Nothing But Nerves

Nothing But Nerves (1941)

** (out of 4)

Decent Robert Benchley short has him playing his usual lecturer as well as our main patient. His alter ego Joe Doakes is a very nervous man who is unable to see the truth because his mind is always racing to the worst thoughts possible. For example, when his maid enters the closet and he doesn't see her come out, instead of thinking that he simply didn't see her come out he fears that something has happened to her. Another example is when the phone rings but when he answers no one is there. Poor Doakes fears that someone is coming after him. This is the type of situations Benchley finds himself in and for the most part not too many of them are funny, although there are a couple gags that work. The best one comes at the very end as Doakes keeps going from room to room to try and escape those after him and finally he winds up in the bathroom where things just get worse. I thought the bathroom jokes were pretty funny and certainly the highlight of the film. The one joke that really falls flat is when Benchley is behind his desk talking and the light keeps going out. This is meant to show Benchley too has a nervous condition but the gag simply doesn't work and becomes rather annoying after the first couple times.

If we consult Webster's Dictionary for a definition of "neurasthenia," we find that this condition is "an emotional and psychic disorder characterized by impaired functioning in interpersonal relationships, and often by fatigue, depression, feelings of inadequacy, headaches, hypersensitivity to sensory stimulation (as by light or noise), and other psychosomatic symptoms." Sounds rather like a bad hangover, doesn't it? If we consult Robert Benchley, humorist, we find neurasthenia dramatized in a series of hilariously evocative vignettes in this little 10-minute gem, Nothing But Nerves. This is one of Benchley's more enjoyable short comedies, perhaps because what he's really doing here is illustrating a condition he knew intimately: i.e. a bad hangover. It's no state secret that Mr. Benchley took a drink or two on occasion, and it's apparent from his heartfelt performance in this movie that the man knew something about impaired functioning.

Seated at his usual desk Mr. Benchley serves as our host, and also as his traditional cinematic alter ego, Joe Doakes. As narrator, he must contend with a faulty desk lamp that gradually drives him to distraction, while as poor bleary-eyed Doakes, still in his dressing gown, he must deal with a merciless onslaught of psychic disturbances that turn his day into a one-way trip to the Twilight Zone. The phone rings, but no one is there. The cigarette box is empty, but then, mysteriously, it is full of cigarettes. The maid goes into the closet with some magazines . . . and, eventually, reappears in a different part of the house. And then without warning, plumbers arrive and set about doing something noisy and violent to the plumbing. Doakes tries to escape this unwanted intrusion, but, as narrator Benchley astutely points out, "it's not his nemesis he needs to escape, it's his own distorted point of view on life." Doakes winds up a pathetic, hunted creature, but meanwhile our narrator manages to triumph over his own personal nemesis, that damn desk lamp.

This is a good example of Robert Benchley's wry humor, and one of the most successful attempts to capture his written style in the short film format. He was a funny man and a highly charismatic performer, and the passage of time hasn't dimmed his appeal.