Road Show. Hal Roach. 1941.
I love it! It’s one of those screwball comedy things. It’s absolutely insane.
This is another movie from the absurd box set, and the audio/video quality is a lot better than anybody has a reason to expect.
It’s a low budget movie, so I guess it’s a “B movie” of its time, but it’s so inventive and cooky. It doesn’t really make much sense, but if you go along with the antics, it’s something else.
And! It’s got a random musical scene! With a four-man black singing troupe! The Charioteers? It’s positively pinko commie.
(It does bring us back to that eternal question: Is it more racist to make a movie without any black actors, or a movie with some black actors, where at least a couple of them do the totally standard “wide-open eyes and totally a coward’ thing? And watermelon? Not to mention the Native American thing. But is it!?)
No mention of the European Situation, though.
Popular movies in February 1941 according to IMDB:
| Poster | Votes | Rating | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 15154 | 8.0 | The Lady Eve |
 | 2375 | 7.4 | The Strawberry Blonde |
 | 300 | 7.2 | The Ghost of St. Michael’s |
 | 373 | 7.0 | Back Street |
 | 1729 | 6.8 | Western Union |
 | 1540 | 6.7 | Tobacco Road |
 | 357 | 6.7 | Meet Boston Blackie |
 | 223 | 6.7 | Nice Girl? |
 | 443 | 6.7 | Cheers for Miss Bishop |
 | 332 | 6.7 | Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary |
This blog post is part of the Decade series.