I finally got to see this episode with a young newly christened Charles Bronson. it had barely been a year since he started using the name Bronson instead of his original name of Buchinsky /Buchinski. it was such a treat to see him have a nice little supporting role in this episode. As Jack Benny's future brother-in-law they really work well together. It was a very short and low budget episode with an awkward laugh track thrown in there but all in all to see Bronson acting with Jack Benny and ZahZha Gabor I would have never imagined it. The episode ends very abruptly with the late great Jack La Rue shooting at Bronson and then the next scene Bronson's in the hospital all broken up we never got a chance to see how he got that way!? and somehow Jack Benny's fiance has forgiven him even though she caught him red-handed making out with Zha Zha Gabor earlier!? But anyways I'm glad I have this now in my collection. A very rare episode of General Electric Theater indeed. oh and by the way Bronson calls himself during a phone call to Jack Benny as Machine Gun Blowy and ironically Bronson would play Machine Gun Kelly 3 years later in Rodger corman's film of the same name. In his very first starring role and as we know after that it was history.
3 Reviews
Not bad but nearly as funny as the laugh track would have you believe.
planktonrules29 May 2012
Jack Benny stars in this installment as an ultra-honest piano tuner. However, his life is about to get MUCH more interesting due to an insatiable woman who MUST have him and a mobster's girlfriend who hides stolen loot in Benny's tool bag.
This is an inoffensive but somewhat forgettable episode of "G.E. Theater". I would have thought it might have been a bit better since it starred Jack Benny but a somewhat pedestrian script kept it from being better. Additionally, it had a ridiculous laugh track (with which you'd swear this was the funniest show EVER) that made everything seem very forced. Now this isn't saying the show is without merit. There are some nice inside jokes for fans of Benny's TV show, as they make fun of his image repeatedly. For instance, on "The Jack Benny Program", he's the cheapest man on Earth. Here, however, he's super-honest and the show begins with him returning $100 to its rightful owner (parodying Liberace). Additionally, there is a cute joke about how his character would NEVER lie about his age--an old gag on the show, as he ALWAYS insisted he was 39. So, for older folks who remember Benny, it's clearly a better viewing experience. For these folks, I'd score it a 7. For the rest, a forgettable 5.
By the way, in supporting roles are Zha Zha Gabor and Charles Bronson (before he became famous).
This is an inoffensive but somewhat forgettable episode of "G.E. Theater". I would have thought it might have been a bit better since it starred Jack Benny but a somewhat pedestrian script kept it from being better. Additionally, it had a ridiculous laugh track (with which you'd swear this was the funniest show EVER) that made everything seem very forced. Now this isn't saying the show is without merit. There are some nice inside jokes for fans of Benny's TV show, as they make fun of his image repeatedly. For instance, on "The Jack Benny Program", he's the cheapest man on Earth. Here, however, he's super-honest and the show begins with him returning $100 to its rightful owner (parodying Liberace). Additionally, there is a cute joke about how his character would NEVER lie about his age--an old gag on the show, as he ALWAYS insisted he was 39. So, for older folks who remember Benny, it's clearly a better viewing experience. For these folks, I'd score it a 7. For the rest, a forgettable 5.
By the way, in supporting roles are Zha Zha Gabor and Charles Bronson (before he became famous).
Auteurist's Delight
lchadbou-326-2659225 February 2021
For a viewer not used these days to hearing loads of exaggerated canned laughter added to the track, an old episode like this can be grating, but for those who care about the ability of a director to personally express themselves, this is an unusual and amusing example of such auteurism on Tv.
Frank Tashlin the cartoon based stylist of the 50s and 60s who satirized busty women and mentored Jerry Lewis only directed three television shows.On this one at least, he wrote the script and produced as well.
The humor is centered around the familiar personality and tics of popular star Jack Benny, but here one of the running gags is how a number of attractive women such as Zsa Zsa Gabor and Barbara Lawrence fall all over him. Benny's response is shown in a surprisingly risque way by having the tuning fork instrument he brings with him in his job as a piano repairman perk up and vibrate with pleasure.
There is also some spoofing of crime and gangsters with some stolen jewels and threatening characters played by the aging Jack La Rue and a young Charles Bronson.
Worth looking for (the copy I saw is Volume 1 of an Alpha Video DVD called Golden Age Theater)
See also
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