How to Sleep

How to Sleep (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Robert Benchley made dozens of shorts in his career and this here is perhaps the best known. One reason is the title and subject itself but another is the fact that this was Best Short Subject at the Oscars. In the film Benchley explains that sleep comes from the blood flowing out of the brain. The comedian then explains some of the possible ways to make this happen before he turns his attention to the many positions one sleeps in at night. I'd be lying if I said this short deserved an Oscar but in its own way it's pretty clever and it certainly ranks as one of the best in the "How to..." series. I think this one benefits from the subject matter as well as some neat animation used. One example is when we see the blood leaving the brain and another happens later when Benchley is counting sheep. Neither thing is going to make you forget Walt Disney but it was a nice added touch. There are some pretty funny moments here including one where Benchley discusses the various positions someone is in while asleep and mentions that a normal person moves over fifty times a night.

Anyone can easily relate to HOW TO SLEEP, especially if you've spent a sleepless night in a thousand different positions as illustrated by Benchley in this '35 short subject.

In this good natured spoof, he starts out trying a hot bath but never gets beyond sticking his toe in the warm water before draining the water out and deciding to go back to bed. Similarly, when he decides to get a drink of warm milk, he ends up snacking on leftovers in the refrigerator, defeating his purpose.

It goes on in this vein with water dripping from a faucet being the final annoyance that keeps him awake. Finally, he's just about to fall asleep when the alarm clock rings and it's a lost cause.

As a fellow insomniac, I found it was most amusing when he demonstrated all the sleeping positions someone goes through when they toss and turn. Funny stuff with the usual dry commentary from Benchley.

This is a delightful short that packs more laughs into ten minutes than you'll get from some feature-length comedies. Although it's been shown occasionally on the Turner Channel, How to Sleep was hard to find in a home-viewable format until recently, when it was included as a special feature in the new DVD release of the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera. Robert Benchley's low-key, whimsical humor serves as a nice lead-in to the Marxes' more aggressive style of comedy.

Mr. Benchley acts as our affable host/narrator, covering such topics as 1) the causes of sleep, 2) methods of inducing sleep, 3) methods of avoiding sleep, and 4) how to wake up, which, we're told, "is very important." But this is no dry academic lecture. Our host, who happens to sport the most outlandish pajamas ever designed, helpfully serves as actor as well, demonstrating various positions such as the Supine Curl, the Ventrolateral Sprawl, and the Sleeping-Sitting Standing Crouch. He is aided in his analysis of sleep by some highly amusing animated segments.

This is a film better seen than described. I only wish I could enjoy it with a large audience in a theater, as it must be a real crowd-pleaser. How to Sleep won the Oscar for Best Short Subject of 1935, and led to Benchley's series of how-to short comedies for MGM and Paramount (including How to Read, How to Eat, etc.), but this one may well be the very best of his output. Heartily recommended.

Robert Benchley narrates with voice over, and then acts the various scenarios in this comedy short. Here he sleep walks, tries warm mile, counts sheep and tosses and turns to try to get to sleep. All with good humor. I've always liked Benchley over some other common narrators of the short fillers for feature films in the mid-20th century. His straight-faced, somber delivery with just a slight cynicism is always worth a smile at least. Benchley made 50 shorts from 1928 to 1945 - most of them in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He visited the doctor, trained a dog, showed how to sub-let a room or apartment, how to raise a baby. Many of these "How to" briefs were hilarious renditions of how not to do something - as in "How to Take a Vacation."

A sleep expert (Robert Benchley) presents a lecture speaking directly into the camera and then he's acting out what he's saying. Robert Benchley is considered a humorist. He's not a real actor. He's slightly fun. This is slightly quirky. It's slightest of slight humor. They're not actual laughs but they have just enough light fun.