The cartoon that the chain gang and the black church congregation enjoy laughing at together is Walt Disney's Playful Pluto (1934).

The preposterous titles of Sullivan's supposedly frivolous entertainments manage to be absurd and yet somehow right for the Hollywood of that period: "So Long, Sarong," "Hey, Hey in the Hayloft," "Ants in Your Pants of 1939." On the other hand, the titles of the three "serious" pictures he goes to see with the two farm women are just as funny in their pretentious heaviness: "Beyond these Tears," "The Valley of the Shadow," "The Buzzard of Berlin."

No doubt Sturges meant for Sullivan's planned title for his social-drama epic to be equally satirical. But filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen so admired this movie and Sturges' work, they went ahead and made the John L. Sullivan flick that never was, a comedy about poor rural people and three prisoners on a chain gang called O Brother, Where Art Thou?. It was released in 2000 and proved to be a sleeper hit. The soundtrack album for it, featuring several bluegrass, gospel and blues musicans, became the top selling-movie soundtrack of the year.

by Rob Nixon