Robert Benchley Movies
Born in Worcester, MA, on September 15, 1889, Robert Benchley became a journalist upon graduating from Harvard in 1912, soon joining the staff of the New York Tribune. After serving in World War I, he returned to New York to accept the position of managing editor at Vanity Fair magazine, later tenuring as a columnist for the New York World before being named the drama editor of Life in 1920. The following year, Benchley published his first book collection, Of All Things, and in 1922 performed an acclaimed monologue, "The Treasurer's Report," as a skit in an amateur revue. Throughout the decade of the 1920s, Benchley also earned notoriety as a charter member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, a much-publicized group of New York City writers, actors, and artists -- also including Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, and Harpo Marx -- who met for lunch daily at the Algonquin Hotel to share sparkling conversation, juicy gossip, and scathing insults.Through his work in Life as well as books including 1925's Pluck and Luck and 1927's Early Worm, Benchley emerged as one of America's most popular and well-respected writers, acutely dissecting the comic futility of Roaring Twenties society. His subtle, whimsical humor primarily depicted the struggles of the common man, often spinning off on purely nonsensical tangents; Benchley's friend Donald Ogden Stewart (The Philadelphia Story) dubbed his sensibility "crazy humor," and it found an eager audience among pre-Depression readers. Benchley first began working in movies in 1928, reprising "The Treasurer's Report" in one of the earliest short films to feature sound; in all, he appeared in some 46 acclaimed short features, typically appearing as a lecturer to muse on subjects including The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928), The Courtship of a Newt (1938), and How to Take a Vacation (1941). In 1935, Benchley even won an Academy Award for How to Sleep. In 1929, he rose to new prominence as the drama critic at The New Yorker, a magazine founded by Algonquin lunchmate Harold Ross.
Beginning in 1932, Benchley began writing for feature films as well, making his debut with The Sport Parade, in which he also co-starred as a broadcaster. He continued to play any number of comedic supporting roles in the years to come, typically cast as a bumbling yet lovable sophisticate, a cocktail glass always firmly in hand. In 1940, he appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Foreign Correspondent; he also contributed dialogue to the script. Robert Benchley died on November 21, 1945, at the peak of his fame. Benchley's son, Nathanial, was a well-regarded novelist and children's books author while his grandson, Peter, later became a well-known novelist in his own right, authoring the book that inspired the film Jaws. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1941
Faith, Hope and Charity motivate the wacky storyline of Columbia's Three Girls About Town--or to be more exact, gorgeous sisters Faith, Hope and Charity Banner, played respectively by Binnie Barnes, Joan Blondell and Janet Blair. Faith and Hope are gainfully employed as New York hotel hostesses, whose job it is to entertain wealthy out-of-town conventioneers (but no hanky panky, if you please!) They've remained in this profession in order to afford the expensive private-school education of their sister Charity, who shows up in the Big Apple in pursuit of her own career, or a wealthy husband, or both. Charity's arrival coincides with several big-time conventions, one of which is being covered by Faith's newspaper-reporter boyfriend Tommy Hopkins (John Howard). Things get dicey when the three girls discover a corpse in one of the hotel rooms. Certain that they'll be blamed for the death (or at the very least fired from their jobs!), the sisters conspire with Tommy to hide the body from the cops. Trouble is, the body just won't stay hidden, not even when our heroines try to dispose of the awkward stiff in one of the coffins brought into the hotel for an undertaker's convention. Blessed with a generous supply of belly-laughs and an unending stream of familiar character actors, Three Girls About Town sustains a proper level of zaniness right up to the cop-out finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Binnie Barnes, (more)
- 1941
The very first Disney feature to include live-action footage, this behind-the-scenes documentary about the studio's animation process includes the cartoon short of the title, which in later years was often exhibited separately from this film. Robert Benchley stars as himself, a visitor to the Disney lot, where he intends to pitch an animated version of the children's fairy tale The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame to Walt Disney himself. Benchley wanders away from his studio-appointed guide and tours the facilities himself, where he sees various new cartoons in the process of being storyboarded, including a Baby Weems short. Benchley also meets Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck, and a young animator (played by Alan Ladd) before being corralled to Disney's screening room, where he is shown the company's new short, none other than The Reluctant Dragon. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Benchley, Frances Gifford, (more)
