Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Blaironit Excellent film with a gripping story!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

classicsoncall On the occasion of my son's thirty ninth birthday earlier this week, I called and wished him a Happy Birthday, and in chatting I was reminded of television's perennial thirty nine year old - Jack Benny. I asked my son if he knew who Benny was and he replied that he didn't. Thinking about that, I found it a little sad that so many folks of the generations that grew up after the 1960's probably fall in the same boat, having missed out on some of the greatest comedians of all time. Not only Benny, but entertainers like Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Red Skelton, George Burns, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and so many, many others. Contrasted with modern day comics with their televised specials on venues like HBO and Netflix, one can only shudder at the offensive language and liberal use of the 'F' word that crops up in their stand-up routines; I've turned off more than one attempting to find some humor on a slow evening.Not so with the Golden Age entertainers like Jack Benny. Having over time recently watched approximately seventy five of his TV programs that ran from 1950 through 1965, it's amazing to see how the man could get laughs from an audience just by standing there on stage or during one of his sketches. Jack Benny was probably the best at non verbal humor in the way he mugged his way through a bit and allowed his body language to convey a funny response to whatever situation he found himself in. Some of my favorite bits occurred with good friends like Bob Hope and Red Skelton, when the humor of their sketch overwhelmed even them, and they would crack up over the silliest situations. Of course that made the audience response even greater, taking a while for the comedians to get their act under control. The Jack Benny Program featured a number of regular recurring characters, led by the show's announcer Don Wilson, who appeared in almost all of the series' episodes, closely followed by one of my all time favorites, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson as Benny's personal valet and housekeeper. Rochester gave as good as he got trading barbs with his boss, proving that Benny wasn't afraid to let his co-stars upstage him for a gag. All of his favorite players would get in on that band wagon, including singer Dennis Day, real life wife Mary Livingstone, voice artist Mel Blanc and hilarious 'yeeesss' man, Frank Nelson. To this day, I still delight in one of my favorite bits, with Mel Blanc doing a Mexican gag with the Si/Sy/Sue routine. Mel and Jack did it a number of times throughout the series, so if you've seen it, you know what I mean, and if you haven't, well, you haven't lived till you make it up to yourself. In the early days of Jack's show, Lucky Strike cigarettes was the prime sponsor, in fact, in some of those early shows, Benny himself referred to it as The Lucky Strike Program. In a separate review on this site, I've gone into detail about the show in which Humphrey Bogart appeared as the special guest. It was 1953, and Baby Face Bogart was brought into a police precinct for questioning about a murder by Detective Benny. During this time frame, it wasn't unusual for the show to incorporate their main sponsor directly into one of their sketches, and it's hilarious to watch Bogey bouncing his chair in rhythm while he sings the Lucky Strike jingle. Sounds corny I know, but you just have to admire how these celebrity greats got along and got together to give their fans a good time. I think that era ended when the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts came to a close some time in the Seventies. Man, those were the days.I guess I could go on and on about what you'd consider the 'old days', but for me they were a great time to grow up in, and sadly, those old time shows are missed, even if available in compilations and cable offerings like Antenna TV. Jack Benny was one of the all time greats, and if you have a few minutes, just take a look at the cast list on this site of everyone who's ever appeared on his TV program. It''s more than a 'Who's Who' of television stardom, as just about anyone you can think of from that era appeared at least once on his show. And to think, he remained thirty nine years old throughout the entire series run.

pkarnold Jack Benny is my most missed comic from the 60s. Yes, Bob Hope and Johnny Carson were hilarious and well worth watching. I enjoyed Dean Martin and George Gobel. But of all the comedians of early television, Jack Benny's timing was unbelievable. I don't think any modern comedian can match his subtlety or his timing.And while Jack Benny could deadpan a gag, usually he was on the receiving end of it, a few shows could give you insight into how much he enjoyed comedy, his show, and perhaps comedy in general.I saw a you-tube film of him on the Carson show, with Mel Blanc and the "Si gag." And the very thought of Mel Blanc doing an English Horse whinny, or "Si" just cracked him up.I also saw a video of Foster Brooks roasting Jack Benny, and Benny couldn't help but laugh, laugh, and laugh some more. And if you see the show where Groucho Marx is doing a "Say the Magic Word" skit or was it really on the Who Do You Trust set, it is just hilarious to see what lengths Benny would go to to win that $100 prize.Another insight was from What's My Line, the game show where the celebrity panel was blindfolded and Benny signed in as Heifitz. He couldn't help but play a gag or two on the host and the panel, admittedly while answering in a falsetto "uh, huh" or "uh, uh." The crowd roared when he entered on the show, and roared at every single comedy gag he came up with.So while I lament that the Jack Benny show is no longer on the Comedy Channel, any time you can get a hold of an episode of the Jack Benny Show, please do so because this man was truly a master at work. And the main reason was because the guy was genuinely funny, understood comedy, and was as happy to be the butt of a joke as to deliver a punchline.

