Who payed the critics

Thanks for the memories!

Just perfect...

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This amusing but dated and corny musical short shows how escaped inmates from a hard as nails prison miss out on the glamorization of their cells when the warden decides to make a few changes after they are notified of an upcoming inspection of prison conditions. It basically turns into a Busby Berkeley like visit as chorus girls, singing inmates and other entertainers get to show their stuff. "Steak again? What I wouldn't give for some beans!" one prisoner basically says, their dirty uniforms altered into almost like tuxedo like outfits. In the meantime, the prisoners interrupt a college picnic, hide from their pursuers in a pond (one of them squirting one of the dogs on their trail with water out of the straw providing them with air), then desperately try to return when they hear about the good times going on. One diminutive prisoner desperately wants to go back to the rock pile thanks to a nagging wife while the others who forced him to escape want to partake of the good times they're missing. The dogs on their chase are your every day "nellie dog", chasing the prisoners on their hind legs with their coiffed tales wagging in the breeze. It's all in good fun, and the final shot is hysterically funny. More a curio than a work of art, it's nostalgia at its most eye-rolling silly, and I think most of the laughs are at its expense rather than with it.

20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang (1933)** (out of 4) During the 1930s Warner was known for their hard-hitting social dramas and I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG was one of their greatest. This two-reeler is a spoof of that film and centers on a group of chain gang workers who grow tired of the horrid conditions so they decide to escape. Soon afterwards they get word that the prison has made some terrific changes so the men decided they want to break back in. 20,000 CHEERS FROM A CHAIN GANG has a pretty good title but that's about the only good thing going for it. It wasn't rare for Warner to spoof their features in their short films so this here certainly isn't anything new but at the same time very little is done with it. There are a few funny moments scattered throughout the film including one bit where the men are being chased by the dogs but the dogs turn out to be poodles and other non-threatening breeds. Another funny moment happens when the men try to break their chains but have a few issues. With that said, there are several moments that simply aren't funny and at times the film just comes across very boring and flat. This includes the entire second half of the picture where we see all the "changes" that were made but I assure you none of them will add any entertainment value.

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.