20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang (1933)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Roy Mack

Writers:

A. Dorian Otvos (writer)
Cyrus Wood (writer)

Release Date:

12 August 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Musical | Comedy

Plot:

Four convicts escape from a chain gang. Shortly thereafter, changes are made at the prison, because...

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Chain Gang | Number In Title

Cast

Jerry Bergen	...	Jerry
Novia	...	Jerry's wife
The Pickens Sisters	...	Themselves

Runtime:

20 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Vitaphone Corporation, The

Trivia:

Included as a special feature on the DVD I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) released in 2005 by Warner Home Video.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

Soundtrack:

Sing Sing Serenade

Successful absurdist mockery of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

This is a 20-minute long spoof of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), directed by Roy Mack and starring Jerry Bergen. It is now available on DVD as an extra on I Am a Fugitive.

Because this is also a Warner Brothers production, Mack actually begins with a shot, under the titles, from I Am a Fugitive--of the chain gang working along a curved dirt road on a hill. It segues right away to the main character's existence in the chain gang, and spoofs the scene of James Allen's (Paul Muni) escape. Bergen's character, also named Jerry, runs through the woods with three other men. Instead of bloodhounds, the prison guards run after them with poodles and a Lassie-like collie. Eventually, state officials are scheduled to visit the chain gang facility to make sure that everything is kosher. The warden implements "a few changes". The changes are very amusing, as they turn the prison into more of a resort/country club.

20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang is best watched immediately after I Am a Fugitive. Many of the funniest scenes work because of the changes they make to the original film. However, there is a hilarious original "soda song" (which I would suspect might have been spoofing an early theatrical commercial) that supplies our heroes with the straws they will need for hiding in the swamp, and later on, 20,000 Cheers becomes something of a vaudeville review.

At times, 20,000 Cheers plays a bit seriously--I didn't know anything about it when I first started watching it and thought it might have been just another chain gang film, and some of the musical performances are fairly serious. But the straighter moments are just as enjoyable, and they help emphasize the comedy. Quite often, the humor depends on gradually pulling serious material more and more towards absurdism.

The only downside to this short is that there's not more of it. It's good enough that a feature length spoof of I Am a Fugitive would have worked well.