Life in Sometown, U.S.A. (1938) User Reviews

Poorly Done Short

[Michael_Elliott · 23 April 2012]

Life in Sometown, U.S.A. (1938)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Buster Keaton directed this short, which has a couple rich women going into court and being disgraced when a cop pays the $2 fine for a poor kid who broke her window. The judge decides to prove a point that there are many laws on the books that they could charge people with but don't. Over the next few days the rich people are shown what they do that is actually against the law. Carey Wilson does the narration for this short but it really doesn't matter because the end result is quite poor and ranks among the worst shorts I've seen from MGM. This thing isn't horrible but at the same time the movie drags at such a slow pace that its 10-minute running time seems twice that. The biggest problem is that the stories simply aren't that interesting. Most of these Wilson shorts (or even Pete Smith) move at a nice pace and contain some nice information but that's simply not the case here. The stories about all these strange laws are mildly interesting but Keaton simply doesn't add any entertainment to them.

The best way to "Make America Great Again . . . "

[tadpole-596-918256 · 8/10 · 30 January 2018]

. . . is for the USA's Menfolk to dream up a way to compel "the fair sex" to surrender their unfair advantages and relearn their proper place, LIFE IN SOMETOWN, USA argues. This little-remembered gem offers a couple tips along these lines. One winning strategy would be to incarcerate any grown female strutting around town without sporting the petticoat required by most civic jurisdictions. If only this statute had been enforced during the fall of 2016, the wishes of the throngs chanting "Lock her up!" would have been fulfilled before anyone went hoarse. Since we can hear "I'm With Her" still spouting off two years later, perhaps the second tactic suggested by LIFE IN SOMETOWN, USA for use against harpies can be brought into play. According to this live-action short, a bedrock principle of U.S. Law states than any skirt with the temerity to criticize a man in Public must be immediately, literally, and forcibly muzzled by the law enforcement Authorities. As THE HANDMAID'S TALE also has proven, they don't call it "a Man's World" for nothing, and it won't take long for this "New Normal" (which has been the REAL normal all along!) to become old hat once again.

Sometown, U.S.A. is Nowheresville

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 29 May 2002]

"Life in Sometown, U.S.A." is one of the hundreds of short films churned out by MGM in the days when a trip to the movies meant a double feature plus several shorts. Many of MGM's shorts were excellent; others were passable. This one stinks. "Sometown" is notable only because it was directed by Buster Keaton, during the fallow period in his career when MGM kept him under a tight contract but wouldn't take advantage of his brilliant comedic talents. Keaton's direction of this film is proficient but listless. "Sometown" has good production values, up to MGM's usual high standard. That's all, though.

The premise of this film is a good one. All over the U.S.A., mostly in small communities, there are obscure laws (often quite ridiculous laws, or outdated legislations) which have never been repealed, and which remain legally in effect. Back in 1936, author Dick Hyman and cartoonist Otto Soglow had a popular feature in *American Magazine* titled "It's the Law", in which Hyman described a (genuine) ludicrous law that was still on the books, and Soglow drew an appropriate illustration. For instance, in North Dakota it's illegal to shoot rabbits from the rear platform of a streetcar. Hyman's text was effective because he cited the actual communities in which these real laws were genuinely in effect.

"Life in Sometown, U.S.A." could have been a neat little "Believe It or Not"-style item if its scriptwriters had followed the example of "It's the Law", with performers acting out skits in which they scrupulously follow (or disobey) ludicrous laws. Instead, these filmmakers have created a mythical Mayberry-style town called "Sometown, U.S.A." and attributed a dozen obscure (but genuine) laws from real communities to this one nonexistent town. "Sometown" is supposedly the place where all the really daft laws are in effect, and actively enforced.

It's a clumsy idea, badly done. The material carries no conviction because we know that "Sometown" isn't a real place. Even the narrator sounds embarrassed. Every time he starts to cite an authentic piece of legislation, he tells us "...there's a law in (embarrassed pause) Sometown, U.S.A. ..." We keep getting that embarrassed pause, over and over through the whole movie. There's no dialogue in this movie (it was shot silent), so the narrator has to carry the whole burden ... and he sounds too embarrassed.

This movie is awful. I went to a lot of trouble to see it because Rudi Blesh mentioned it briefly in his excellent biography of Buster Keaton, and I thought that Blesh was praising this film. He wasn't. It stinks. "Life in Sometown, U.S.A." deserves zero points out of ten.

Alas, poor Buster, who wasted his talents on rubbish like this.