You'll Never Get Rich was the first of two films made by Fred Astaire at Columbia, and also the first in which he was paired with his favorite female dancing partner--not Ginger Rogers or Cyd Charisse, but Rita Hayworth. Fred and Rita play a team of Broadway dancers whose partnership is abruptly rent asunder when Fred is drafted into the Army. Unable to adapt to military routine, Astaire frequently ends up in the guardhouse; during one of these visits, he and the Delta Rhythm Boys collaborate on the lively song-and-dance number "The A-starable Rag." Back to the plot: Rita shows up on the army base as the girl friend of captain John Hubbard. This leads to more fancy footwork, and, of course, a happy ending for our stars. Though the Cole Porter score yielded no hits, one of the songs, "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye", was nominated for an Academy Award. Robert Benchley provides comic relief, as he would in the subsequent Astaire vehicle The Sky's the Limit. You'll Never Get Rich was followed by the even better Astaire-Hayworth pairing You Were Never Lovelier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, (more)
- 1941
Nice Girl? answers its own question by casting the relentlessy nice Deanna Durbin in the title role. In her first truly adult role, Durbin plays Jane Dana, the blossoming daughter of high school principal Oliver Dana (Robert Benchley). Jane is being ardently courted by longtime boyfriend Don Webb (Robert Stack) and by the more worldly Richard Calvert (Franchot Tone). A series of misunderstandings leads to the demure Jane earning an unsavory (and wholly unjustified) "reputation", but it all turns out okay by fadeout time. It is not only unfair to reveal the ending, but also quite difficult, since the current video version of Nice Girl includes the film's "alternate" ending, which is rather different than the denoument in the officially released version. Ms. Durbin's songs on this occasion range from such standards as "Old Folks at Home" to four newly-minted tunes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, (more)
- 1941
Despite its alluring title, Bedtime Story is an innocent little domestic comedy about a bickering married couple. Fredric March is a successful playwright specializing in vehicles for his beautiful actress wife Loretta Young. Young wants to retire from the stage and set up housekeeping on a little Connecticut farm. March refuses to acknowledge her wishes and continues working on his latest play, which is being written for her. She petulantly walks out of the relationship, taking up with straitlaced banker Allyn Joslyn. One does not need a crystal ball to determine the outcome of all this, but Bedtime Story goes through its expected paces with finesse, helped along by such reliable supporting players as Robert Benchley and Eve Arden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Loretta Young, (more)
- 1940
Rosalind Russell and Brian Aherne go through their customary farcical paces in the formula romantic comedy Hired Wife. Russell plays Kendal Browning, the superefficient secretary of business executive Stephen Dexter (Brian Aherne). When Dexter is legally obliged to put his business and its assets in his wife's name, he is momentarily stymied, inasmuch as he has no wife. Rather than enter into a hasty marriage with one of his various amours, Dexter proposes to Kendal, with the firm understanding that their union will be strictly a business arrangement. Is it any surprise that this "in-name-only" set-up culminates in a deep and abiding romance by fade-out time. Also contributing mightily to the overall frivolity is Robert Benchley as Dexter's prudish business partner and Virginia Bruce as a sexy model whom Dexter plans to wed as soon as his financial problems are straightened out, and John Carroll as a temperamental Latin Lover-type-stock characters all, but consummately played. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, (more)
