Free Wheeling

Dickie and Stymie

Production Notes

Length: Two Reel
Producer: Robert F. McGowan
Director: Robert F. McGowan
Photography: Art Lloyd
Editor: Richard Currier
Titles: None
Writer: Unrevealed
Released: October 1, 1932
Studio: M-G-M

Main Cast

• Dorothy DeBorba
• Douglas Greer
• George McFarland
• Jacquie Lyn
• Kendall McComas
• Matthew Beard
• Richard Moore

Supporting Cast

• Bobby De War (according to Maltin and Bann)
• Creighton Hale - Dickie's father
• Dick Gilbert - Road Worker
• Estelle Ettere - Nurse
• Ham Kinsey - Road Worker
• Harry Bernard - Road Worker
• Jack Hill - Police Officer
• Jimmy Daniels (according to Maltin and Bann)
• John Collum (according to Maltin and Bann)
• Johnnie Mae Beard - Stymie's Mother
• Lillian Rich - Dickie's mother
• Robert Mallon - Kid in the way of taxi
• Robert A. McGowan - Punched Pedestrian
• Wilfred Lucas - Specialist

The Short

Plot: Dickie's overprotective mother has been taking him from doctor to doctor to get his stiff neck treated, but she rebuffs all their solutions involving letting the boy play and get some exercise. Meanwhile, Stymie and the gang have come up with a gadget-filled "taxi" pushed from the rear by a mule. Stymie is called to Dickie's house to deliver the laundry, and after he does so he invites Dickie to come see the taxi. When Breezy Brisbane leaves rubbing alcohol out for Dinah to drink, she breaks loose and Stymie fixes Dickie's stiff neck by giving it a sharp twist. Dickie is okay, but he still wants that ride. Stymie finds their propulsion by getting a tow from a delivery truck, but when the rope breaks loose just past the top of a hill, they're sent rolling downhill at incredible speed without any brakes, with Jacquie, Spanky and a monkey on board, the latter using a mounted boxing glove gadget to punch out everyone near them. At one point, Bobby Mallon stands in front of the cab trying to get a ride but gets swatted back to the sidewalk. They finally stop after rolling through a haystack where Dickie's parents catch up with them and discover his stiff neck is all better.
Quotes:

• "You little rascal, you!" - Dickie's nurse
• "Stymie, where are we going?" - Dickie
  "I don't know, brother, but we're on our way!" - Stymie
• "Spanky, don't you think we're going rather fast?" - Jacquie
  "Naw. Hey, Dickie, step on it!" - Spanky

Notes/Trivia:

• From this point on, the cast would be billed simply as "Our Gang," rather than "Hal Roach's Rascals."
  
• This short was a reworking of One Wild Ride and Tire Trouble.
  
• According to both Matthew Beard and  Richard Moore, the runaway taxi was actually controlled by a prop-man (Charlie Oelze) hidden in back.
  
• This was the first short for Jacquie Lyn, not to be confused with Jackie Lynn Taylor, who would join the cast two years later. Lyn would also appear in the next Our Gang short, and would also co-star with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy during the same year in their feature film "Pack Up Your Troubles."
  
• Matthew Beard's real-life mother appears in the short with him.
  
• H.M. Walker's last Our Gang short as dialogue writer (though he is credited in some re-issue prints of A Lad An' A Lamp).
• Wheezer doesn't appear in this episode.
• Dickie's house was located at 10403 Irene Street in the Palms neighborhood of Los Angeles, but it was demolished in the 1950s to make room for the Interstate 10. The start of the cab ride runs along Irene Street in Culver City, California.
• The hill the cab runs down is located on Overland Avenue in the Palms neighborhood of Los Angeles. The haystack was located at 3300 Overland Avenue, occupied today by a strip mall.
• Dorothy DeBorba's house is at 3451 Motor Avenue in the Palms neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Sequence

• Previous Short: Hook And Ladder
• Next Short: Birthday Blues

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