Bored of Education

Infobox Film
name = Bored of Education


image_size =
caption =
director = Gordon Douglas
producer = F. Richard Jones
Hal Roach
writer = Carl Harbaugh
Hal Roach
H. M. Walker
Hal Yates
starring = George McFarland
Carl Switzer
Darla Hood
Eugene "Porky" Lee
Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas
John Collum
Sidney Kibrick
Harold Switzer
Joe Geil
Rosina Lawrence
music = Marvin Hatley
cinematography = Art Lloyd
editing = William H. Ziegler
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = August 20, 1936
runtime = 10 minutes
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "Arbor Day"
followed_by = "Two Too Young"
amg_id = 1:73836
imdb_id = 0027385

"Bored of Education" is a one-reel comedy short film; part of the "Our Gang" (Little Rascals) series. It was produced by Hal Roach, directed by Gordon Douglas, and originally released to theatres on August 20 1936 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the 146th "Our Gang" short (58th talking episode) that was released and was based on 1930 short "Teacher's Pet".

Plot

It's the first day of school. Alfalfa and look toward to meeting their new teacher Miss Lawrence (Rosina Lawrence) with fear and loathing. Hoping to skip out of class, Spanky fabricates a phony toothache for Alfalfa, using a balloon stuffed inside his pal's cheek. Miss Lawrence overhears their plan and so she decides to serve ice cream to her new students. When the students are told to sing "Good Morning To You", Alfalfa does not sing and Miss Lawrence asks why he did not. Alfalfa claims he is sick and Spanky asks to take him home. Miss Lawrence obliges but not until the two kids see the Ice Cream Man arrive. They then change their minds about playing hookey. But in order to have the ice cream, Alfalfa is forced to sing an entire song. Unfortunately, Alfalfa swallowed the balloon used for his fake toothache a few minutes earlier, causing him a great deal of discomfort and embarrassment. The ice cream melted but Miss Lawrence handed them fresh ice cream. cite web |url=http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/73836/Bored-of-Education/overview |title=New York Times: Bored of Education |accessdate=2008-09-21|work=NY Times]

Notes

Bored of Education was the only "Our Gang" entry to win an Academy Award, which was for short subject of the year. According to Leonard Maltin's book "The Little Rascals: Life & Times Of Our Gang", this film was above average but falls short of many other episodes that were far more deserving.

According to the same book, Producer Hal Roach had intended to begin moving his "Our Gang" short-subject series into a couple features with a few shorts beginning with the 1936 season. This was done with Laurel and Hardy (which was completely in features by 1937) and other properties. He was talked out of it by Louis B. Mayer, the head of Roach's distributor MGM. It was agreed that Roach would make even more episodes per year but they would be shortened from two reels (approximately 20 minutes) to one (approximately ten minutes), beginning with the first release of the 1936-37 season, "Bored of Education." It was also agreed that Roach would do these for three more years ending in 1939. Also each year Roach agreed to produce a feature and possibly increse the amount of feature if the first one did well. He actually made a feature called General Spanky later that year which flopped. As a result, the deal to make additional features was canceled and Roach only made another bunch of 10 minute episodes for the 1937 to 1938 season with one 20 minute episode. A year before the deal with MGM was to expire, Roach would sell the Our gang unit to MGM.

"Bored of Education" was therefore the first in the series to be in the one-reel format, and also the first to be directed by Gordon Douglas. The film introduced actress Rosina Lawrence as the gang's new schoolteacher. The basic plot for this film was the same as for Teacher's Pet from 1930 but less detailed and sentimental. Coincidently, Gordon Douglas, who directed this film, appeared as one of the caterers on "Teacher's Pet".

Academy Award

"Bored of Education" won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in 1936.

Cast

* George McFarland - Spanky
* Carl Switzer - Alfalfa
* Billie Thomas - Buckwheat
* Eugene Lee - Porky
* Darla Hood
* Harold Switzer
* Tommy McFarland
* Jerry Tucker
* Joe Strauch Jr.
* John Collum
* Dickie De Nuet
* Dorian Johnston
* Sidney Kibrick
* Robert Lentz
* Donald Proffitt
* Pete The Pup - Petie
* Rosina Lawrence - Miss Lawrence
* Jack Egan - Ice cream attendant

ee also

* Our Gang filmography

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0027385|title=Bored of Education