Divot Diggers (1936) User Reviews

The last great "Our Gang" film???

[jimtinder · 8/10 · 13 February 2001]

"Divot Diggers" marks the welcome return of Bob McGowan to the director's chair. McGowan (not to be confused with Robert A. McGowan, also known as Anthony Mack, his nephew) helmed the Gang for about ten years, then left. Gus Meins adequately seated himself in the director's chair, but some of the films he directed took a noticeable drop-off in quality.

The story involves the Gang playing golf (or trying to!) at the nearby golf course. They get hired on as caddies with their monkey, and chaos ensues!!

This may be the last great "Our Gang" short. The reason? It was Bob McGowan's last directorial stint with the Rascals; the two-reelers were coming to an end to make way for the decent yet slick one-reelers; and, of course, in just two years, MGM would take over the entire series (ugh). Don't get me wrong, the Roach one-reelers are, for the most part, very good, but they just don't beat the 1930-36 period. "Divot Diggers" was one of the last films from the series' finest era. 8 out of 10.

Driving The Adult Golfers Crazy

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 26 September 2010]

This golf story - the boys (Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky and a chimp who makes weird noises) become caddies when the regular caddies quit suddenly - is funny on a two-fold front: how the kids play (what they use for clubs is a hoot), and how they torment the adult players.

The reactions of the adults are the funniest parts of this Our Gang short, in my opinion. It's interesting that the adult golfers ran the gamut from terrible to excellent. It didn't make a difference; the kids' antics made it impossible to play, anyway!

At least these older guys can laugh at themselves and the predicaments they get into with these lame-brain caddies. Sometimes, though, they don't laugh - which means the kids are doing something really funny.

How can anyone be THAT desperate for a caddy?!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 24 January 2012]

This is one of the dumber Our Gang comedies. However, if you just turn off your brain and enjoy, it's not bad. Plus, unlike most of the shorts made with the kids at this time, at least this one does NOT have singing and dancing! The kids are trying to play golf at the local course but naturally, they are making a mess of it. Soon, a really crazy guy comes and offers to pay the kids to be caddies for a group of golfers. Now considering how young the kids are AND one of the new caddies is a chimp, this is why I assume the guy hiring them is certifiably insane. The four golfers seem no better, as they take the age and non-human status of one of them in stride. But, it turns out that the chimp is a regular ham and he creates a huge mess--culminating with some very contrived scenes involving a riding mower and the kids going tobogganing.

This short relies on lots of broad humor--goofy sound effects for the chimp, chicken feathers and the like. This is NOT an intellectual or especially well thought-out short...but, oddly, it did make me smile from time to time. Not great, not terrible.

Going' Golfing With The Little Rascals

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 9 May 2000]

An OUR GANG Comedy Short.

Spanky, Alfalfa & the Gang have taken jobs as caddies at the local golf course. But once these little DIVOT DIGGERS are let loose on the fairway, all chaos breaks loose.

A very funny little film, with lots of slapstick. The storyline is very simple - a more convoluted plot would have only gotten in way of the fun. Highlight: the chimpanzee on the mowing machine. That's longtime comedian Billy Bletcher as the diminutive golfer; Russ Powell provides the hilarious voice of the chimp, who almost steals the show from the kids.

Golf-themed Our Gang short

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 7 July 2017]

DIVOT DIGGERS is one of the 'last gasp' Our Gang shorts although the series would continue for a few years yet. That's because it's the last feature for director Robert G. McGowan, who directed all of the best and most ambitious shorts for the team, and once again he comes up trumps with this one. There's not much story here other than the gang getting jobs at the local golf course, but the sheer variety of sight gags and slapstick comedy make this a delight. I love the primitive special effects, the runaway vehicles (an impromptu sledge here), and the animals (Pete the Pup and a chimpanzee in this one) of this series.

