How to Read

Another in MGM's "How To" series of shorts starring Robert Benchley. This time Benchley discusses reading problems such as eye strain and other things. Funny stuff but not really laugh-out-loud funny. More amusing than anything else, but that was generally true of this entire series. This one also has Marie Blake offering fun support.

How to Read (1938)

** (out of 4)

Another minor entry in MGM's "How to..." series with Robert Benchley. True to form, Benchley sits at his desk and explains the proper ways of reading so that you don't strain your eyes. He tries to explain the proper way of sitting, how far from the light you should be and he also goes into detail about not reading while under stress. If you read under stress we're told you might not pay attention to everything you're reading and we also learn that if your wife reads to you then you better pay full attention or else. If you're familiar with the Robert Benchley series then you know that the comedy is rather dry and at times you'll be wondering if he's telling a joke or being serious about something. You never can fully tell because of the type of humor Benchley has and the way he delivers it. This entire series was always hit and miss with me and this here is one that doesn't work fully. The biggest problem is that some of the jokes are so one-note and exaggerated that it's rather impossible to laugh at them. Just check out the sequence where he's trying to read in bed and sitting in positions that no one in their right mind would do. Of course, this does lead to one of the best jokes and that involves why you shouldn't read big history books in bed.

If you're familiar with Robert Benchley's series of shorts for MGM, you know that he offers advice and commentary on some subject that renders it not only easy, but impossible. That's what he does here.

Benchley's characters in short subjects, as well as his appearances in features, have the common strain of being a man who thinks he knows something, while in truth he is as thoroughly befuddled as can be. He's also frustrated by other people, who have no interest in what he's doing, but insist on preventing him from doing what he wishes. Apparently this comedy of frustration doesn't appeal to everyone. It does to me.