New Roadways

What were they thinking? That's what I thought when I watched this dismal short subject called NEW ROADWAYS ('39). The roadways refer to new lab experiments aimed at helping mankind.

For starters, as an illustration of how effective plastic surgery can be in changing lives, we see an "ugly" man whose face would make success in any job near impossible. So says the narrator. The only catch is, the man is far from ugly--merely sullen and nondescript in appearance--and we're told this kind of man becomes a criminal because he can't find work in a respectable job! Please. Doesn't anyone know what "ugly" really is?? This sequence is laughable.

There's a strain on credibility too when the narrator informs us that the chemistry of white mice is so similar to man's that all kinds of lab tests can be done on memory and behavior, as well as finding cures for infantile paralysis and cancer. That might be overstating the case just a little, although I'm sure whatever lab experiments are done with white mice do deserve some mention.

A better illustration of plastic surgery could have included men disfigured during war with facial scars that have to be healed.

Definitely one of the less distinguished entries in MGM's "Passing Parade" series.

In this episode of his long-running shorts series for MGM, THE PASSING PARADE, John Nesbitt considers, as he so often does, trifles: the trifles that, in his words, reside on page sixteen of a newspaper, hidden from view by the wars and natural disasters that occupy page one. It's the latest advancements in science, technology, and manufacturing, from glass that can be woven into clothes, to the use of plastic surgery, not for recapturing an old woman's lost youth, but to heal the scars of those disfigured by war.

Nesbitt covered a large array of subjects in this series, usually things we don't think about once they become accomplished fact. His optimism shines through in works like this.

I just happened to catch this short in passing on TCM and I must say I'm totally amazed. The theme is that while the front pages of newspapers are dominated by stories about death — disasters, war, crimes and other morbid subjects — buried in the back pages are tales of intrepid scientific researchers at major universities who are figuring out ways to make our lives better. The second half of the short, which offers plastic surgery as a way of deterring crime on the basis that if people are ugly they won't be accepted by society or be able to work normal jobs, so if we just make their faces over they'll become law-abiding citizens, is pretty silly — especially since the actor playing the "ugly" brother who becomes a criminal is actually pretty attractive (he seems to be rendering "ugliness" just by twisting one side of his lip, sort of like Elvis). But the first half is pretty astonishing, especially in its revelation that we were able to convert solar power to electricity as early as 1939. The fact that we still haven't developed solar technology and instead have run down our stock of fossil fuels, jammed the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and created a global-warming crisis that threatens to become a catastrophe — and that there are "drill, baby, drill" idiots in this country who want us to feed our fossil-fuel joneses into human extinction instead of looking at renewable alternatives — is a great point of shame for the human race in general and the United States in particular. What a different world we'd be living in now if we'd put as much money and social investment into developing solar power as we did into the interstate highway system and the evil demon of nuclear energy (war AND "peace") in the 1950's!

It's an MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short. The New Roadways refer to research being done in America for the benefit of humankind unlike the constant news of war and famine.

It's meant to be an antidote to the constant war talk in 1939. It's a lot of new materials. It's early solar power. It's research on mice. Finally, it's plastic surgery. In this, they suggests work on soldiers from the first World War, but they choose to concentrate on a young girl's face. It would have been interesting to see some real work on real injured soldiers. Maybe, that would be counter to the premise of getting off the war talk. In the end, this short is too scattered and struggles to commit to its premise. Parts of it is interesting.

New Roadways (1939)

*** (out of 4)

MGM Passing Parade short about how scientists are developing things to help people in the future. This short talks about ho how mice are being used to cure various diseases. Also talked about is how plastic surgery is a good thing especially if you're ugly because if you are ugly then a life of crime is the only option for you (or so says this short). This is a pretty entertaining short that has several unintentional laughs due to various bits but most of these are due to the fact that this film claims only ugly people commit crimes.