The Treasurer's Report

This short subject film is the best demonstration I can think of to make the point that comedy can take many forms. The most common, that most of us laugh at and enjoy, are crazy antics or witty dialog. Situational comedy doesn't have to have either of those to be funny. Then there is comedy like that here, in "The Treasurer's Report." The subject is out of place, ill suited for the task or just plain terrible at what he or she does.

I have to say that I can understand those reviewers who didn't see anything funny here in Robert Benchley's solo performance. Most likely, they never gave a speech or report at a banquet or meeting, spoke in public, took speech classes or speaker training, prepared reports for public gatherings or wrote speeches. But, for those who have done some of these things, this film can't help but tickle the funny bone. I chuckle now, thinking of Benchley's discomfort and fidgeting with his tie. Or, his hemming and hawing over what to say next. Or, his quick switch of topic, failure to finish up on something he started to report, utter lack of concentration, and veering off into the unknown.

The exaggeration of the bad public speech or dinner report is hilarious. The guy doesn't have a single thing right about speaking or giving a report. He's not organized, doesn't have his report prepared, doesn't even have an objective report, on and on. It's almost as if he were called on to tell about something from notes he had taken – but he can't even decipher his own notes.

This is one great piece of comedy in a short form. I'm glad I finally came across it. I realize it's not for everyone. It doesn't have the obvious and usual elements of comedy. But this would be an ideal film to show to any class about to begin a course in speech or public speaking. A parenthetical title might be, "How Not to Speak at a Public Function."

Benchley, as the assistant treasurer here, is a buffoon. He looks okay and doesn't act ludicrously. But he's totally inept at what he's doing. It's a wonderful piece of farce. I think his comedy was the best of the handful of people who were making short films like this for the major studios during the golden years of Hollywood. And, this is one of the best of his that I've seen.

"Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." This quote, attributed to everybody from Edmund Gwenn. to Jack Lemmon attests to the fact that being funny is not easy. But every entertainer from time to time experiences "flop sweat" - when nothing works, and you are dying on stage. The Treasurer's Report finds a gold mine of comedy in that fact - featuring co-founder of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, Robert Benchley (grandfather of Peter "Jaws" Benchley), as the assistant treasurer of a club who's forced into making a speech in public at the last moment. If you've ever been in the audience for a speaker that gets more and more out of his depth, you'll recognize this guy. Benchley plays an Everyman who's buffeted by life and its little affronts.

Now in order to find the humor in this, you have to appreciate dry wit, of which Benchley was a master. (You'd have to be, in order to hold your own against such luminaries as Dorothy Parker and Groucho Marx.) Benchley is the master of the mumble, the derailed train of thought, and the cheerful façade that hides a guy with a classic deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. The Treasurer's Report was reported written in a cab ride on the way to performing a review by Benchley and the rest of the Round Table. It became a staple of his repertoire for over a decade. When they committed it to film in 1928, it became one of the first comedy 'talkies' - as it was released shortly after Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer." While Jolson's act couldn't be performed today, Benchley's humor holds up quite well.

If you think of Bob Newhart as laugh-out-loud funny, then you'll likely feel the same way about Benchley's humor, as Newhart's comedic style is a direct descendant of Benchley's. Dry. Witty. Self-depreciating. All wrapped up in a white-collar, Joe Average kind of guy.

I first saw this film when a communications expert screened it for a class my company conducted on improving your public speaking skills. It was sort of a "How NOT to" film. And it was hilarious. But I guess you have to appreciate dry wit to get it. But if you appreciate the subtitles of dry wit and want to check out the guy to whom Newhart and others owe a debt of gratitude, by all means, screen The Treasurer's Report.

If you haven't seen The Treasurer's Report, a bare outline of its content would suggest that it must surely rank among the most boring movies ever made. The setting is a small business banquet where after-dinner entertainment is under way as the film begins. A lady in an ugly hat is singing badly, accompanied by a pianist, while weary businessmen listen indifferently. She finishes to a smattering of applause. Next, the organization's assistant treasurer is introduced, and we are told that he will now deliver the year's financial report. He is a terribly nervous young man, and a very poor public speaker. He blusters and stammers his way through the report, struggling to rattle off figures and keep his composure; his attempts at humor fall flat, and at a key moment his tie comes untied. Eventually, he finishes on a resoundingly anticlimactic note, and the movie is over.

Sounds awful, right? Actually it's quite funny, because the young man is humorist Robert Benchley, and he is performing a routine he'd been perfecting for years on the musical comedy stage and in vaudeville. Watch carefully, and you'll note just how adeptly he stumbles through his routine, how skillfully he impersonates ineptitude. Benchley was very good at what he did: making a routine such as this one look effortlessly real is what acting is all about. His awkward, forced smile, oddly suggestive of Chaplin, will be painfully familiar to anyone who hates and fears public speaking. For some viewers his performance may stir traumatic memories of classroom recitations, but rest assured, the comic moments help to salve any lingering psychic wounds.

In addition to its value as comedy this film holds a claim as a genuine milestone in movie history. Although The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927, is often and erroneously cited as the first talking film, movie-makers had been experimenting with talkies for years (e.g. Edison's Nursery Favorites, made way back in 1913 but not widely distributed). The Jazz Singer itself was primarily silent with a few musical numbers and one brief dialog sequence. The Treasurer's Report, released in March of 1928, was among the first all-talking commercial short subject intended for general audiences-- or at least, those audiences with access to theaters capable of showing it. The first all-talking feature film The Lights of New York arrived shortly afterward, but Robert Benchley was ahead of the curve, with an unusual short comedy that is still enjoyable today, that is, for those willing to make allowances for its primitive technology.

Treasurer's Report, The (1928)

** (out of 4)

I'll admit right up front that the work of Robert Benchley has always been hit and miss with me but the majority of misses were films like this one here so keep that in mind. In the film Benchley is asked to give his club's financial report so for the next eight minutes he speaks about it. Benchley would go onto make several films like this at MGM, which pretty much had him asked to make a speech and he ends up making a mess out of it. I've yet to find one that made me laugh and the majority of them have gotten on my nerves within minutes. If you enjoy this type of short from Benchley then I'm sure you'll enjoy this one but needless to say it didn't work for me. The type of humor has Benchley slipping over his choice of words, knocking a water cup over, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and various things like this. I just never found it to be funny and all the fidgeting just got on my nerves when it was suppose to be making me laugh. This Fox short was actually one of their earliest sound films as it was released just four months after THE JAZZ SINGER so I can see this really working back in 1928 but today it's just a lot of dry humor that didn't work with me.

This short comedy feature is very good for its time, and despite some signs of age it is still funny to watch. It was one of the earliest non-experimental all-sound movies, having been made within a few months of the more famous "The Jazz Singer". Aside from the sound quality showing some of the problems common to the movies of the era, it holds up quite well. Robert Benchley's writing works in any era, and he handles the early sound movie format noticeably better than most performers of the time did.

The setup has Benchley as an assistant treasurer, giving his club's financial report for the year. It goes on to combine some wry humor in the text of the report with lots of other bits that revolve around the speaker's increasing nervousness over his task. Benchley continued to develop his usage of the lecturer format in his short comedies over the years, and his best features seamlessly combined his writing style and his on-screen approach. Even here, he already uses the format effectively, and the timing and pacing are much better than usual for a movie of its time.

As with Benchley's writing, in this feature he does not try for any huge laughs, but instead aims for a running flow of dry wit, which gradually increases the comic effect when it works. This is pretty good for a 1928 sound feature, since it has material and a lead performer that both make effective usage of the then-new capacity for sound in motion pictures.