| Mama's Little Pirate | |
| Director: | Gus Meins |
| Producer: | Hal Roach |
| Starring: | George McFarland Scotty Beckett Matthew Beard Jerry Tucker Billie Thomas |
| Music: | Marvin Hatley Leroy Shield |
| Cinematography: | Art Lloyd |
| Editing: | Bert Jordan |
| Distributor: | MGM |
| Runtime: | 17' 51"[1] |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Mama's Little Pirate is a 1934 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 132nd Our Gang short to be released.[2]
Spanky's father reads a newspaper article about treasures found at a nearby cave during breakfast with the family. This inspires Spanky to explore another nearby cave with the gang for more treasures. The cave is too dark so Spanky goes back home to get a flashlight. Spanky's mother catches him and forbids him to hunt for the treasure, going as far as to send him to his room when he refuses to listen.
Confined to his room, Spanky falls asleep and in his dream argues with his "inner self", who advises him to disobey his mother and join the rest of the gang in their search for buried treasure. Though the kids miraculously unearth a fortune in gold and jewels, their triumph nearly turns to disaster when they encounter a surly giant (Tex Madsen). During the height of the trouble they've found, Spanky wakes up from his dream.
Mama's Little Pirate is the first Our Gang fantasy outing. The film was enhanced by Leroy Shield's unique background music composition "Cascadia", originally written for the "Boy Friends" comedy Air Tight (1931).[3]
Leroy Shield's music composition was "Good Old Days" in the opening titles and "We're going to arrowhead" was in the end title.
The cave was a set from the 1934 film Babes in Toyland, which was also directed by Gus Meins.