Fourteen scriptwriters spent five years toiling over a movie adaptation of war correspondent Vincent Sheehan's Personal History before producer Walter Wanger brought the property to the screen as Foreign Correspondent. What emerged was approximately 2 parts Sheehan and 8 parts director Alfred Hitchcock--and what's wrong with that? Joel McCrea stars as an American journalist sent by his newspaper to cover the volatile war scene in Europe in the years 1938 to 1940. He has barely arrived in Holland before he witnesses the assassination of Dutch diplomat Albert Basserman: at least, that's what he thinks he sees. McCrea makes the acquaintance of peace-activist Herbert Marshall, his like-minded daughter Laraine Day, and cheeky British secret agent George Sanders. A wild chase through the streets of Amsterdam, with McCrea dodging bullets, leads to the classic "alternating windmills" scene, which tips Our Hero to the existence of a formidable subversive organization. McCrea returns to England, where he nearly falls victim to the machinations of jovial hired-killer Edmund Gwenn. The leader of the spy ring is revealed during the climactic plane-crash sequence--which, like the aforementioned windmill scene, is a cinematic tour de force for director Hitchcock and cinematographer Rudolph Mate. Producer Wanger kept abreast of breaking news events all through the filming of Foreign Correspondent, enabling him to keep the picture as "hot" as possible: the final scene, with McCrea broadcasting to a "sleeping" America from London while Nazi bombs drop all around him, was filmed only a short time after the actual London blitz. The script was co-written by Robert Benchley, who has a wonderful supporting role as an eternally tippling newsman. Foreign Correspondent was Alfred Hitchcock's second American film, and remained one of his (and his fans') personal favorites. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, (more)
- 1937
This third entry in MGM's "Broadway Melody" series may not have been the biggest or best, but thanks to a masterpiece of casting it is one of the most memorable of the batch. Signed by MGM in 1935, 15-year-old Judy Garland made her first feature-film appearance under the aegis of Leo the Lion, immediately capturing the hearts of moviegoers everywhere by singing "You Made Me Love You" to a photograph of Clark Gable (a sequence that has since been excerpted countless times in TV and movie documentaries). She later shares a song-and-dance number with gangly Buddy Ebsen, making an impressive entrance in a white midget car (Ebsen would later be cast as the Tin Man in Judy's The Wizard of Oz, only to be replaced by Jack Haley when he fell ill during shooting). The presence of Garland, coupled with several superlative dance solos by Eleanor Powell and a spectacular musical finale, tends to make one forget about the plot, which has something to do with a racehorse owned by heroine Sally Lee (Powell). The horse wins the Grand Steeplechase, the prize money is poured into the stage production previously bankrolled by Steve Raleigh (Robert Taylor), and the Show Goes On. Movies fans of the 1930s with long memories were gratified to see such old vaudeville favorites as Sophie Tucker and Willie Howard in the cast, even if their material wasn't quite up to standard. Interestingly, one of the best comic turns is performed by "professional sneezer" Robert Wildhack -- leaving another famed movie sneezer, Billy Gilbert, with virtually nothing to do! On the other hand, Robert Benchley is his usual droll self, managing to score a comic bullseye despite all the lavish and noisy competition around him. Broadway Melody of 1938 was followed by a 1940 sequel, distinguished by the "challenge dance" between returnee Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Eleanor Powell, (more)
- 1937
Starving artist Robert Montgomery could care less if his paintings sell, so long as he's happy. Montgomery falls in love with Rosalind Russell, an heiress who's gone "slumming" in Greenwich Village. Russell becomes Montgomery's patroness as well as his wife, urging him to make his paintings more commercial. He becomes a success following her advice, but popularity goes to his head and soon Russell realizes she's created a monster. She walks out, he gets his act together, she comes back, and they return to their blissful hand-to-mouth existence. Live, Love and Learn scores its biggest laughs unintentionally with MGM's prettified concept of what a "run down" Greenwich village apartment looks like. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, (more)
- 1936
British humorist P. G. Wodehouse wrote the story upon which Piccadilly Jim was based. Frank Morgan and Robert Montgomery play a well-to-do father and son, who find themselves rivals in love. The object of their affection is Madge Evans, who likes them both but favors the son. Everything could have been wrapped up in eight reels, but MGM had a mania about lengthy running times, so Piccadilly Jim lumbers on at 100 minutes. Fortunately, such accomplished farceurs as Billie Burke, Robert Benchley and Eric Blore are around to pep up the dull spots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Montgomery, Frank Morgan, (more)
