Auto Antics

Production Notes[]

Length: One Reel
Producer: Jack Chertok
Director: Edward Cahn
Photography: Harold Marzorati
Editor: Roy Brickner
Titles: None
Writer: Hal Law and Robert A. McGowan
Released: July 22, 1939
Studio: M-G-M

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Baldwin Cooke - Luke
James H. McNamara - Mayor
Joe Levine
Joe Whitehead - The Dogcatcher

The Short[]

Plot: Spanky and Alfalfa have rigged their go-cart with rockets so that they are sure to win the kidmobile race. Butch and The Woim notice this and fetch the dogcatcher to catch the gang's dog, Whiskers, who had caught the troublemakers spying. They'll need five dollars to buy a license and rescue the dog from the pound. Meanwhile, Butch and the Woim have reversed the rockets to carry Spanky and Alfalfa's go-cart backwards, leaving them to win the race themselves. Desperate to win the race for the money to free their dog, the gang goes on with their plans, little suspecting their go-cart has been sabotaged. During the race, which runs down a long hill, Butch and The Woim use dirty tactics to run almost everyone else out of the race, leaving Spanky and Alfalfa as their lone competition. Buckwheat and Porky's car falls apart on its own, with Porky rolling downhill a long way in the cylindrical part of a garbage can. When the race nears the end, Alfalfa sets off their rockets, but since they have been reversed the car starts going backwards. Alfalfa climbs onto the hood so he can steer while Spanky manages to get their go-cart turned around in reverse. Soon they are close behind Butch once more. He tries to run them off the road, but misses and runs off the road himself, dumping him and Woim into a pond. Spanky and Alfalfa win the race, racing next to the pound to rescue Whiskers!
Quotes: None
Notes/Trivia:

The go-cart race was later used in the plot of The Little Rascals movie.
The gag of drivers being blinded by flypaper stuck to their faces (as The Woim made amazingly good throws to stick the paper to Spanky and Alfalfa) had happened before to Farina in One Wild Ride.
This is the last short for Eugene Lee as Porky. He'd be replaced by Robert Blake already in the series as Mickey Gubitosi, his real name.
During the race, Porky and Buckwheat's car falls apart, with Porky rolling downhill in the cylindrical part of a garbage can that had been the hood. Despite being left far behind, they cross the finish line on foot only eight seconds after Spanky and Alfalfa do.
There must have been an election in Greenpoint since Party Fever because Waldo's Uncle Frank is no longer mayor.
Darla Jean Hood got sick in the filming of this short. Carl Switzer caused the cast and crew to take thirty-two takes with the idling dogcatcher's truck. Hood inhaled so much of the truck's exhaust that she passed out and had to be taken to the hospital.
Blooper - When the car carrying Porky (inside an open-ended garbage can) hits the curb, a dummy with Porky's shirt is used for the impact. The dummy fills less than half the garbage can (while the actual Porky kneeling inside the can filled most of it), and the bare dummy arm extending forward has no hand on it.
Blooper: When Butch and the Woim crash, the wires pulling them up in the air are visible. In the next shot, the wires lowering them into the stream are visible.

Sequence[]

Previous Short: Dog Daze
Next Short: Captain Spanky's Show Boat