I watched Jack Benny on television as child and enjoyed him, but I have only become a real fan in the last five years. I've re-watched all of television, heard most of his radio shows (I've listened from 1932-1951, I have six more years to go) and watched all of his available movies.
Benny often denigrated his acting and movie career on the radio and television shows, but that was part of his act. In fact, I haven't found any movie that he was in that was bad, and most of them, like this one is well-made and fulled with charm. Even the much lambasted "the Horn Blows at Midnight" is a quite watchable comedy which has a twenty minute finale that is as wacky and surreal as anything that the Marx Brothers or Mel Brooks ever did.
Anyways, this film is a smorgasbord of delights. Eddie Anderson, Monty Wooly, Binnie Barnes, Dorothy Lamour, Betty Grable, Edward Arnold, and Phil Harris are all delightful. Unfortunately, because the film is only 1 hour and 25 minutes, each of them just get 10 or 15 minutes of screen time and that is a little disappointing. It is like a variety show where each act just does a couple of numbers and you really want to see more.
The movie is the only sex farce/comedy that Benny did. Benny was surprisingly handsome and debonair looking for a comedian. Those who just saw him on television (1950-1965) were watching him in his late 50s and 60s, after he had been married for 20 years to the wonderful Mary Livingston. Here he is still 45 years old and quite handsome.
While a sex comedy, it is restricted by the Hayes Code to just a few kisses and suggestions of adultery. Benny and the beautiful women around him still make it work.
By the way, note that Phil Silvers used Benny's hilarious acrobatic scene at the end of this film in "A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966).
Review of Man About Town
