20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang (1933)

Excellent but underrated film

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Hmm... I seem to be detecting a pattern here. With over two hundred film shorts to his credit, it's not surprising that director Roy Mack would go to the well more than once for the same idea. Trouble is, I seem to be catching them all in a row. In this case, I'm referring to a gimmick in the story turning out to be nothing more than a dream sequence of one of the principal characters. Catching a whole slew of these film shorts on TCM the past week, I've already seen "Soft Drinks and Sweet Music" and "Good Morning, Eve", both of which also disclosed events as a dream at the finale. Oh well, let's just go with the flow.So what we have here is a quintet of prisoners making a break for it from a chain gang while the inept prison guards don't seem particularly interested in catching them. Almost every other reviewer here mentions the posse using poodles and a collie to track the bad guys, but having been a Maltese owner for quite a few years, those 'poodles' looked suspiciously like Maltese dogs, or perhaps their close cousins, Bichon Frise. I can pretty safely say those dogs wouldn't have tracked anyone other than their owners! After their escape, the story zeroes in on one of the convicts named Jerry (Jerry Bergen) who makes it home to his wife. But after spending some not-so quality time with the Mrs., the 'dirty little fugitive' (wife's description, not mine) high tails it back to the swamp to hook back up with his chain gang buddies, who presumably have the same idea - let's break back into the hoosegow! You see, the warden is making some adjustments in order to pass muster with a governor's representative who'll be arriving soon to report on prison conditions.For what it is, this short is an amusing but non-sensical tale at least made lively by a bevy of dance hall beauties near the finale. But it wouldn't be long before the inmates would have to trade in their striped tuxes for real life back on the chain gang. That's about the time Jerry woke up!

Of all the ludicrous places to set a musical short, some very kooky people at Vitaphone thought it would be a great idea to have it be on a chain gang!! Yes, when I think of song and dance, I often think of chain gangs!! When the film starts, the chain gang is singing up a storm and having an awfully good time, or so it seems. Some of these guys actually DO want to escape and they soon bolt towards freedom. Go figure...as it looked awfully amusing on the chain gang! Soon the law goes chasing after these fellows and the escapees wander upon a swell dance party...and everyone runs away when they see these guys in striped uniforms. Little do the escapees know that they SHOULD have stayed with the gang. This is because in the meantime, a committee is coming to inspect the barracks and the health of the chain gang. Because of this the boss decides to make a few 'small changes' to impress the committee. This actually is VERY funny...and you just have to see it for yourself. And what does happen to these five escapees? Just see it for yourself...you won't regret it.This movie manages to work for one reason...it is completely ludicrous and silly. Anthing else would have been in bad taste and stupid....and while this one is very stupid, it's stupid in a GOOD way! Very cute and surprisingly funny...and a nice counterpoint to Warner's big hit from the year before, "I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang".

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.