Love Thy Neighbor

I was very keen,as a longtime fan of both Jack Benny and Fred Allen to see how they would work together in a film.What a disappointment.The script was feeble and devoid of any wit at all.It has to be said that Jack Benny was far better in films where he actually played a character than when he played his radio character.Maybe he was a far better actor than anyone realised at the time.Maybe if you took his character out of the radio situation it just did not work.The least you would expect from 2 great comedians together is a few laughs but believe me this film is a chuckle free zone.There are a couple of good songs sung very well by Mary Martin who made far too few films.The production numbers are likeliest and seem to have been done almost as an afterthought.So if you have fond radio memories of these two comedians avoid this woeful effort.

As a comedy with music, this is standard 1940 B-picture fare, complete with an out-of-left- field ending---but it's worth at least one viewing, especially for Jack Benny and Fred Allen fans who enjoy their radio spats. The 'feud' is really the main theme of the picture, despite the charms of a young Mary Martin and a reliable supporting cast. Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson is fun to watch, and he gets some screen time---and a musical number---with a lovely black actress, Theresa Harris, as his girlfriend. She could have easily played a lead role, but this picture is Benny and Allen's baby. It won't make AFI's top ten list, but give it a watch.

Though I've not seen this movie since the 1960s, I do have the musical numbers on an audio cassette (somewhere ...) and can attest to the great soundtrack. Jack Benny was one of a kind, a comedian who could have you in fits of laughter simply by lifting an eyebrow, or gazing at the camera as if to say: "I told you so." If this ever appears on dvd, I'll be at the front of the queue!

This film is funny even if you don't know anything about the characters other than Jack Benny, perennially portrayed as a skinflint, and Rochester (Eddie Rochester Anderson), his long-suffering on-air butler. Benny and Fred Allen were radio personalities during the 20 years preceding television, and had a running faux feud with each putting the other down in their own trademark style. This film makes a feature length joke out of that long-running act.

Mary Martin plays Fred's niece, Mary, who attempts to patch up a feud between her uncle and Benny, ends up being confused with a dancer with a completely different name, and ultimately ends up romantically entangled with Jack, here portrayed as a bachelor. Benny was actually married to Mary Livingston from 1927 until his death in 1974.

The film is virtually without a plot, yet hilarious and punctuated by interesting if not tuneful musical numbers. Keep a lookout for Benny's chambermaid. She is played by Mary Kelley, and is always calling Jack "kid" in the film. Before Jack married Mary Livingston he almost married Mary Kelley, which he said would have been a huge mistake because they were always arguing. He said the almost marriage happened because when George Burns and Gracie Allen got married (both longtime friends) their love was so contagious that he caught it too! At any rate, years later, she wound up working for Jack at various times, and this was one of those times.

Highly recommended for fans of Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and old time radio.

This is one of the lesser efforts of the Pre-TV Show Jack Benny episodes that passed for B movies in the 1940s. This is the fault of the very poor screenplay/script that was created during one of the lunch hours on the studio lot. It is trite and silly. Make sure you see this Benny film AFTER exhausting all the other ones by the entertaining star.