Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

"Interesting" is rather a neutral adjective, connoting neither good nor bad. (In fact, remember that supposed Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times.")But "20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang" is much more interesting than entertaining.It is one of the numerous Vitaphone shorts presented by Turner Classic Movies on the 90th anniversary of Vitaphone, then shown On Demand as part of a couple hours of some of the shorts.Jerry Bergen, whoever he was, is the nominal star, but he was more of a distraction, with a silly hairdo and almost as silly mannerisms. (He somewhat reminded me of Joe Besser.)However, as the ridiculous, but intendedly so, story continued, the movie became eminently watchable because of some beautiful legs among some talented dancers.Roy Mack directed hundreds of these Vitaphone shorts, and naturally some of them were better, and some, like this one, not so much.James Baskett is the uncredited singer, and is always worth hearing, and Harry Shannon, a good actor, is the uncredited warden.Sure, give it a look. It won't take more than a few minutes, and you might get a kick out of the very non-seriousness.

. . . will strike many as being in poor taste. Some have said that the "Springtime for Hitler" portion of Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS crosses a line by indirectly lampooning SCHINDLER'S LIST. Since CHAIN GANG gave Adolf Eichmann and his Nazi cronies many tips from the government of Georgia (the U.S. Southern state--NOT the former part of the U.S.S.R.) for the planning of Auschwitz and the other Death Camps a few years later, this Vitaphone live action short--which segues from actual CHAIN GANG footage into the most gonzo-style mocking of America's Fascist Past--is akin to lampooning Kiddie Porn. Adults should be smart enough to know that you just don't do it! The only useful purpose to which 20,000 CHEERS FOR THE CHAIN GANG can be put in a 21st Century World is to help separate the sheep from the goats (as in the middle portion of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE). After suspects have had their eyes taped open, they would be forced to watch the Paul Muni feature first. That would be followed by this travesty of bad humor. Any suspect who emitted a single snicker, titter, or chuckle during CHEERS would then be locked up for life. Society must rid itself of such Sociopaths!

This Warners short, which I presume ran on the same bill as Mervyn LeRoy's "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang," is a mostly tired and unfunny film. It reminded me of just about every "Saturday Night Live" skit ever made, in which all of the actors think the material is funnier than the people watching it, and push a one-note joke to the brink of exhaustion.It is sort of fun to watch this after LeRoy's movie, because it spoofs specific details from the movie rather than its premise in general. Replacing the jailers' pack of bloodhounds with a bunch of fluffy white poodles was sort of funny, and I also liked the bellboy whose uniform was made of prison stripes.There are a lot of musical numbers incorporated into the action, performed by people I'd never heard of. The whole thing feels very patchwork and grade Z, with terrible sound and only the most cursory attention given to the actual film-making.

A wonderful and often funny look at the life in a chain gang. Worth checking out if you could find it anywhere. It was well acted, nicely directed, and pretty interesting in its humorous look at Chain Gang farm under inspection.