A Night at the Movies

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.

Another fun Benchley short about he and his wife going to see a movie and the various foibles they go through before and during.

As an aside, I can't imagine having a kid staring at me like that. I can laugh at it in this context, but if it really happened to me, I'd change seats way faster than he did!

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.

Robert Benchley and wife Betty Rose Clarke decide to go to the movies, and that's where their troubles begin in this typically amusing Benchley short.

His vehicles were moving from the ones in which he lectured vaguely on subjects which left the viewer knowing less than when he started, to ones in which he performed as the befuddled man ever in quest of a decent good time and doomed to failure. Although the sight of a movie house packed with thousands of attendees, and a disdainful staff to supervise their comings and going may confuse the modern viewer, still we can feel his consternation at trying to find a movie that neither he nor his wife have seen before. After all, although we may no longer go to the movies several times a week, we do have to deal with cable or TV service with thousands of channels and offerings.... and nothing on.

An MGM ROBERT BENCHLEY Short Subject.

Trying to quietly spend A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES isn't so simple for hapless Robert Benchley.

Nominated for the Best One-Reel Short Subject Academy Award, this was one of a series of little films to feature the gentle humor of Robert Benchley (1889-1945). Watching him deal with the unexpected difficulties of simply enjoying a movie elicits much quiet amusement.

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Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.