High Corn

Speaking of cruelty, I watched Judy Canova's Lay That Rifle Down the other night. Canova was known as the Queen of Corn, a kind of Minnie Pearl character. She was in vaudeville, had a long running radio show, etc. I'd never heard of her, but I'm always game for that sort of thing. You find a lot of hidden gems.

But not in this case. This one stunk. Judy Canova plays Judy Canova, an orphan girl who slaves for an evil aunt. But she owns a heavily mortgaged ranch, where Gramps the taxi driver and his orphaned grandkids all live rent-free. This ranch looks to be worth big money when some con men come to town.

Judy sings a few songs and does a little slapstick, not well. She talks like a hick, but not in a comic way. The location for the movie isn't specified ("Greebeville"), but it looks a lot more like California than Iowa. The whole thing was just annoying. And I watched it all.

However, it was short. So it wasn't that bad.