General Spanky
| General Spanky | |
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| Directed by | Fred Newmeyer Gordon Douglas |
| Produced by | Hal Roach |
| Written by | Richard Flournoy John Guedel Carl Harbaugh Hal Yates |
| Starring | "Spanky" McFarland Phillips Holmes Rosina Lawrence Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer |
| Music by | Marvin Hatley |
| Cinematography | Art Lloyd Walter Lundin |
| Studio | Hal Roach Studios |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | December 11, 1936 |
| Running time | 71 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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 "Spanky" McFarland, Phillips Holmes, Rosina Lawrence, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer. Directed by Fred Newmeyer and Gordon Douglas, it was originally released to theatres 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. As a result, the film was part of the MGM catalog acquired by in 1986 by Turner Entertainment, who holds the rights today as a subsidiary of Warner Bros. General Spanky was released on VHS and laserdisc in the early 1990s. As of 2011, it has not been made available in DVD or Blu-ray Disc format.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
- George McFarland - Spanky
- Phillips Holmes - Marshall 'Marsh' Valient
- Ralph Morgan - Yankee General
- Irving Pichel - Capt. Simmons The Gambler
- Rosina Lawrence - Louella Blanchard
- Billie Thomas - Buckwheat
- Carl Switzer - Alfalfa
- Hobart Bosworth - 2nd Lieutenant
- Robert Middlemass - Overseer
- James Burtis - Boat Captain
- Louise Beavers - Mammy Cornella
- Willie Best - Henry the lazy slave
- Jerry Tucker - Our Gang member
- Harold Switzer - Our Gang member
- Flaette Roberts - Flaette
- Rex Downing - Our Gang member
- Dickie DeNuet - Our Gang member
- John Collum - Our Gang member
- Von The Dog - Von
- Buddy Roosevelt - 1st Lieutenant
- Walter Gregory - Captain Haden
- Jack Daugherty - General's Aid
- Henry Hall - Slavemaster
- Hooper Atchley - Slavemaster
- Karl Hackett - First mate
- Frank LaRule - Slavemaster
- Harry Bernard - Man on the boat
- Ernie Alexander - Boat passenger
- Jack Hill - Bit role
- Ham Kinsley - Bit role
- Jack Cooper (not Jackie Cooper) - Bit role
- Slim Whittaker - Bit role
[edit] Awards
The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound (Elmer A. Raguse).[1]
[edit] References
- ^ "The 9th Academy Awards (1936) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/9th-winners.html. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
[edit] External links
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