Dreaming Out Loud

Continuing their hugely successful radio program (which ran from 1931 to 1956), Lum and Abner's 1940 big screen debut has the comic duo running the Jot 'Em Down General Store in the hick town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas. Lum and Abner (Chester Lauck and Norris Goff) squabble and play checkers while evaluating all sorts of newfangled inventions from traveling salesmen. The pair's genteel days are filled with ambling interactions with the colorful locals and by modestly performing more than a few good deeds for their impoverished town. The tragic hit-and-run of little Emmy Lou turns the homespun proprietors into crusading social activists as they campaign to bring a mobile first aid unit to Pine Ridge. Lum and Abner face the opposition of miserly, rich town dowager Jessica Spence and find an ally for reform in Doc Walt Barnes. Regrettably, it takes Dr. Walt's untimely stroke to illustrate the necessity of good universal health care.