Rover's Big Chance

{{Infobox film

| name = Rover's Big Chance

| image = OG 1942 rovers big chance 1sheet.jpg

| caption =

| director = Herbert Glazer

| producer = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

| writer = Hal Law
Robert A. McGowan

| narrator =

| starring = George McFarland
Billie Thomas
Bobby Blake
Billy Laughlin
Janet Burston
Stephen McNally

| music =

| cinematography = Jackson Rose

| editing = Leon Borgeau

| distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

| released = {{Film date|1942|8|22}}

| runtime = {{duration | m=10 | s= 42 }}

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

}}

Rover's Big Chance is a 1942 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Herbert Glazer. It was the 208th Our Gang short to be released.{{cite book |last1=Maltin |first1=Leonard |last2=Bann |first2=Richard W. |title=Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals |date=1977 |publisher=Crown Publishers |pages=248–249 |isbn=978-0-517-52675-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/ourganglifetimes0000malt/page/248/mode/2up |access-date=3 March 2024}}

Plot

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. Unfortunately, the petulant pooch does not take direction well, nor does he respond positively when the cameraman announces that he is ready to start filming.{{cite web|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/226211/Rover's-Big-Chance/overview |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130053107/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/226211/Rover's-Big-Chance/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-01-30 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |author=Hal Erickson |title=New York Times: Rover's-Big Chance|author-link=Hal Erickson (author) |accessdate=2008-10-08}}

Cast

=The Gang=

Bobby Blake as Mickey
Janet Burston as Janet
Billy Laughlin as Froggy
George McFarland as Spanky
Billie Thomas as Buckwheat

=Additional cast=

Horace Stephen McNally as Wm. "Bill" Patterson
Freddie Chapman as Tony
Clyde Demback as Fatty
Bobby Anderson as Baseball player
Billy Finnegan as Baseball player
Bert Le Baron as Grip
Barbara Bedford as Studio clerk
Ben Hall as George
Hugh McCormick as Professor Ventriloko
Byron Shores as J.D. Broderick

Production notes

By the time of Rover's Big Chance, Mickey Gubitosi had legally changed his name to Robert "Bobby" Blake. 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.

Future film star Stephen McNally appears in this Our Gang episode as Bill Patterson, ace director at Mammoth Studios.