Episode Eight -- David Crosby's Liver

Overlooked Cinematic Classics from the Thirties

As you may know, I have taught film courses, and even in my English courses I've made it a point to teach some films. The 1930s are an overlooked decade in the history of cinema, and I think that's a shame. To remedy this injustice, I've made a list of three of that decade's overlooked classics, plus one bonus film for your edification and amazement.

1. Race You to Wisconsin! This sleeper stars those lovable moppets, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. The young lovers are engaged to be married, and a week before the ceremony, a gang of hooligans at the YMCA make fun of the size of Mickey Rooney's penis. Being innocent, he had not realized that his endowment might be an issue. The mischief-makers explain to Mickey that he couldn't fill a midget with what he's packing. Realizing that he's both gullible and insecure, the hooligans decide to have some more fun with him. They tell Mickey about a tonic that is only available in Wisconsin, and away he goes! Then Judy catches wind of Mickey's trip. Fearing that he's come down with cold feet, or worse, that he has an old love he hasn't gotten over, she stows away in the luggage compartment. When the pair get to Madison, wackiness ensues. You can be sure that there's plenty of blackface and catchy tunes! The catchy tunes include "Hotdog Down a Hallway," "Shufflin' to Madison," and "For Full Effect, Don't Pasteurize It."

2. The Worst Years of Our Lives. Before The Grapes of Wrath, there was The Worst Years of Our Lives. Jimmy Stewart plays Preacherman Randy Justice, a man of faith who has just suffered the foreclosure of his church due to the Great Depression's impact on the donation plate. Randy throws his collar into the river, gets drunk on Wild Turkey, and with a tommy gun and a volume of the complete works of Nietzsche, he climbs onto the roof of the bank that repossessed his church. As the townsfolk gather, Randy Justice reads from The Will to Power and threatens to shoot anybody who leaves before the reading is done. As he's reading, Randy becomes increasingly sober and he notices some G-Men in the crowd. Randy throws down the book and his gun and yells "Now, now before it's too late!" In Washington, under the harsh interrogation of Hoover, Randy lies about his motive. He explains that Tim Casey, the local Red agitator, had threatened to kill one child per week unless Randy helped him break the town's addiction to that opiate of the people, religion. He goes on that he yelled what he did because he saw the G-Men and thought it was the best time for them to make their move, especially since he was getting to the most atheistic part of the book. Hoover asks Randy if he'd be willing to testify against Casey, and Randy agrees. The Worst Years of Our Lives is famous for the graphic depiction of an eletric chair electrocution. For realism, Capra filmed a real live commie being put to death!

3. I Killed Her at the State Fair. Although many cite Psycho as the prototypical slasher movie, I Killed Her at the State Fair is the genre's true progenitor. The film tells the story of Ricky Nicholas, a shy newcomer who's really keen on Mary Beth Truevirtue. Too awkward to express his feelings, Ricky becomes Mary Beth's "secret admirer" and leaves little notes in her locker and sends her a weekly batch of flowers. On the day that he's finally wound up enough courage to ask her out, Ricky walks behind the school barn for one more nerve-soothing Camel. There he sees Mary Beth giving handjobs to Biff Manmeat, the captain of the football team, and Jasper Slopbucket, the school janitor. Furious, Ricky's lovenotes and weekly flowers are replaced with death threats and rat carcasses. The climatic scene on the Merry-Go-Round has been recognized as the inspiration for the Ferris Wheel scene in The Third Man, and is a classic of cinematography, suspense, and "makes you think" philosophizing. I Killed Her at the State Fair was remade as It Happened at the World's Fair, a 1963 Elvis Presley vehicle.

BONUS

Don't Look Under the Washtub. Before Chester Erskine struck comedic gold with Ma and Pa Kettle, he struggled as an ambitious director with a disturbing vision. It's rare and hard to find, but keep your "eye out" for Don't Look Under the Washtub, Erskine's adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Telltale Heart." Grandma Pickens can't stand the sight of her husband Cotton's blind eye. After a late night down at the still, Grandma drops her tobacco pouch in a field of wildly growing psychedelic mushrooms. The mushrooms get into her tobacco, and when Grandma fills her corncob pipe the next morning, she gets more than she bargained for. Tripping her ass off, Grandma Pickens starts to take orders from a chorus of demons in overalls who tell her how to get rid of that bothersome eye once and for all. If you don't want to discover the hole that contains Cotton Pickens' decomposing body, then Don't Look Under the Washtub!