa (George Switzer) joined the gang.  By 1936, movie theaters were moving away from showing shorts before the main feature and were instead going to double features.  Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to feature length movies, so Hal Roach hoped Our Gang could do it as well.  The first attempt was “General Spanky”.  Unfortunately, it was a disappointment at the box office and it was the only feature made with the Little Rascals.  When the series ended in 1944, 220 shorts had been made and the one feature film.  41 child actors cut their teeth as regular cast members in the series.

            The movie opens with the iconic “Where’s Buckwheat?”  “Here I is.”  Buckwheat could be a poster boy for ebonics.  Spanky is an orphan shining shoes when his state secedes.  He is friends with an adult named Marsh who is opposed to secession, so his father-in-law-to-be evicts him from the plantation.  Spanky convinces the pacifistic Marsh that sometimes you have to fight.  Marsh adopts Spanky and gives him a slave -  Buckwheat.  War breaks out and Marsh becomes an officer.  Alfalfa, Spanky and Buckwheat form The Royal Protection of “Women and Children Regiment of the World and Mississippi River” army.  They’ve gone from being he-men hating women to protecting them.  They build a  fort and fire a fake cannon to cause the villain and his Yankees to retreat.  There is a battle scene that is surprisingly not terrible.  Marsh is captured, but Spanky keeps him from being executed. 

            Considering Spanky is a secessionist who owns a slave, the movie is not as offensive as you would think.  Don’t get me wrong, I definitely would not show it to an elementary class.  But I also do not think it would be on the censorship list in Florida.  It does have two songs sung by seemingly content slaves and the word “pickaninny” is tossed without shame.  But this vibe is not that far off from “Gone With the Wind”.  In fact, “General Spanky” is sort of a GWTW for four-year-olds.  Thankfully, the movie ends abruptly before it becomes too pro-South.  I would not compare George McFarland to Clark Gable, but he was quite good as a child actor and the trio of McFarland, Switzer, and Thomas are fun to watch, especially if you are already fond of the characters.

            “General Spanky” is a movie that should only be watched by preteens with their parents (or grandparents).  It is an entertaining trifle that has some decent slapstick.  It has the opposite of modern day war film’s quick cuts.  Scenes tend to linger.  It is important that when you watch it with a child that you give some perspective to the silliness.  As loveable as Spanky is, he is on the wrong side of the war.  And the Buckwheat character needs to be explained as a product of the pre-Civil Rights era.  Few in 1936 theaters would have found Buckwheat offensive.  Times change and I don’t want to sound woke, but we don’t need a remake of this movie.  Treat it as a curio.  But also treat it as a fun way to introduce the Civil War to youngsters.  And make sure they know that the “Royal Protection of Women and Children Regiment of the World and Mississippi River” was not on the winning side.  And Spanky won’t have his slave after the war.

GRADE  =  C-