April 10, 1970

Cross Country Detours (1940) ****

The last and best of many spot-gag travelogue spoofs made by Tex Avery in the late 1930's (including 1938's "The Isle Of Pingo-Pongo" and 1939's Oscar-nominated "Detouring America"). Here, most gags deal with animals living in national parks. A sexy lizard sheds her skin as a striptease, while a little girl reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" frightens a horrible gila monster. There are also shots of croaking frogs, freezing polar bears and a little deer imitating Mae West.