Rover's Big Chance is a 1942 Our Gang

Our Gang

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...

short

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed by Herbert Glazer. It was the 208th Our Gang short (209th episode, 120th talking short, 121st talking episode, and 40th MGM produced episode) that was released.

Plot

Future film star Stephen McNally (here billed as Horace McNally) appears in this Our Gang episode as Bill Patterson, ace director at Mammoth Studios. On the say-so of studio casting director J.D. Broderick, Patterson agrees to give a screen test to the Our Gang kids' talented dog Rover. Alas, the petulant pooch does not take direction well, nor does he respond positively when the cameraman announces that he's "ready to shoot."

Note

• By the time of Rover's Big Chance, Mickey Gubitosi had legally changed his name to Robert Blake
  Robert Blake (actor)
  Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
  
  . He retained the name "Mickey" for the remainder of the series.
• Rover's Big Chance was the second MGM Our Gang short to lose money upon its initial release, losing nearly $1,800 after post-production costs were calculated.

Cast

• Robert Blake
  Robert Blake (actor)
  Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
  
   - Mickey
• Billy Laughlin
  Billy Laughlin
  William Robert "Billy" Laughlin was an American child actor. He is best known for playing the character Froggy in the Our Gang short films in its final stretch, from 1940 to 1944.-Career:...
  
   - Froggy
• Janet Burston
  Janet Burston
  Janet Burston was an American child actress who was the final leading lady in the Our Gang short subjects series, replacing Darla Hood in 1942.-Career:...
  
   - Janet
• George McFarland
  George McFarland
  George Robert Phillips "Spanky" McFarland was an American actor most famous for his appearances as a child in the Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s...
  
   - Spanky
• Billie Thomas - Buckwheat
• Freddie Chapman - Baseball player
• Bobby Anderson
  Bobby Anderson
  Robert Conrad Anderson is a former American football halfback in the National Football League for the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots and the Washington Redskins. He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes and was drafted in the first round of the 1970 NFL Draft...
  
   - Baseball player
• Clyde Demback - Fatty
• Billy Finnegan - Baseball player
• Byron Shores - casting director, J.D. Broderick
• Horace Stephen McNally
  Stephen McNally
  Stephen McNally was an American actor remembered mostly for his appearances in many westerns and action films. He was an attorney in the late 1930s before pursuing a career in acting.-Career:...
  
   - director, Bill Patterson
• Barbara Bedford - studio clerk
• Hugh McCormick - Professor Ventriloko
• Ben Hall
  Ben Hall (actor)
  Benjamin Joseph Hall was an American actor who started performing as a boy and worked for three and a half decades, mainly in small parts....
  
   - George the propman
• Bert Le Baron - Grip