China Seas proved that the recently imposed Hollywood production code had little if any effect on the popularity of MGM sex symbols Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. Gable plays the captain of a tramp steamer chugging between Singapore and Hong Kong. Harlow is Gable's ex-main squeeze, a "woman of the world" who books passage on the steamer at the same time that another of Gable's former loves, aristocratic Rosalind Russell, shows up. Wallace Beery plays Gable's supposedly lovable first mate, who is actually in league with a gang of pirates who plan to steal the gold shipment being carried in the hold of the steamer. Harlow tumbles to Beery's secret, but is unable to convince Gable, who is sore at Harlow for mean-mouthing Russell. Out of pique, Harlow casts her lot with the crooked Beery, but when the pirates attack the steamer, she returns to Gable's side. A subplot involves the regeneration of ship's mate Lewis Stone, who has been cashiered out of the navy for cowardice and who redeems himself during the final battle. Based on a novel by Crosbie Garstin, China Seas is a programmer at heart, but is decked out with full A-picture trappings by MGM producer Irving Thalberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, (more)
- 1935
Though it wasn't RKO Radio's final "Hildegarde Withers" mystery, Murder on a Honeymoon represented the final appearance of Edna May Oliver as Stuart Palmer's spinsterish schoolmarm sleuth. This entry was wittily adapted by Seton I. Miller and Robert Benchley from Palmer's Puzzle of the Pepper Tree. Vacationing in Catalina (where much of the film was shot), Hildegarde Withers gets mixed up in three murders. Her old friend, New York detective Oscar Piper (James Gleason), flies out to help, but of course it's Hildegarde who cracks the case. The top-heavy list of suspects includes one disreputable character who overpowers the formidable Hildegarde and locks her in a closet -- proving beyond all doubt that he's not the guilty party. After Murder on a Honeymoon, Oliver relinquished the role of Hildegarde to Helen Broderick and (of all people) ZaSu Pitts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, (more)
- 1934
Though she certainly didn't need the money, silent film favorite Colleen Moore made a comeback bid during the 1933-34 film season, appearing prominently in four productions. The least prepossessing of these was Columbia's Social Register, in which Moore is cast as good-natured chorus girl Patsy Shaw. Our heroine falls in love with wealthy Charlie Breene (Alexander Kirkland), but his snobbish parents oppose the relationship. To prove Patsy's unworthiness, Charlie's parents invite her to a high-society party. Turning the tables, Patsy wins over the hoity-toity crowd with her down-to-earth ebullience. As a last-ditch effort, Charlie's mother (Pauline Frederick) tries to frame the girl in a compromising position, but at the last moment the old lady relents and accepts the girl as her daughter-in-law. The whole thing was remarkably similar to MGM's The Girl From Missouri, but not so similar as to constitute plagiarism. Humorist Robert Benchley makes a brief but hilarious appearance as "himself." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Moore, Charles Winninger, (more)
Virtually everybody except President Roosevelt was in the lavish MGM backstage musical Dancing Lady. Joan Crawford stars as Janie Barlow, an impoverished dancer reduced to working in a seedy Manhattan burlesque house. While on a slumming party with his society friend, wealthy young Tod Newton (Franchot Tone) spots Janie in the burleycue chorus line and immediately falls in love with her. When the joint is raided, Tod pays Janie's bail, but she resists his entreaties to become his mistress, promising instead to pay back every cent she owes him "honestly." With Tod's help, Janie is able to secure work in a big-time Broadway musical being staged by Patch Gallegher (Clark Gable), who is certain that the girl is an untalented opportunist and does everything he can to sabotage her audition. When he realizes that the girl "has something," he refuses to admit it but does, grudgingly, hire her for the show. Through a combination of skill and damned hard work, Janie ends up as the star of the show, whereupon Tod, worried that he'll lose the girl to the Great White Way, buys the show and promptly closes it. But Janie, who's fallen in love with Patch, teams with her new sweetheart to restage the show with their own meager savings -- and surprise of surprises, it's a smash hit. Truly an embarrassment of riches, Dancing Lady introduced Fred Astaire to the movie-going public, solidified the popularity of MGM's new tenor Nelson Eddy, and offered a wide berth for the comedy antics of Ted Healy and his Three Stooges -- Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine (Larry, performing his role in a Jewish dialect, has a wonderful double-take bit with a jigsaw puzzle which turns out to be a portrait of Adolf Hitler). As a bonus, the film offers spectacular musical production numbers, not to mention the enduring song hit "Everything I Have is Yours." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, (more)
- 1933
