Friendly Neighbors

Republic Pictures specialized in the shrinking but still important rural market. This meant they produced a lot of westerns and when country music began its rise in the early 1940s (by 1945 Western Swing was the best-selling musical genre on records) they knew how to take advantage: not only with singing cowboys and Judy Canova, but with the Weaver Brothers and Elviry, a musical novelty act. They appeared in about fifteen movies from 1938 until 1942.

In this outing, the Weavers take to the road in a low-stress Grapes of Wrath scenario, consorting with kindly hobos and blind people in an amiable fashion, with Thurston Hall to act as a bamboozled deus ex machina to fix matters. The direction by Nick Grinde runs through all the standard gags, from the car-stuck-on-the-tracks on down, executed about as well as the Columbia shorts department would do them. There's lots of talent on view, including a nice musical number by Cliff Edwards to keep you entertained. It's a thoroughly enjoyable picture so long as you don't want any depth.