|
Cousin Wilbur
''Cousin Wilbur'' is a 1939 ''Our Gang'' short comedy film directed by George Sidney. It was the 179th ''Our Gang'' short (180th episode, 91st talking short, 92nd talking episode, and 11th MGM produced episode) that was released. Plot Against his will, Alfalfa invites his sissified Cousin Wilbur to join the All 4 One Club. The enterprising Wilbur immediately increases the membership by offering cash compensation (usually a penny or two) for every black eye and busted nose administered by Butch and Woim. When the two tough guys try to muscle in on the club, Wilbur surprises everyone by proving himself to be the best bare-knuckle fighter on the block. Notes This episode marked the return of Scotty Beckett, who was Spanky's sidekick from 1934 to 1935. Alfalfa, who joined the gang several months before Beckett left, replaced him at the end of that year. Beckett now returned as Alfalfa's nerdy cousin, replete the horn-rimmed glasses. Cast The Gang * Scotty Beckett as Cousin Wilbur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Sidney
George Sidney (October 4, 1916May 5, 2002) was an American film director and producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His work includes cult classics ''Bye Bye Birdie'' (1963) and ''Viva Las Vegas'' (1964). With an extensive background in acting, stage direction, film editing, and music, Sidney created many of post-war Hollywood’s big budget musicals, such as '' Annie Get Your Gun'' (1950), ''Show Boat'' (1951), ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1953); ''Jupiter's Darling'' (1955), and '' Pal Joey'' (1957). He was also a president of the Screen Directors Guild for 16 years. A founding partner of Hanna-Barbera animation studio, Sidney introduced the integration of animation into live action, which is immortalized in the dance scene between actor Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse in ''Anchors Aweigh'' (1945). An avid art collector, gardener, musician, painter, and photographer, George Sidney was known for his impeccable sense of style and generosity. His clothing, original scripts, not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film and it is derived from the classical comedy in theatre. Some of the earliest silent films were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relies on visual depictions, without requiring sound. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1930s, comedy films took another swing, as laughter could result from burlesque situations but also dialogue. Comedy, compared with other film genres, puts much more focus on individual stars, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. In '' The Screenwriters Taxonomy'' (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character, and story. Therefore the labels "drama" and "comedy" are t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Short Films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of '' Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified into television production. In 1969, Kirk Kerkorian bought 4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Films Directed By George Sidney
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it. Recording and transmission of film The moving images of a film are created by photography, photographing actual scenes with a movie camera, motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of computer-generated imagery, CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects. Before the introduction of digital production, series of still imag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Black-and-white Films
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1939 Films
The year 1939 in film is widely considered the greatest year in film history. The ten Best Picture-nominated films that year include classics in multiple genres. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1939 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events Film historians often rate 1939 as "the greatest year in the history of Hollywood". Hollywood films produced in Southern California were at the height of their Golden Age (in spite of many cheaply made or undistinguished films also being produced, something to be expected with any year in commercial cinema), and during 1939 there are the premieres of an outstandingly large number of exceptional motion pictures, many of which become honored as all-time classic films. ** June 10 – MGM's first successful animated character, Barney Bear, made his debut in ''The Bear That Couldn't Sleep''. ** August 15 – ''The Wizard of Oz'' premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. ** October 17 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Our Gang Filmography
