Hide And Shriek

l-r Buckwheat, Alfalfa, Porky

Production Notes

Length: One Reel
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Gordon Douglas
Photography: Norbert Brodine
Editor: William Ziegler
Titles: None
Writer: Unrevealed
Released: June 18, 1938
Studio: M-G-M

Main Cast

• Carl Switzer
• Darla Jean Hood
• Gary Jasgar
• Leonard Landy
• Eugene Lee
• William Thomas Jr.

Supporting Cast

• Billy Bletcher - Haunted Attraction Voice
• Fred Holmes - Janitor

The Short

Plot: Alfalfa has been reading several Sherlock Holmes stories and How To Become A Junior Detective, and now considers himself a detective, calling himself X-10, "Sooper-Slooth." He also brings in Porky and Buckwheat as sidekicks, referring to them as X-6 and X-6 1/2, respectively. Darla comes to him to find out who took her candy, and Alfalfa trails Percy and Gary after suspecting them of taking it. They trail the two boys to a truck and hide in crates taken to an amusement park haunted house at the pier. Upon coming out of the crate, Alfafa, Porky and Buckwheat have no idea where they are. Alfalfa flips a switch thinking its for the lights and turns on the attraction. They experience swooping goblins and skeletons, eerie lights, buzz saws, ghoulish music and fake traps, before they are dumped outside. On the run home, they pass Darla who confesses she left her candy in her baby carriage. Alfalfa meanwhile decides to quit the detective business, hanging out an "Out of Bizzness" sign.
Quotes:

• "Many enter this evil house, but few escape alive." - Haunted Attraction Voice
  
• "What would Sherlock's Home do in a time like this?" - Alfalfa
  

Notes/Trivia:

• Spanky doesn't appear in this short, but he does return for four more years of shorts before leaving after Unexpected Riches.
  
• This was the last of the Hal Roach comedies. After this, Roach sold the Our Gang studio to M-G-M.
  
• All the haunted attraction effects were created by Charlie Oelze, who created much of the Little Rascals gadgetry in the series. The flopping figure in the attraction was actually one of the bogey man costumes left over from the film, March of the Wooden Soldiers (aka "Babes in Toyland"), which starred Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and several of the peripheral Rascals playing the school children in the cast. The cave sets from the movie had even been recycled in Mama's Little Pirate.
• This short's copyright was renewed by Hal Roach Studios on December 2, 1965 (No. R374808).
• This was originally gonna be the series finale meaning this would've been the last appearances of Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky, Darla, Junior and Leonard.
  • Alfalfa would have the last line of the series.
  • George McFarland wouldn't return as Spanky in Aladdin's Lantern.

Sequence

• Previous Short: The Awful Tooth
• Next Short: The Little Ranger

---