Corn's-A-Poppin'
With Jerry Wallace, Noralee Benedict, Hobie Shepp.
US, 1956, 35mm, black & white, 58 min.
Print source: Northwest Chicago Film Society
Scripted by a twenty-eight-year-old Robert Altman after a brief, frustrating sojourn in Los Angeles trying to find work as a Hollywood screenwriter, Corn’s-A-Poppin’ is a zero-budget backstage musical that serves as an early example of Altman’s fondness for musicians and performers as characters. The plot concerns the efforts to defend the Pinwhistle Popcorn Hour—a down-home variety show with acts ranging from ex–hog-caller Lillian Gravelguard to Hobie Shepp and His Cow Town Wranglers—from corporate sabotage engineered by a rogue PR man in his bid to gut the Pinwhistle empire. Shot in Kansas City by a band of young talent schooled in the production techniques of the Calvin Company—the Midwest’s most innovative industrial film studio—Corn’s-A-Poppin’ experienced extremely limited play at rural drive-ins and hootenannies before disappearing for decades. Although Altman would not direct his own feature for another year, this film looks forward to Nashville and, even more uncannily, his last film, A Prairie Home Companion, half a century later.
PRECEDED BY
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The Sound of Bells
Directed by Robert Altman.
With Keith Painton.
US, 1952, 16mm, color, 22 min.
Print source: Gary Huggins
Another short made by Altman in Kansas City, The Sound of Bells finds the filmmaker working in a warm, folksy vein to tell a tale of two Christmases, a Santa in need and a Good Samaritan.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Vincent & Theo
Fool for Love
Prêt-à-porter
California Split
Thieves Like Us
A Perfect Couple
A Prairie Home Companion
O.C. and Stiggs
That Cold Day in the Park
Corn's-A-Poppin'
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Gingerbread Man
Dr. T and the Women
Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
