- November 8, 2011
- One Comment
- Trash Video
For the pre-brainwashed teen, Coronet Films comes up with What Makes A Good Party (1950), aimed presumably at senior girls during Home Economics class. A trio of high school girls plan a gathering to introduce a college boy to their “gang”. First they work out who’s in and who’s out – “Margie’s lots of fun, the fellas will LIKE her” – then they plan the gathering to the minutest detail.
According to Coronet, even spontaneous happenings must correspond to a carefully prepared program designed to reinforce a herd mentality. It’s FUN, people, and what can be more fun that watching a pack of privileged white kids crowded around a piano singing a minstrel tune. Thus putting the Crack – as in “Cracker” – in “Jimmy Crack Corn”. Peachy.
One Response to “BEYOND THE FRINGE DEPARTMENT: What Makes A Good Party (1950)”
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I was born in 1952, went through the hippie years and its own particular form of brain-washing. Some of the lingo in this film was pretty outdated. There was a reference to the word “gay” as in a “gay time”. That word has certainly seen a few changes since then!
Yes, the language and mannerisms of these girls may seem a bit corny and stilted, but they were genuinely pretty girls for the most part, dressed in rather conservative garb. After seeing a bunch of punk rockers and gangster rappers, it is kind of refreshing to see people dressing and behaving in a non-vulgar, un-confrontational and well-mannered way. Our society has gotten so crude, that seeing people NOT acting crudely gets to seem bizarre, bizarre as that might sound. The truth is, American society has been de-volving for a long time, and the results are not pretty. This glimpse at young people behaving normally contrasts sharply with the current sleaze-bag era.