General Spanky is a 1936 American comedy film produced by Hal Roach. A spin-off of Roach's popular Our Gang short subjects, the film stars George McFarland, Phillips Holmes, Rosina Lawrence, Billie Thomas and Carl Switzer. Directed by Fred Newmeyer and Gordon Douglas, it was originally released to theaters on December 11, 1936, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
This film, a Civil War period piece, was intended as an experiment to determine if Roach could move Our Gang into features, as the double feature and block booking were slowly smothering his short subjects production. The film was a box-office disappointment and, after another year of shorts production, Roach ended up selling the Our Gang unit to MGM in May 1938.
When Roach bought the rights to the back catalog of Our Gang films he had produced from MGM in 1949, he did not buy back the rights to General Spanky. The film was part of the pre-May 1986 MGM catalog acquired in 1986 by Turner Entertainment Co., which holds the rights today as a subsidiary of Warner Bros. General Spanky was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1991. In 2016, it was released on DVD in Region 1 by Warner Bros. via their Warner Archive Collection.
Plot
Spanky (George McFarland), Alfalfa (Carl Switzer), Buckwheat (Billie Thomas) and others form an army called "The Royal Protection of Women and Children Regiment Club of the World and Mississippi River". The group sees unexpected action when Union troops approach, engaging in battles more farcical than fierce. Using clowning tactics instead of military tactics, the kids stop the advance . . . and later save an adult friend from the firing squad.
Cast
Principal cast
Spanky McFarland as Spanfield George 'Spanky' Leonard
Phillips Holmes as Marshall "Marsh" Valient
Ralph Morgan as Yankee General
Irving Pichel as Capt. Simmons, The Gambler
Rosina Lawrence as Louella Blanchard
Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas as Buckwheat
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Alfalfa
Hobart Bosworth as Col. Blanchard
Robert Middlemass as Overseer
James Burtis as Boat Captain
Louise Beavers as Cornelia
William Best as Henry, the lazy slave
Additional cast
Harold Switzer as Harold
Jerry Tucker as Jerry
Flayette Roberts as Flayette—Gang kid in Army
John Collum as Our Gang member
Rex Downing as Our Gang member
Dickie De Nuet as Our Gang member
Ernie Alexander as Friend of Marshall
Hooper Atchley as Slavemaster
Harry Bernard as Man on the boat
Jack Daugherty as General's Aid
Walter Gregory as Capt. Haden
Karl Hackett as First mate
Henry Hall as Slavemaster
Ham Kinsey as Man with paint on shoes
Frank LaRue as Slavemaster
Richard R. Neil as Col. Parrish
Buddy Roosevelt as Lt. Johnson
Jeffrey Sayre as Friend of Marshall
Carl Voss as Second Lieutenant
Jack Cooper as Bit role
Alex Finlayson as Bit role
Jack Hill as Bit role
Portia Lanning as Bit role
Harry Strang as Bit role
Slim Whittaker as Bit role
Von the Dog as Von
Awards
The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound Recording (Elmer A. Raguse).