Auto Antics

Auto Antics is a 1939 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn. It was the 182nd Our Gang short to be released.^[1]

Auto Antics
Directed by	Edward Cahn
Written by	Hal A. Law Robert A. McGowan
Produced by	Jack Chertok for MGM
Starring	Darla Hood Eugene Lee George McFarland Carl Switzer Billie Thomas Mickey Gubitosi Leonard Landy Tommy Bond Sidney Kibrick
Cinematography	Harold Marzorati
Edited by	Roy Brickner
Distributed by	MGM
Release date	July 22, 1939 (1939-07-22)
Running time	10:05
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Banners proclaim "Greenpoint's Proudest Day! - Mammoth Celebration Dedicating Our New Sewer System", featuring the Kidmobile Race with a first prize of five dollars. Our Gang's hopes to win the race are nearly dashed when town bully Butch (Tommy Bond) arranges for the gang's pet dog Whiskers to be picked up by the dog pound. But instead of demoralizing the gang, the impoundment of Whiskers merely gives them a stronger reason to win the race and claim the prize, with which they will pay the dog's license fee. There is no shortage of dirty tricks on the part of Butch and his henchman Woim (Sidney Kibrick), who try everything to wreck the Gang's chances and their homemade "auto."^[2]

Cast

The Gang

• Darla Hood as Darla
• Eugene Lee as Porky
• George McFarland as Spanky
• Carl Switzer as Alfalfa
• Billie Thomas as Buckwheat
• Mickey Gubitosi as Mickey
• Leonard Landy as Leonard

Additional cast

• Tommy Bond as Butch
• Sidney Kibrick as Woim
• Baldwin Cooke as Luke
• Major James H. McNamara as Mayor of Greenpoint
• Joe Whitehead as Dogcatcher

Notes

Auto Antics features the final appearance of Eugene "Porky" Lee, who was dismissed from the series after growing significantly taller (to the point that he became taller than George "Spanky" McFarland) during Our Gang's first year at MGM.^[3] Robert Blake, who had just replaced Gary Jasgar as the tag-along toddler,^[4] assumed the role vacated by Porky at the beginning of Our Gang's 1939–40 season of shorts.^[3]

Darla Hood became ill during the filming of Auto Antics. One shot features the kids hanging on to the back of the dogcatchers' truck as it starts down the road. Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer was, according to Hood in a later interview, "in one of his little moods" and ruined every take of that shot. At the end of the thirty-second take, Hood passed out from the exhaust fumes and had to be escorted to the hospital.^[5]

See also

• Our Gang filmography