Highway Hearing (in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #668 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Public Service]

Another 50s film about highways. This one shows a fictional town called Connorsville, whose citizens are all up in arms because the proposed superhighway will bypass the town. But our friendly highway engineer convinces them that the bypass will make their town better rather than worse, and soon everybody is smiling about it at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. This film was obviously made to convince small-town folk just like the ones in the film to let their towns be bypassed by the Interstate. Whether it actually helped or hurt them can be seen today. One would hope that they weren’t as easily swayed back then as the people in this film, but considering today’s results, I doubt it. This does have historical interest as a document of the arguments that got the Interstate built.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: **. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.

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