Ginsberg's says Spanky's Mother has a mother hen and chick relationship with her son. She keeps him under her thumb. Spanky is a different character than in his other "Our Gang" shorts he is very babyish, a child who pouts and can be bratty. If you notice when the gang arrive he is complaining it them who offer the sabotage to save him. When the MC tries to put him on first it's his Mother who jumps in to protect him. Again when he gets into it with Alfalfa and his brother his Mother jumps between them and stops anything from escalating. When Spanky mouths off to the MC (PEEP, PEEP, PEEP) again it's his Mother quickly coming to the rescue. When he meets Daisy he is nothing short of obnoxious in his responses with her all because his Mother is making him recite on stage.
When Daisy gets in trouble and runs off the stage it's Spanky who seems to come to manhood and realize he must help her. Interestingly he must go to his Mom and ask permission to give the prize to Daisy. He Mom says " But of Course, Spanky , all I want is that you are a really big hit". Of course she didn't mean that he is a major hit as a clown but as a dramatic star. He turns to daisy an says " Don'y worry girlie the dress is in the bag"! In reality Daisy has lost her dress . She didn't win so it has to go back to the store. Spanky is redressing Daisy or reclothing her.
The Grandma is interesting as she initially pleads "we've never had an actor in the family before . Why pick on him"? Her next action is laughing off screen when the MC has the run in with Spanky and the Mother has to jump in. Ginsberg says her laughter is bringing pressure on the Mother as she is already in a very pressure situation but to rattle her cage even more. Then later Granny announces to the MC " Here's where we stop the show"! Ginsberg says there are 4 reasons the first is to end Spanky's stage act-he's had enough. Second is to raise that curtain and humiliate Spanky's Mother for putting him on the stage. Third he reason that she humiliates the mother is to take away her power, maybe she wants Spanky' mother to become subservient to her. Maybe Grandma wants to take over control over Spanky take it away from his Mother. Lastly the Grandma may not know that Spanky and his mother have allied and are now on the same side. Earlier Spanky was so mad at his Mother he would have loved watching what the old woman does to his Mother.
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doug78595
8 years ago
One of the most interesting characters in the short according to Ginsberg is the MC. He is the ultimate power in the Ritz theatre, the alpha male. Spanky is missing a father and the MC is certainly not his father but he does assume the role of father type. Viewers do not like the match of Spanky's Mother and the MC at all. They see the balding pudgy old man and his trophy wife. What does happen on the stage wings Spanky's Mother and the MC act like some bad married couple who bicker and bicker over what they want. What is it they want control over Spanky in his stage debut. The MC is much to powerful but the mother does stand her own at times other times she must retreat with her tail between her legs. One scene the he talks about occurs when Spanky is on the stage. Spanky has started speaking and the peashooters start .He says the mother looks out at the gang and can't believe the kids are doing this. Then she starts to wave for Spank to come off she gets more frustrated and gets wilder in her waving and speaking without saying anything. The MC is waving him on.
When Spanky first walks onstage and falls down it's his Mother who runs to his aide and ask the MC to put the houselights on. After Granny pulled off her dress the MC is seen looking on at Spanky's Mother but a sandbag falls down and hits him and knocks him down putting and end to his peeking. The ancient Greeks would say he is killed.
One character which really shows a connection with the ancient Greeks is the parrot . A creature who speaks and can warn humans- How mythical!
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doug78595
8 years ago
Lets get back to Spanky and his Mother. To show how she has him under her thumb just look she makes him recite to her friends and he hates it and then he's told he's going on stage wearing the very elaborate highly ornate roman centurian costume his mother has partially made and the rest she must had rented. Overall the outfit is very sissified. The gang tells him all actors are sissies and here he is in that outfit. There is a long flowing robe in the back and he seems to be wearing a skirt. I'm sure a scene that wasn't in the final cut Momma tells Granny " Look how cute he is ". His Mother is really making a sissy out of him.
When Spanky asks to help Daisy he is stepping out away from under his Mom's thumb. But lets look back do you remember "Spanky, Spanky , Mother can't hear you"! Now after he asked permission to help Daisy Spanky and his Mother are now for the first time on the same side, both very happy that Spanky is about to go on. As his Mother is walking to the area of the stage he is going to walk out from you can see both are smiling both are happy, then Spanky says he must talk to the gang. His mother turns and gets down on her haunches to speak with her son face to face. In a very few minutes both will be in the exact same positions only they won't be smiling.
Lets go to the Flora Dora Dollies the little girls are dressed up like Las Vegas showgirls and dance around wildly and you can see the boys in the gang are being enticed by their gyrations and lack of clothing. What is happening the girls are being mentally undressed and visually raped.
Very interestingly Daisy is dressed very much like the Dollies but when Daisy goes on stage the staring faces with eyes wide are the men of the audience so Daisy is saying she won't let this happen to her and runs off. Daisy is overjoyed that Spank will win the prize for her but when Spanky is being humiliated she is oblivious showing no remorse.