Divot Diggers was a greatly hilarious Our Gang entry to end Robert F. McGowan's stint on the series

[tavm · 10/10 · 30 November 2014]

This Hal Roach comedy short, Divot Diggers, is the one hundred forty-second entry in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the fifty-fourth talkie. Spanky and the gang are at a golf course just playing along when the manager there has to get some new caddies since the ones employed there have left because of their low wages! Guess who he gets to replace them? I'll stop there and just say this was quite a hilarious entry in the series, probably more so than usual. Maybe that's because this marked the return of one Robert F. McGowan as director to the series. Non stop laughs galore here thanks not only to the gang but also a monkey that's along for the ride! So that's a high recommendation for Divot Diggers. P.S. You may notice Darla Hood-in only her second appearance in the series-has blond hair here instead of her usual brunet. That's because she was also shooting Laurel & Hardy's The Bohemian Girl at around this time. She met Shirley Temple when getting the lighter color, perhaps the only time she met the girl who tried for OG but instead became a star herself in her own features during this period. Oh, and this was "Uncle Bob" McGowan's final OG short. He was doing features by this time. He finished his career in the late '40s as the producer of some Our Gang-inspired features for Hal Roach after the M-G-M-only produced series ended in '44. When I get to one of those features, I'll mention what happened to him after that.

Americans always have viewed "Golf" as a sort of "Sacred Cow" . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 18 April 2018]

. . . elevating it above such brute physical sports as baseball, and setting it on the pedestal of being a "Holier-Than-Thou" so-called "Gentleman's Game." However, Our Gang's DIVOT DIGGERS episode begs the question of which world boasts the most Honest, Upright, Sportsmen-like group of competitors--that of "Spanky, Alfalfa, and Buckwheat" or the bunch including "Tiger, Payne, and Vijay." At first glance, this may look like a really close call to the casual duffer. Sure, Spanky sometimes uses his arm to throw his balls out of the rough onto the fairway, and the claw hammer with which he putts technically might not be regulation. However, so many TV viewers were calling in to the PGA powers-that-be every time that such luminaries as the guys mentioned above kicked their balls into better positions when they thought that they were beyond "camera range" that Golf's Ruling Powers no longer allow these astute whistle-blowers to keep their "Game" honest. Therefore, DIVOT DIGGERS constitutes a nostalgic look back to more innocent days on the links, during an era when Big Money and Rampant Steroid Use had not yet totally corrupted this Scottish pastime.

Too much of the monkey!

[Squonk · 5/10 · 1 February 1999]

Spanky, Alfalfa and the gang play a bunch of wanna-be caddies. It's a great situation for Our Gang, unfortunately it's wasted. A few scenes of them playing golf with gardening tools are good for some laughs, but eventually the film makes a major mistake. Rather than focus on the great talents of it's young stars, the film spends way too much time focusing on their pet monkey. All the chimp does is break golf clubs, eat golf balls and make whoopee cusion noises. It's not very funny.

The usual formula for Our Gang, only partially working

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 27 June 2017]

"Divot Diggers" is an American black-and-white film still from the early days of sound movies as this one came out back in 1936 and had its 80th anniversary last year. The director is Robert F. McGowan and it is one of his uncountable Little Rascals movies. Darla, Porky, Spanky, Alfalfa and the others are on board again when the action takes place at a golf course this time. The caddies are on strike, so in order to please the annoyed rich golfers, the owner simply decides to employ the kids from Our Gang to do the work. Who cares about child labor. Of course, they bring chaos and mayhem as usual that may entertain us more than the golf players. Or maybe not because this Rascals film goes by the usual formula. It is fast, chaotic and over-the-top, occasionally pretty cute. But is it really funny? I dare say no. Maybe the scene with the monkey (animal comedy is very common for the Rascals and that extends way beyond Pete the Pup) was somewhat entertaining, but the comedic scenes with the kids just haven't aged well at all. Have to give this one another thumbs-down. Not recommended.