My Discoveries Of 2021

Every year, the great screenwriter Larry Karaszewski compiles a terrific list of older movies he discovered in the previous year. I thought I would copy from one of the greats and talk about two older films that I finally caught up to in 2021.

How have I missed Petey Wheatstraw The Devil's Son In Law all these years? Rudy Ray Moore stars in the title role as a club owner/stand up comic who is gunned down in a drive by. Petey is sent to hell and makes a deal with the devil. He agrees to marry the devil's daughter in exchange for coming back to life to get his revenge. This movie is ridiculous and a lot of fun. Probably my favorite of the Rudy Ray Moore films.

I think I avoided this one because I thought it would be a dopey Saturday Night Live film. Instead what I got was a fun, almost Altman-esque, movie about one Saturday night in a small Minnesota town. Even though it was marketed as avehicle for Al Franken and Tom Davis from SNL, this is very much an ensemble comedy. A real nice surprise.