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doug78595
8 years ago
When Spanky's act starts off and he falls the audience gives him a few mild laughs. When his visor has fallen and he's walking around like the dragon at a Chinese new years celebration the audience level moves up from laughter to howling. One point Ginsburg brings up when Spanky's Mother leaves the stage wings and gets the stage pole she looks remarkably like Daisy when she was on stage a beret and a staff, Spanky's mother a beret and the pole. Another is when Spanky's Mother is behind the curtain trying to get him off if you look closely The MC and the Grandmother are both laughing at Spanky but both look behind the curtain and are laughing harder watching his mother's antics.
Ginsberg says when the old lady raises the curtain she goes about it relentlessly and what she does is strip Spanky's mother of her social standing by ripping her dress off, her social identity is gone and hauled up to hang like a trophy. Spanky's Mother greatly increases the audiences pleasure by freezing from fright,petrified from the experience she went thru. Her head tilted upwards eyes looking up and mouth open but silent. The MC must have said to himself " Well that finally shut her up"!
Spanky had freed his visor and saw the mother fighting to keep her dress on and then the dress tearing off her and heading up. In Microseconds millions of thoughts run thru his mind. His mother who heals his booboos and kisses him goodnight and held his hand coming into the theater is now on stage in her underwear. Now he must redress his mom. He knows her dress is now in tatters and can't be worn. He grabs the prop and pulls it in front of her .He is the mother hen now and his mother is the chickie. At first it looks like it worked but now he has put her on the body of a lion, a sphinx. What he has actually done is made is mother more naked or nuder than nude. All the clothing she is wearing is the beret. What the prop has done is make it look like she has spread her legs on stage. Everyone in the audience can stare at her vagina and look up her ass and there is nothing she can do about it.
Ginsberg asked his psychologists and sociologists to explain why the top of the helmet spins around he got 4 answers . The first said it was from the pure state of shock fromseeing his mother so humiliated. The second most popular theory said for the first time he saw his mother in a sexual light she no longer had a vagina she had a snatch or a pussy. His mother no longer had breasts she had tits. This theory has Spanky becoming sexually aroused by the sight of his mother. Spanky even though he was 6 achieved an erection thinking of his Mother. The third is similar except Spank ejaculates . The last theoryand least popular said that it was Spanky's way of a sexual orgasim without really being a sexual experience.
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doug78595
8 years ago
I'm pretty sure we got some of the minor details incorrect. I'm a believer that we got some of the medium details incorrect. I'm positive that we got some of the major details incorrect. I believe that we may have gotten everything wrong in taking Ginsberg's creative interpretation on this subject.
The two things that really struck me (I think ) Ginsberg said he had watched the film many, many, many times watched some scenes over and over and some scenes watched in slow motion or one frame at a time. The early belly laughs and the later smirking and giggling are far gone. The thoughts that Spanky's Mother deserved he fate due to her forcing him to recite on the stage are noted and stored to understand the short. There is a sense after watching "Beginner's Luck" you get a sick feeling down in the pit of your stomach where you stare off into space for some amount of time. You must realize that this is a comedy and the main source of comedy is the tragedy of her son's humiliation and the further tragedy of his Mother's humiliation with him. Two modern day (1935 is considered modern) Americans and there is nothing they can do to escape their fate. The young attractive mother standing here watching her son being made a laughing stock of unable to convince him to just walk off the stage. Asking for him to be taken off but refused as he was the hit of the show, she is forced to take matters into her own hands gets humiliated herself sitting up on the stage and there is nothing she or her son can do about it.
The second thing that really struck me Ginsberg stated that maybe the writer was a male chauvinist who disliked the mother trying to make a boy go on stage against his will and the way she tried to stand up to the MC who she was no match for but she kept herself in the fight with him. But when asked if she could raise the curtain he loved it and gave a big belly laugh and then gives his blessing.
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richardschwerner
8 years ago
I had read a review of this book on the internet several months after the book was published. As a fan I knew I had to get this book as soon as I could, but it took about 2-3 weeks as it came from New Zealand.
I thought that there was going to be information on the actual filming of the short with some inside dope. I also found Ginsberg to be a difficult read he jumps all over the place giving a point then reversing himself later on. Such as saying the MC isn't the father then saying he is over and over,or saying Spanky and his mother don't really do it at the end but he is saying exactly that many tines over. I didn't understand his fascination with the men's hair bit at all. He never mentioned Spanky's mother sticking the pole into the socket at all. There are many other things that I didn't agree with.
On the positive side Ginsburg did bring up or point out things that I never saw or thought that much about. It was obvious he saw the prop on a large screen TV and held it on pause for a long time to say the body wasn't a dog but more feline and as he studied it he realized it was a lion. He brought up the fact the show begins and ends with stage props, the one that hits the MC then the stage hand tries to put it in front of Spanky's mother. He also says the MC and Grandma are both checking the mother behind the curtain and laughing more at her antics than Spanky's.
The author of the review put in hos own points of view in his article stating all of the adult females play subservient to the Alpha male MC with Spanky's mother sets herself up as the alpha female. He brought up the fact when the MC is standing next to the mother when Spanky is on stage she is opening her mouth and closing it trying to talk but no words come out if you watch closely the MC is watching her and getting as good deal of pleasure seeing she can't get words out. The review was on the web for about 2 months and sadly disappeared one day never to return.
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