Where Have You Gone, Jack Benny?

Rating: 9/10 (3 March 2006)

It's too bad we don't have a Jack Benny today, a consensus national comedian, someone whom most Americans loved and understood. There's just no equivalent in 2006.
Jack Benny was already a huge star on radio when TO BE OR NOT TO BE was made. He had several film roles to his credit, and had been a big star in vaudeville. A major part of the joke of TO BE OR NOT TO BE was Jack Benny's character--a vain, put-upon character, somewhat prissy and ineffectual.
We see the stage from the rear, and the familiar Hamlet character walks upstage, in his velvet mantle, tights, dagger, and medallion. The camera pans around to the front, and it's Jack Benny, looking vaguely disgusted. For those of us who grew up with Jack Benny on radio or TV, that scene alone is hilarious.
The film follows the Benny radio show formula--improbable boobish villains, insults, unlikely situations, mistaken identities, and, above all, a series of running gags. Some great character actors like Sig Rumann, Lionel Atwill and Felix Bressart surround Benny, as does Robert Stack and the dreamy, unusual Carole Lombard.
But for those of you who didn't grow up with the cultural reference point of Jack Benny, all of this might not be enough to make it a great picture. When I first saw this as a part of William K. Everson's Friday night film series at the New School (NYC) in 1968, it was a revelation, and has remained a fond old friend to return to over the years.