Waldo's Last Stand

Waldo's Last Stand is a 1940 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn. It was the 193rd Our Gang short (194th episode, 105th talking short, 106th talking episode, and 25th MGM produced episode) that was released.

Plot

The gang (Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, and Mickey) offers to help their pal Waldo attract customers to his lemonade stand. Redecorating their barn as a lavish nightclub, the kids stage an elaborate floor show, with Darla Hood as the star vocalist. Unfortunately, their efforts attract only one patron—a surly, stone-faced little kid (Billy "Froggy" Laughlin, making one of his first Our Gang appearances).^[1] Spanky and the other kids try to persuade Froggy into buying a drink, even going as far as singing an impromptu song about dryness and thirst, but to no avail. The kids then come up with an idea: to put a heater under Froggy which would heat him up and force him to buy a drink. When the floor show ends, Spanky asks Froggy why he wouldn't buy a drink and the latter responds, with a Popeye-the-Sailor voice, that he doesn't have any money and that it's to hot in the barn; he then leaves. Spanky then realizes that the reason Waldo had no customers (kids) was because they were all in the floor show. The entire gang, including Waldo and a donkey, laughs as the short ends.

Notes

• Another Our Ganger leaves as Waldo's Last Stand marked the final appearance of Darwood Kaye. Kaye's film career is described in the 2009 book, "Finding Waldo," written by one of his four sons.
• Waldo's Last Stand is one of four sound Our Gang shorts (and the only MGM-produced entry) that fell into the public domain after the copyright lapsed in the 1960s (the other three being School's Out, Bear Shooters and Our Gang Follies of 1938). As such, these films frequently appear on inexpensive video and/or DVD compilations.

Cast

The Gang

• Mickey Gubitosi (later known as Robert Blake) as Mickey
• Darla Hood as Darla
• George McFarland as Spanky
• Carl Switzer as Alfalfa
• Billie Thomas as Buckwheat
• Darwood Kaye as Waldo
• Leonard Landy as Leonard

Additional cast

• Billy Laughlin as Froggy
• Janet Burston as Jeanette
• Clyde Willson as Clyde

Dancers/Performers in the floor show

Lavonne Battle, Shirley Jean Doble, Donna Jean Edmonsond, Helen Guthrie, Patsy Irish, Jackie Krenk, Bobby Sommers, Betty Jean Striegler, Mary Ann Such, Patsy Anne Thompson, Patricia Wheeler

See also

• Our Gang filmography

References

External links

• Waldo's Last Stand at the Internet Movie Database