Customer Reviews

Robert Benchley & The Knights of the Algonquin [VHS]

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As the author of Robert Benchley: An Annotated Bibliography, 1995, I have been waiting for years for Benchley's short films to be released on video. This collection contains the following Benchley shorts: The Witness (1942), The Trouble with Husbands (1940), The Man's Angle (1942), Crime Control (1941), The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928), and The Treasurer's Report (1928). With the exception of the last two, these titles are from Benchley's later work at Paramount. The picture quality of the shorts is generally good, although some of them were transferred from re-issue prints, and so lack the original titles. The two shorts from 1928 are interesting for their historical significance (and for preserving two of Benchley's best known routines), but the print for The Treasurer's Report has specks of lint in it which obscure the picture for at least half of its 10 minute running time. The video also contains the shorts Traffic Control and Humorous Flights by Donald Ogden Stewart; and Mr. W's Little Game by Alexander Woollcott. While these shorts have some significance to Benchley and the Algonquin Round Table, I think that there is enough Benchley material out there to fill not only one tape, but several tapes. Benchley's best work was at M-G-M (in his famous "How To" series). It is to be hoped that a collection of Benchley's M-G-M shorts will someday be released on video. I must point out that the subtitle "The Knights of the Algonquin" is a new one on me. I suppose the video company is trying to make an analogy with the Knights of the Round Table. Recommended for any Benchley fan out there, and the merely curious.

As a convicted Benchley nut, I was disturbed by the low quality and paucity of good material in this video tape. After viewing it "elsewhere" I purchased the thing pretty much only for "Treasurer's Report" and "Sex Life of a Polyp"--two comedy routines that should be taught with the basics in every public school along with using a pocket calculator and MS spell-check, and looking things up with Google (and that just about covers the basics these days).

The material that is not by Benchley is of historical interest only and is not funny. Alexander Woollcott, in fact, is extremely not funny and his teeth-grindingly too long segment in this collection is almost worth taking the trouble to physically edit out. Donald Ogdon Stewart is tolerable but both comedians who are not Benchley have a self-consciously droll delivery that probably flew well in 1925 but is now pretty irritating. Benchley talks like a normal guy and he's a delight to listen to.

This extra stuff only goes to show how funny Benchley was, and still is. It's a tragedy he isn't better known these days--his essays are hysterical, his theater criticism is funny-as-hell, his writing is generally spectacular, his acting was wonderful (see "I Married a Witch" for classic Benchley) and the shorts he made are genuine treasures. The better ones, oddly enough, are turning up as extras in the Thin Man DVDs and, I think, some of the Marx Brothers ones. (I just watched "How to be a Detective" attached to a Thin man in the new collection) I wish all his books would come back into print and I'm stunned that there hasn't been a nice plump "Modern Library" edition. Heck, they did Dorothy Parker up just fine and she's getting less funny as time passes. (Sorry, just feeling bitter, she was a great writer and deserves plenty of exposure) I'd also like to see an English translation of a French book that talks about him as a surrealist (which is probably more old-fashioned New England Yankee whimsy and nonsense).

Benchley? Imagine a funnier Mark Twain, maybe even a better writing Mark Twain (but not a better story teller) and imagine, unlike with Twain, a film record of the man being hilarious. KINO probably hasn't stuck this on DVD because they realize they have a mangy mongrel on their hands. If they're smart they'll collect as much Benchley as possible and release (please God!) a two disc collection...maybe. I think we can all forget about Woollcott and Stewart for good.