Main Cast: Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, Eugene "Porky" Lee, Darla Hood, Leonard Landy
Release Year: 1938
Country: US
Run Time: 1rl minutes
Plot
Opening his own detective agency, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer dons a deerstalker cap and rechristens himself "X-10, Sooper Sleuth." His first assignment: to find out who stole a box of candy from Darla Hood. Suspecting that little Leonard Landy and Gary "Junior" Jasgar are the culprits, Alfie and his chief (and only) operatives Billy "Buckwheat" Thomas and Eugene "Porky" Lee put a tail on the two youngsters. Unfortunately, the three junior gumshoes are sidetracked to a seaside amusement pier, where they find themselves trapped in the fun-house. Scared out of their wits by various ersatz ghosts, monsters and spooky moans and groans, our heroes vow to give up the detective business forever -- if they live that long! Originally released on June 18, 1938, the one-reel Hide and Shriek was the final entry in producer Hal Roach's "Our Gang" series, and indeed, Roach's final short-subject release on any kind. Within a few months, however, the "Our Gang" property would be revived by MGM, remaining in production until 1943. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Hide and Shriek is a 1938Our Gangshortcomedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 168th Our Gang short (169th episode, 80th talking short, and the 81st talking episode) that was released. It was the last Our Gang episode created by Hal Roach.
Opening his own detective agency, Alfalfa dons a deerstalker cap and rechristens himself "X-10, Sooper Sleuth." His first assignment: to find out who stole a box of candy from Darla. Suspecting that little Leonard and Junior are the alleged culprits, Alfalfa and his chief (and only) operatives Buckwheat and Porky put a tail on the two youngsters. Unfortunately, the three junior gumshoes are sidetracked to a seaside amusement pier, where they find themselves trapped in the fun-house. Scared out of their wits by various ersatz ghosts, monsters and spooky moans and groans, our heroes vow to give up the detective business forever -- if they live that long![1]
Notes
Hide and Shriek was the final entry in producer Hal Roach's "Our Gang" series. He had another year to go to produce episodes for MGM but his distribution deal with other properties expired earlier that year. Roach switched to another studio to distribute his produced feature films. Our gang was his only property left doing short subjects. So MGM decided rather than just distribute Our Gang, which Roach was a year from ending anyway, to just buy the unit outright. Our gang was still popular and MGM wanted to keep getting these films for the theatres along with MGM's feature films.
Therefore "Hide & Shriek was indeed, Roach's final short-subject release on any kind. Our Gang, over at MGM revamped and would be based in a fictitous town called "Greenpoint". The episodes initially were well made but evolved into morality lessons. Film critics felt that the MGM Our gang episodes were inferior to the Roach produced episodes. MGM continued producing the 10 minute shorts of Our Gang until 1944.
