Surprised Parties

{{Infobox film

| name = Surprised Parties

| image = Our Gang Surprised Parties 1942.jpg

| caption =

| director = Edward Cahn

| producer = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

| writer = Hal Law
Robert A. McGowan

| narrator =

| starring = George McFarland
Billie Thomas
Mickey Gubitosi
Billy Laughlin
Janet Burston

| music =

| cinematography = Walter Lundin

| editing = Leon Borgeau

| distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

| released = {{Film date|1942|5|30}}

| runtime = {{duration | m=10 | s= 51 }}

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

}}

Surprised Parties is a 1942 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn and starring George McFarland, Billie Thomas, Mickey Gubitosi, Billy Laughlin, and Janet Burston. It was the 206th 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 |page=247 |isbn=978-0-517-52675-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/ourganglifetimes0000malt/page/246/mode/2up |access-date=3 March 2024}}

Plot

Upset because, as a leap year baby (he only has a birthday every four years), Froggy remembers the fact that he has almost never had a birthday party. The gang decides to throw a surprise party in Froggy's honor, but they pretend to throw him out of the clubhouse in order to keep it a secret.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035399/|title=IMB|publisher=IMB|accessdate=2011-04-18}} Vengefully, Froggy sneaks back and sets all sorts of booby-traps for the other gang members and then shows up at the party disguised as a new girl in town. But when Froggy discovers that the party was for him, he becomes guilty and sets off all the traps by himself.{{cite web|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/226209/Surprised-Parties/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520204342/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/226209/Surprised-Parties/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-05-20 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |author=Hal Erickson |title=New York Times: Surprised-Parties|author-link=Hal Erickson (author) |date=2011 |accessdate=2008-10-08}}

Cast

=The Gang=

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

=Additional cast=

Margaret Bert as Froggy's mother
Giovanna Gubitosi as Gloria
Leon Tyler as Jimmy

=Party guests=

Buz Buckley, James Gubitosi, Tommy Tucker, Frank Ward

Production note

Surprised Parties was the last short with Edward Cahn as Our Gang's regular director. He would return in 1943 to direct Three Smart Guys. Herbert Glazer takes over directing beginning with Doin' Their Bit.