__NOTOC__ The following is a complete list of the 220 ''Our Gang'' short films produced by Hal Roach Studios and/or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer between 1922 and 1944, numbered by order of release along with production order.Production order from ''The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang'' by Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann, which says on p. ix that "the film entries are ordered according to production sequence, not by release dates or copyright dates." In the book the feature-length film ''General Spanky'' is counted as number 150 on the list, whereas this page's list only includes the shorts, so for shorts whose number is over 150 in the book, the production# on this page's list is the number in the book minus one (for example, ''Reunion in Rhythm'' is listed as #151 in the book, but #150 for this list). ---- 1922 - 1923 - 1924 - 1925 - 1926 - 1927 - 1928 - 1929 - 1930 - 1931 1932 - 1933 - 1934 - 1935 - 1936 - 1937 - 1938 - 1939 - 1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 -- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Switzer
Harold Frederick Switzer (January 16, 1925 – April 14, 1967) was an American child actor, most notable for appearing in the ''Our Gang'' short subjects series as an extra. He was the older brother of gang member Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, one of the series' most popular and best-remembered characters. Early life and family Switzer was born in Paris, Illinois, the first son of George Frederick and Gladys C. Shanks Switzer. He and younger brother, Carl, became famous around their hometown for their musical talent and performances; both sang and played a number of instruments. ''Our Gang'' The Switzers took a trip to California in 1934 to visit with family members. While sightseeing they eventually wound up at Hal Roach Studios. Following a public tour of the facility, 8-year-old Harold and 6-year-old Carl entered into the Hal Roach Studio's public cafeteria, the ''Our Gang'' Café, and began an impromptu performance. Producer Hal Roach was present at the commissary that day an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darwood Kaye
Darwood Kenneth Smith (September 8, 1929 – May 15, 2002), also known as Darwood Kaye, was an American child actor most notable for his semi-regular role as the bookish rich kid Waldo in the ''Our Gang'' short subjects series from 1937 to 1940. As an adult, Smith became a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, ministering at several churches until his death in 2002. Kaye was "discovered" in 1935 while his family was on vacation in Hollywood, California; he was asked to come to the studios for a screen test, and made some uncredited appearances in films in 1936. ''Our Gang'' Kaye had a small role in Hal Roach's 1937 ''Our Gang'' comedy ''Glove Taps''. His first speaking part was in ''Hearts Are Thumps'', released the same year. In most of his ''Our Gang'' appearances, Kaye portrayed "Waldo", a rich kid with an officious, studious nature who competed with schoolmates "Alfalfa" Switzer and "Butch" Bond for the affections of little Darla Hood. Maltin, Leonard and Bann, Richard W. (1977, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Hurlic
Philip Raymond Hurlic (December 20, 1927 – July 7, 2014) was an American child actor. Biography Hurlic appeared in a number of films in the 1930s and early 1940s. Hurlic's income from his film work was used to support his East Los Angeles family. Hurlic's earliest roles were as a toddler in the ''Baby Burlesks'' series, which starred a pre-fame Shirley Temple. His largest roles in film include Little Jim in ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1938), Verman Diggs in the '' Penrod'' films, and Zeke in ''Zenobia'' (1939). He also appeared in a number of ''Our Gang'' comedies alongside another child actor from his neighborhood, Buckwheat (Billie Thomas Billie may refer to: People * Billie Allen (1925-2015), American actress * Billie Bird (1908-2002), American actress and comedian * Billie Burke (1884-1970), American actress * Billie Joe Armstrong (born 1972), American singer and guitarist for ...). He retired from film business in 1942 after 30 films. According to Hurlic's daugh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gary Jasgur
Gary Jasgur (November 8, 1935 – August 22, 1994) was an American former child actor, most notable for appearing in the ''Our Gang'' short film series from 1937 to 1939. Career Dark-haired Jasgur was cast as "Junior", the infant brother of either Spanky or Darla. In his two years with the ''Our Gang'' series, Jasgur did not have a single word of dialogue, yet managed to make life miserable for his older sibling. He was memorable as the pint-sized, banana-eating timekeeper in '' The Pigskin Palooka'' and billed as the "world's smallest man" in '' Clown Princes''. Perhaps his most notable role was in '' Canned Fishing'' when Spanky and Alfalfa are desperately trying to get out of babysitting little Junior. In 1939, Jasgur left the series "before he knew he had been in it," as film critic Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Landy
''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the producer of the Laurel and Hardy films, ''Our Gang'' shorts were produced from 1922 to 1944, spanning the silent film and early sound film periods of American cinema. ''Our Gang'' is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way; Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children, rather than have them imitate adult acting styles. The series also broke new ground by portraying white and black children interacting as equals during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in the United States.Leonard Maltin, Maltin, Leonard (1994). ''The Little Rascals: Remastered and Uncut'', vol. 22, introduction. Videorecording. New York: Cabin Fever Entertainment/Hallmark E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
