This film is a reworking of an earlier Our Gang comedy--"Fish Hooky" as well as "Circus Fever". Because of this, it's hard to score this one as high as other shorts--though I must admit it's still a pretty good little film.
"Spooky Hooky" begins with Spanky and Alfalfa planning on playing hooky by telling the teacher that Alfalfa is sick and cannot come to school tomorrow. The plan backfires, as the class is supposed to go on a surprise outing to the circus tomorrow! To make it worse, the note that they forged is locked in the school and they MUST sneak in that night to get that note. Maybe then they can go with the class on the outing.
During the 1935-36 period, the cast of characters was much more stable than usual for the comedies. As is typical of these films, the four boys doing most of the acting are Alfalfa, Spanky, Buckwheat and Porky. Because there is a storm that night, the kids all get scared pretty easily. While it's probably not seen as politically correct today, Buckwheat is awfully cute in these scenes. In the end, the four kids get theirs--learning a good lesson in the process about honesty and the like. Though, considering how often they played hooky in these films, I am not sure they really learned much of anything! Overall, a clever little film despite it being a bit too familiar.
"Spooky Hooky" begins with Spanky and Alfalfa planning on playing hooky by telling the teacher that Alfalfa is sick and cannot come to school tomorrow. The plan backfires, as the class is supposed to go on a surprise outing to the circus tomorrow! To make it worse, the note that they forged is locked in the school and they MUST sneak in that night to get that note. Maybe then they can go with the class on the outing.
During the 1935-36 period, the cast of characters was much more stable than usual for the comedies. As is typical of these films, the four boys doing most of the acting are Alfalfa, Spanky, Buckwheat and Porky. Because there is a storm that night, the kids all get scared pretty easily. While it's probably not seen as politically correct today, Buckwheat is awfully cute in these scenes. In the end, the four kids get theirs--learning a good lesson in the process about honesty and the like. Though, considering how often they played hooky in these films, I am not sure they really learned much of anything! Overall, a clever little film despite it being a bit too familiar.