A Night at the Movies

Finally agreeing on which film to see, Robert Benchley and his (uncredited) wife Betty Ross Clarke set off in time to watch the feature. There is a free lottery to win a shiny new car in the foyer and that's where the tickets are accidentally placed, so ensuring the rest of their visit gets off on a typically unfortunate foot! It pans out with the usual cinema nuisances and as Benchley gets more irritated by his experience, he leaves the auditorium and struggles to find his way back into what appears to be the world's s largest circular cinema. It's an amiable critique of going to the movies, and for those of us who regularly attend them there are certainly some truths that ring true around selfishness and lack of self-awareness, but I think this rather over-contrives the scenarios and his bumbling can go wrong, will go wrong character actually began to annoy me quite quickly.

Husband (Robert Benchley) and wife go to the movies. They are not that excited. At the theater, they are given two tickets, one for the movie and one for a raffle to win a new car. It's a series of bad experiences.

Is this actually funny? I know Benchley was some kind of comedy star of his day. I don't really get it. It's complaining about the movie going experience as it gets played in the movie theaters. I guess that could work if done well. First, I don't like this couple. I don't care about their movie going experience. The kid is almost funny. I can see the attempt, but the result is no laughs.

A Night at the Movies is an amusing Robert Benchley short about him and his wife having trouble knowing which way to go for their movie, getting confused about whether the tickets were for the feature or a car that's being offered in the building, having to switch seats because of a kid that keeps staring and a man ahead of them blocking the view, and a few other things that I won't reveal here. Mr. Benchley looks constantly bemused throughout and it's pretty fun seeing him flustered at every turn. This Oscar-nominated one-reel short is available on the DVD of the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races. Worth a look for any fan of vintage short comedy.

Night at the Movies, A (1937)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated Robert Benchley short has a couple (Benchley, Betty Ross Clarke) going to the movie where all sorts of trouble starts. Benchley has to put up with losing his tickets, sitting behind a tale man and then getting lost while trying to find an exit. This comedy doesn't feature too many laughs but it's still highly entertaining just because it's fun seeing someone else go through various trouble that could happen at a movie theater. Benchley's style of comedy does aim for laugh-out-loud moments but instead just mild smiles seeing stuff that I'm sure we've all gone through and it's rather funny how this film, now seventy-two-years old, is still relevant today. I've seen quite a few of Benchley's shorts but I've read that none of them could compare to his comic writing but as of this date I've yet to read anything from him.

AS VALUABLE TODAY as both a fine example of what the old short subjects were to the movies in Hollywood's Golden Age, as well as a sort of historical piece who's unintentional chronicling of the movie house of that era, A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES is an all around gem of a mini-movie. One can learn more about life in that period between World Wars from it than many a history book on domestic life in the USA.

THE PRODUCTION TEAM takes great care in putting everyone's favourite everyman, Robert Benchley, at the center of what seems like a very simple, uncomplicated premise; being that of going to the local movie palace to see a highly rated, new release. It is a first run picture and would be playing at the big theatre, downtown; rather than at the local show in the neighborhoods.

THIS WAS LONG before anyone had thought of a Shopping Centre Multi-Plex, or even a Shopping Mall, for that matter. It was a time when moviegoers expected and received a sort of "royal" type of treatment and received same. The importance and seriousness of the occasion is emphasized by the manner of dress one sees in the many patrons who fill the theatre. One's "Sunday Best" was the order of the day when attending any public performances; be they a baseball game, football, boxing, wrestling, a concert in the park or the movies.

THE FACT THAT everything seems to happen to poor Bob Benchley is at the center of this one. No matter what the situation from buying the tickets for he and his spouse, being seated or what have you, they all revolve around Benchley's very urbane appearance and very refined and dignified manners. It is a case of the most refined of the Homo Sapiens being in competition with a bunch of Paleolithic Neanderthals.

THE FACT THAT Mr. Benchley was not primarily an actor, but rather a gifted writer who was coaxed to step before the cameras and deliver his own words, seems to have added to his on screen personality and appeal to his audience. While certainly no virtuoso of an accomplished thespian, his sort of amateurish characterization of this very genteel individual's coping with the trials and tribulations of modern life were well served in this series of shorts.

THIS BASIC PREMISE had been done before. In the 1929 silent two reeler, MOVIE NIGHT, it is Charley Chase who is put through the running of the gauntlet of multiple mishaps at the cinema. This was a Hal Roach Production, written by Chase & Leo McCarey and directed by Lewis R. Foster.