Headline Shooter is a brisk comedy/melodrama about a newsreel photographer (William Gargan). He prefers to risk his neck to get "swell" pictures, while his reporter girl friend (Frances Dee), though no less fearless, would prefer that he give up his dangerous profession. Ralph Bellamy (as always!) is around as Frances' "stable" boyfriend, who of course loses the girl. The story wraps up as Gargan rescues Dee from a band of kidnapping gangsters (though neither the girl nor her captors seem to regard the situation as life-threatening!) Padded out with yards and yards of stock newsreel footage, Headline Shooter is highlighted by the opening-scene appearance of humorist Robert Benchley, playing a radio announcer at a beauty contest who can't think of any descriptive phrase other than "feminine pulchritude." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Gargan, Frances Dee, (more)
- 1933
Set in New York's Greenwich Village (specifically, on Bleecker Street), William Seiter's Rafter Romance is a cute romantic comedy, the plot of which contains echoes (or, more accurately, foreshadowings) of Shop Around The Corner. Ginger Rogers plays Mary Carroll, a young woman from upstate who came to New York to find a job and a career, but whose money has almost run out; Norman Foster is Jack Bacon, an aspiring artist living in the same building, in the attic loft, who is months behind on his rent, as well; their landlord, Max Eckbaum (George Sidney), a good-natured soul who wouldn't harm a flea, as he might put it, nevertheless has expenses to meet, and could have rented Mary's apartment to a paying tenant several times over. He comes up with the solution -- move Mary into Jack's loft; after all, Jack works all night as a watchman and sleeps all day, and Mary now has a job selling refrigerators (a relatively new household gadget in 1934) by telephone, that keeps her out all day. To make it all work for the two unwilling tenants, Eckbaum arranges so that neither one ever sees or knows who the other is, but each still manages to get the most dreadful impression of what the other is like, and a series of misunderstandings, and the inevitable crowding that goes on in these situations, leads to a series of increasingly annoying pranks aimed at the other. But their situation really gets complicated when Mary and Jack manage to cross paths and meet out of the apartment, each not knowing who the other is, vis-a-vis the loft, and start to fall in love. And matters get even more complicated (and the comedy ratcheted up several steps higher) by the presence of Robert Benchley as Mary's boss, a lecherous if bumbling executive; Laura Hope Crews as Jack's would-be "patron," a lonely, libidinous older woman with a ton of money; and Guinn Williams as Fritzie, a cab-driver who takes on the role (initially with her encouragement) of Mary's protector. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, (more)
- 1932
Running just under an hour, Sport Parade stars Joel McCrea as a sportwriter who accidently becomes a champion wrestler. In this capacity, he becomes involved with crooked promoters (just as though pro wrestling was a legitimate sport!). Since the main crook is played by comic actor Walter Catlett, it's difficult to take any of this film seriously--if indeed it was meant to be so taken. The best moments belong to Robert Benchley as a sublimely inaccurate radio sportscaster. Sport Parade was cowritten by the prolific Corey Ford, who later cheerfully admitted he knew nothing about the subject of wrestling but was just following studio orders by churning out this indifferent little charade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, William Gargan, (more)
- 1932
Hoping to match the success of his boisterous (and Oscar-winning) silent comedy Two Arabian Knights, and at the same time indulging in his fascination for aviation, erstwhile Hollywood producer Howard Hughes came up with the relentlessly silly Sky Devils. Spencer Tracy and George Cooper star as Wilkie and Mitchell, a pair of buddies who are so stupid that the make Laurel and Hardy seem like Rhodes Scholars. After losing their lifeguard jobs because they can't swim, Wilkie and Mitchell try to avoid being conscripted into the army when WW1 breaks out. Unfortunately for the army, our heroes are put in uniform and placed under the charge of irascible Sergeant Hogan (William "Stage" Boyd). Before long, the boys go AWOL, dallying long enough to fight over the lovely Mary (Ann Dvorak). Eventually, Wilkie and Mitchell inadvertently take off in an airplane, accidentally blow up a German munitions dump, and by a gosh-darned miracle are lauded as heroes--long enough to screw up yet again for the finale. As hard as it is to believe that Spencer Tracy would appear in this low-brow extravaganza, it is even harder to comprehend the fact that the witty, urbane humorist Robert Benchley penned much of the "Sez you--sez me" dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, William "Stage" Boyd, (more)
