Michael Morrison "Interesting" is rather a neutral adjective, connoting neither good nor bad. (In fact, remember that supposed Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times.")But "20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang" is much more interesting than entertaining.It is one of the numerous Vitaphone shorts presented by Turner Classic Movies on the 90th anniversary of Vitaphone, then shown On Demand as part of a couple hours of some of the shorts.Jerry Bergen, whoever he was, is the nominal star, but he was more of a distraction, with a silly hairdo and almost as silly mannerisms. (He somewhat reminded me of Joe Besser.)However, as the ridiculous, but intendedly so, story continued, the movie became eminently watchable because of some beautiful legs among some talented dancers.Roy Mack directed hundreds of these Vitaphone shorts, and naturally some of them were better, and some, like this one, not so much.James Baskett is the uncredited singer, and is always worth hearing, and Harry Shannon, a good actor, is the uncredited warden.Sure, give it a look. It won't take more than a few minutes, and you might get a kick out of the very non-seriousness.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . will strike many as being in poor taste. Some have said that the "Springtime for Hitler" portion of Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS crosses a line by indirectly lampooning SCHINDLER'S LIST. Since CHAIN GANG gave Adolf Eichmann and his Nazi cronies many tips from the government of Georgia (the U.S. Southern state--NOT the former part of the U.S.S.R.) for the planning of Auschwitz and the other Death Camps a few years later, this Vitaphone live action short--which segues from actual CHAIN GANG footage into the most gonzo-style mocking of America's Fascist Past--is akin to lampooning Kiddie Porn. Adults should be smart enough to know that you just don't do it! The only useful purpose to which 20,000 CHEERS FOR THE CHAIN GANG can be put in a 21st Century World is to help separate the sheep from the goats (as in the middle portion of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE). After suspects have had their eyes taped open, they would be forced to watch the Paul Muni feature first. That would be followed by this travesty of bad humor. Any suspect who emitted a single snicker, titter, or chuckle during CHEERS would then be locked up for life. Society must rid itself of such Sociopaths!

Brandt Sponseller 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.

Daniel Ocean 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.