Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Spooky Hooky!

One of my all time favorite Little Rascals shorts is Spooky Hooky from 1936. In it we find Alfalfa, Spanky, Porky, and Buckwheat trying to pull a sick-note fast one over their teacher, which ultimately leads to some scary after hours shenanigans in their schoolhouse on a dark 'n stormy night. Timeless, classic fun for all ages, and I was lucky enough just today to find a copy of it on 8mm at one of my local antique malls! O'tay!!!







Watch Spooky Hooky on youtube by CLICKING HERE! And make it a Double Feature with Hide 'n Shriek (one of my other favorite Little Rascals shorts)-- right HERE!

6 comments:

Mr. Cavin said...

Man, Porky is such an anarchist! A one-kid demolition derby.

So I don't really remember. These were originally called OUR GANG until Hal Roach sold the back catalog rights for TV syndication in the fifties, right? Something like that. The linked YouTube vid has the "Our Gang" title card, whereas yours has the "Little Rascals" card I grew up with. Another difference: Your film image is in the proper aspect ratio. Can you tell if your reel is an edited version of the short? Ten minutes is over fourteen thousand frames! Can you scan those frames? Might be able to get a damn good image off film positives, much higher resolution than anything you'll find online.

This is a neat find. Do you have a projector?

Mr. Karswell said...

These 8mm reels are usually shortened excerpt scenes from the original films... I've yet to be able to check this one

Tom said...

I love "Spooky Hooky". One of my favorite memories is of going to Shakey's Pizza in Cape Girardeau, MO while on vacation being able to eat pizza while watching Little Rascals shorts. I remember they showed "The First Round Up" followed by "Spooky Hooky" which blended in my memory as one film with the kids running home in the storm from camping ("First Round Up") and somehow ending up in the schoolhouse in "Spooky Hooky". I was probably eating pizza and missed the cut from end to the next short.

I have "The First Round Up" on sound Super 8mm and "Spooky Hooky" on 16mm. I need to get them out this summer and show them again. Maybe with some pizza.

Tom said...

By the way, I would agree, this is the condensed silent version. Still a fun watch.

Mr. Karswell said...

Let me know when and where, Tom— I’ll be there!

Tom said...

I just might call you on that, Mr. Karswell.