TWO WEEKS TO LIVE (1943)
Article #804 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-28-2003
Posting Date: 10-15-2003
Directed by Malcolm St. Clair
Featuring Chester Lauck, Norris Goff, Franklin Pangborn

A small-town grocer inherits a railroad, and takes his friend to the big city to claim it, but runs into problems.

Title check: Since the plot eventually starts to revolve around Abner Peabody’s mistaken belief that he will die in two weeks, the title is quite apt.

“Lum and Abner” were characters from a radio show who also appeared in a largely forgotten series of B films during the forties. This is a fun but minor outing that ends up rubbing up against the world of fantastic cinema several times during its running length. The basic premise that drives this is that Abner takes on dangerous jobs to help earn enough money to pay a debt; after all, if he’s going to die in a couple of weeks, he’s not risking much. So he ends up encountering Dr. Jekyll, who wants him to test a potion that could change him into an animal; a tame gorilla who is most likely played by Charlie Gemora, as it is clearly his costume (you know you’ve watched too many of these movies when you can start spotting the men in the gorilla outfits); a haunted house, and a rocketship to Mars. It never really completely enters the realm of the fantastic (they never even make it to the haunted house), but I’ve never seen a movie before get so close so often and still remain marginalia. By the way, after seeing this, I wouldn’t be surprised if I were to discover that Buddy Ebsen’s character of Jed Clampett on “The Beverly Hillbillies” was inspired somewhat by the character of Lum Edwards who, despite being more of an opportunist than Jed ever was, bears a remakable resemblance to that character. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit more than I expected, but I suspect that some of it was simply that I needed a good laugh after OLD MOTHER RILEY’S GHOSTS.