Why Not Live? (1935)

★★★★ · Ya stupid kids! · Ryan Hennessy · 2005-03-16

Geez, you kids are so stupid. Pulling boiling pots of water off the stove? Putting stuff into fan blades? Setting fire to a box of matches? And their parents don't seem to be any better! Tripping on rugs and falling down the stairs. Pouring lighter fluid into a stove? Stepping on rattlesnakes?? Carving your hand up with a can opener?! I've never seen somebody drive straight into a lake, or fall out of a canoe so easily. These people are so incredibly accident-prone, it's amazing they lived long enough to make this film. If this is what the American Red Cross calls a "ceaseless fight for…

★★★★ · Slip On a Roller Skate? Call the Red Cross! · Dodsworth the Cat · 2023-11-29

Priceless stock footage of car accidents, including one rolling through a bridge barrier to sound effects and urgent music (after the driver jumps out), and ham acting highlight this great film. Some of the rhetoric is a bit much. Red Cross hands "smooth away the cares and sorrows of today." Some hands! The directing's top-notch, with varied shots and assorted wipes (including a spinning red cross). There's underwater photography (the guy practically dove out of the barely-tipped canoe). More important, some of what's shown here is still valid. Yes, there are today stupid children…

★★★★ · What DID you have for lunch? · Spuzz · 2005-02-10

You would think that this collection of human mishaps would be a Sid Davis production.. But no! This film was produced by The American Red Cross! Priceless accident footage abound here: Cars get hit by trains, go off piers, Guy chopping off his toe, woman falls out of canoe and inexplicably sinks straight down to the bottom of the lake, and of course, the ever-so-common man's foot is run over by a piece of farm machinery. While we wait for the next mallady is concurred up, we find out about the many ways Red Cross can help you get trained to deal with these type of accidents. So, the next…

★★★★ · Would You Prefer the Living Standards of Jackass? · larrymike · 2005-06-13

I really don't understand all the negative jive of films like this when one of the most popular shows in the past decade of Gen-X was Jackass, people doing stupid stuff like jumping off roofs, setting themselves on fire, eating broken glass, and all that other nonsense. Films such as Why Not Live? are hilarious to today's jaded, cynical, and I'm-not-responsible-for-my-actions viewers, but they were meant to be educational. Instead of education people on the dangers around us today, we hype and applaud and reward shows like Jackass, which really shows just how stupid and dangerous people…

★★★★ · Odd and rather pointless · thebrix · 2005-06-30

Never mind "gratuitous violence" nowadays, the 1930s were bad enough on the evidence of this film. About a dozen accidents are shown - everything from a bad cut from an old-fashioned tin opener to a car being crushed by a steam train - yet what the Red Cross does to help is only shown for two of them! The rest are included, it would seem, simply for titillation. Also worth looking for are the myriad continuity errors and improbabilities. For example, car somersaults down hill with pieces flying off it but essentially intact, cut away, cut back ... and two bodies are shown neatly lined up…

★★★★ · These people seem to have a death wish · Karltonthedoorman · 2008-04-19

I received EMT training in the 80s and this film seems to show clearly what not to. Nearly every procedure they showed is something you should not do. I was left scratching my head as to how the "massage" treatment would help a drowning victim. It truly shows how far we have come over time. Amazing that anyone lived through the "help" they were getting.