John T. Ryan Jack Benny brought his long standing and carefully developed world to television following a long and highly successful run on the Radio Networks. Between 1932 and 1955, Benny & Company campaigned in the Laugh Wars under various banners such as 'The Grape Nuts Show', 'The Canada Dry Show', 'The Jello Show' and The Lucky Strike Program'. These were indeed the days of very strong sponsor identification; and indeed the various commercial establishments did indeed "own" the various air-time slots that carried whatever program that pleased the company suits. It was a prime example of Capitali$m or Free Enterpri$e, if you will, flexing its 'evil' muscle, throwing a collective tantrum and having its own way with the Airwaves and the American Peoples.* Mr. Benny and his troupe of repertory supporting players spent that 1932-55 Radio Period bouncing back and forth between the NBC and CBS Networks. His regulars included Announcer Don Wilson, Band Leader Phil Harris, Singer Dennis Day, Girlfriend Mary Livingstone (the real life Mrs. Benny), Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, multi-voiced talent Mel Blanc, "Yessssssss Man" Frank Nelson, Dialectician Supreme Benny Rubin and others. They all had been assembled one by one as they appeared on the show only to become regulars or recurring players portraying any one of many various characters as called for by the stories.Once on TV the various sponsor named shows' titles were jettisoned for good. From then on it was THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM (1950-65, CBS until '64, the last season of 1964-65 on NBC). After that, Jack and the gang did a number of hour long specials on NBC, such as the aptly titled "Jack Benny's 40th Birthday" (1969). One very important part of the Jack Benny comedic persona and central to his supposedly being given to major bouts of vanity is his ever claiming to be 39 years old.Although we always think of Jack as having a fine comedy-variety show in the same tradition as Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Danny Kay, Carol Burnet and even Tom & Dick Smothers; it was that and something else too. Jack's show was highly complex and hence was not all so easily classified. Read on, Schultz! In a typical season of THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM featured two different sorts of half hours. The first was In Studio, On Stage, with a Studio Audience and done at first truly "Live" then later (after 1958) via the wonders of Video Tape. As far as we can tell, Jack did maybe a half-dozen of these per season; yet they are the ones that have made the most lasting affect to our collective memory.The second type was filmed episodes that went far beyond the stage; often getting us glimpses of what Jack's life was in the "real" world. These often began at the Stage during a fictional presentation of the Show; but followed the action after the "Show's" conclusion; or began at Jack's home and followed the storyline in such subjects as "The Beverly Hills Beavers" (Jack's kids' club.) or the Jack Benny Fan Club, which was composed of Females who were as enthusiastic as any of Elvis' followers; albeit not as youthful.But there was one thing that all of Jack's shows had and that is plenty of laughs. Jack was obviously very unselfish and not at all a vain man as his miserly character; his famous cheapness being another comical invention. Mr. Benny didn't care who got the laughs as long as there were laughs. He very often made himself the object of the joke; and in doing so, established all of his regulars as first rate comedians in their own right.And any installment of THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM was masterfully constructed. The slow, deliberate pacing was an outgrowth of the Great Comedian's own Stage Personality. The jokes in the monologue always fit him like a well tailored suit. The gags were always slowly and meticulously developed and milked for all they were worth. And, most usually, a gag introduced early in the proceedings would be referred to once again later; often time being the shows ultimate "punch line." All of this seemingly simple formula did was to make Jack Benny a household word for two separate and distinct generational types. The first being on the Radio with the children of The Great Depression-World War II Generation and of their kids in the Post War Baby Boomer period via the magic of Television. **NOTE: * C'mon, Schultz, I was just funnin' ya! Whatever our complaints about the price of this or the cost of that, our way sure beats any Socialist way of having the State owned Television deciding what we're to view and hence think. Can you say "PBS" or "NPR"? NOTE ** We haven't even mentioned Jack's Film career. And just remember, NONE of his movies were as bad as he always makes us believe that THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT (Warner Brothers, 1945) was. It was just another example of the now famous Jack Benny self deprecation.POODLE SCHNITZ!!

jeffhill1 In the early 1960's TV Guide critic Cleveland Amory started his review of "The Jack Benny Program" with "There are two kinds of jokes. Regular jokes and Jack Benny jokes." Regular jokes hit you, if you are lucky, only once. Jack Benny jokes hit you, if you are lucky, over and over. What Cleveland Amory at the time was referring to was the way a joke that popped up in the beginning of any given Jack Benny program episode was not an end in itself but a set-up for two, three, or four jokes that would emerge throughout he show.Some time before I was born, Jack Benny started to use, but never milked, familiar masks: his awful violin playing, his stingy nature, his offense at being insulted by his patented pause followed with, "Well!", his insistence that he was thirty nine years old, and his recurring attempts to get a renowned musician to play his pitiful song, "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano"."Hello, Police Department? I want to report a lost wallet. It is brown leather. Inside there are three one dollar bills. And the serial numbers are......" Inside a sauna: "Gee. I haven't sweated this much since they closed the banks in 1934."As Jack Benny delighted in telling later in life, sometimes the stories behind the jokes were even more funny than the jokes themselves. Jack would work with the writers in mid-week before any given show. As Jack told it, one week one of the writers thought up the scenario, "Jack is walking down the street and a thug comes up to him with a pistol and demands, 'Your money or your life!'" All readily agreed that that was a good premise for a joke. "But how is Jack going to respond?" All in the room were puzzled and when one writer got impatient by calling out, "Well?", Jack, still stumped for a good punch line, snapped back, "I'm thinking it over!" When the other writers started laughing, Jack asked, "What's so funny?" It took Jack Benny a few moments to get it that he had just invented the best joke of his career.That Jack will forever be remembered as being forever thirty nine years old is now not a joke but an inspiration for us his fans and survivors to hold on to youth and humor for as long as he did.