Patsy Cline's Housewife Noir

Talk about melodrama! I thought The Louvin Brothers hosted the best pity party on the block, but this makes the Louvins sound like Martin and Lewis on laughing gas.

Speaking of 50s Hollywood types, director Douglas Sirk probably never heard this tune; Hollywood rarely mixed with country singers in those days. Too bad, because it would have been right up Sirk’s alley. This is pure housewife noir, swamped with emotion, and hinting darkly at some repressed something-or-other.

Here’s the exquisitely-tortured Patsy Cline with “When You Need A Laugh”.