Jack Benny

  • Charles Reisner – The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)

    Charles Reisner1921-1930ComedyMusicalUSA

    Plot: MGM’s big showcase of musical talent is the main appeal of this film. It’s clunky, but it was filmed literally at the dawn of the sound age. So where else could you see Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Marie Dressler, Laurel, & Hardy, Buster Keaton, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Cliff Edwards, Rose Tyler, Conrad Nagel, Charles King, Polly Moran, Bessie Love, William Haines, Anita Page, Gus Edwards and your master of ceremonies, Jack Benny.Read More »

  • Sidney Lanfield – The Meanest Man in the World (1943)

    1941-1950ClassicsComedyErnst LubitschSidney LanfieldUSA

    Richard Clarke (Benny), a small town lawyer, is not making enough money to marry Janie Brown (Lane), his fiancée. To improve himself, Richard moves to New York City. Although he does not have any clients, Richard tells Janie that he is doing well. She expects to move to New York and marry him.

    His assistant Shufro (Anderson) suggests that he could make some money if he became hard and ruthless. The ultimate test of his meanness is ‘stealing candy from a baby’. He is photographed as he pulls a sucker away from a small boy. The picture is printed in the paper under the caption, “Meanest Man in the World.” He is hired to evict an old woman, Mrs. Frances H. Leggitt (Margaret Seddon), from her apartment and more pictures appear in the paper.Read More »

  • Charles Reisner – Chasing Rainbows (1930)

    1921-1930Charles ReisnerComedyMusicalUSA

    Synopsis:
    The road-show troupe of a top Broadway show go cross-country while taking the audience along on the on-stage scenes as well as what happens and is happening back stage of the production. The spectacular dancing ensembles and colorful costumes and pulchritude on-stage offers a contrasting background to the drabness of the backstage, where joy, sorrow, tragedies, deception, and romance are intertwined.
    — Les Adams.Read More »

  • Raoul Walsh – The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)

    1941-1950ComedyCultRaoul WalshScrewball ComedyUSA

    Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Though Jack Benny made a cottage industry out of joking about the purported rottenness of his 1945 vehicle Horn Blows at Midnght, the film is in fact a delightful comedy-fantasy-certainly not Benny’s best film, but far from his worst. While dozing off during a radio broadcast, studio musician Athaniel (Benny) dreams he’s a trumpet player in Heaven’s celestial orchestra. At the behest of glamorous angel Elizabeth (Alexis Smith), Athaniel is brought into the lavish chambers of The Chief (Guy Kibbee), who has a job for our hapless hero. Read More »

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