Customer Reviews

General Spanky [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I watched this movie with my children, age 5 and 8, and they loved it. I've never seen them react to any other movie as they did to this one. They were kicking their feet with the pain of suspense, they were squealing with delight as good triumphs over bad, they laughed their heads off at the jokes and gags, they were crying out to the characters to watch out for this bad guy and that bad guy, they felt Buckwheat's hungry stomach. If you're tired of the contemporary Disney trash and television cartoon junk, I recommend this movie. It's definitely NOT PC, it's a product of American society in 1936, but it's clearly child-friendly in my opinion. Enjoy!

With the 1935 success of Shirley Temple's "The Little Colonel," producer Hal Roach believed that a Civil War vehicle would make an ideal feature debut for the delightful antics of Our Gang. Unfortunately, Spanky, Buckwheat and Alfalfa take a back seat to the adult leads in this well-made but rather hackneyed melodrama. Even worse, the Gang look awkwardly out of place in a period setting - an experiment Roach never repeated. The critical and commercial failure of "General Spanky" (1936) proved that short subjects were Our Gang's forte.

I saw this movie with some friends of mine and we could not stop laughing! It is such a wholesome fun movie. For anyone who likes old movies, this is definetly one to own. Good for all ages. B&W and full of heart

I had no idea such a movie was ever made before we saw it tonight. My husband, who is more knowledgeable about old movies, did not know either. Amidst our guffaws, I could not suppress my complete feeling of being flummoxed by the ridiculousness of life. One truly has to be grateful for those more rare things in life that make sense, because they aren't so numerous, and despite the efforts of reactionaries to create the rosy-scenario, the past was quite vexing. The film was made the year my mother was born.

This was the first Hollywood film to go deeply into the fundamental nature of fascism. The magnificence of Lillian Hellman's drama lies in the fortitude and compassion of her leading characters: Paul Lukas won the AA for best actor in 1943 for his role of Kurt Muller, the hero. As Sara Muller, Bette Davis gives a sincere (yet rather colourless) performance in a rather untypical role as the selfless wife. It is obvious that this movie is dominated by the great performance of Lukas; Davis subdues herself to the secondary role almost with an air of gratitude for being able (at last) to be uncomplicatedly decent and admirable. Quiet loyalty and restrained heroism do not furnish many outlets for histrionics and Bette was artist enough not to throw in any extra bits of it prove that she was one of the stars. Lucile Watson is outstanding as Fanny; she is at once larger than life and yet completely believable (she played the role on stage) Fanny says to her daughter (Davis), seeing her for the first time in years "Sara, you're not young anymore" to which Bette replies "I'm 38, Mama!". Eric Roberts, who plays Bodo is a hopeless ham, and Donald Woods is his usual wooden self. An important wartime message film, the screenplay was written by Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett. This is NOT a film Davis fans usually appreciate due to her rather bland role. During the filming the old Canadian trouper Watson, -no shrinking violet- remarked to an almost intimidated Davis that she acted like a "rank amateur" and that " A few more years on the stage would have benefitted you greatly, my dear!"

Paul Lukas gives a vibrant performance as a husband of German descent trying to promote peace during WWII. Although the film is most likely better than the stage play, it still is a little too Broadwayish and not always lifelike. Bette Davis is surprisingly only mediocre here.