Love Thy Neighbor

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.

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.

"Love Thy Neighbor" captures something of a bygone era. In the first half of the 20th century, radio had many "shows" that made stars out of performers. Some were comedies, others were musicals with singing, and others were plays. The latter included drama, mystery, comedies, sci-fi and horror – just about anything that the movies offered that could be portrayed with sound alone. There also were some early game or contest shows. Commercial television developed after World War II, and had many of the same types of programs. Some of the best radio programs segued to TV and continued to be hits. But, many more soon died out as radio programming changed. Radio acting shows were becoming obsolete.

Jack Benny was one of the most successful entertainers to make the transition. His 24-year radio show gave way to one of the longest running TV programs. The Jack Benny Program was on the air from 1950 through 1965. His was a combination sitcom, revue, and stage show with jokes and songs. Benny also was one of the entertainers who succeeded in movies.

The plot of this movie develops around a fake feud that Benny and Fred Allen concocted. Allen had his own radio show, and the two comedians constantly lambasted one another on the air. They exchanged guest appearances a number of times. Their feud was so overblown that all the radio audience knew it wasn't real. But it was a constant and sure source of much laughter week after week.

The plot being what it is in this film, the main characters play their real lives. Besides Benny and Allen, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson is in in a fine role and performance. Marty Martin, Virginia Dale and Jack Carson have good roles. It's too bad the plot couldn't have been written to include at least cameos of the other mainstay people on Jack's show. Those would include his wife, Mary Livingstone, singer Dennis Day, and comedy sidekicks Don Wilson, Phil Harris and Mel Blanc. Most of these moved with Benny from radio to TV, at least for a few years.

I think the feud begins to wear thin in this film, although the humor otherwise is very good. Mary Martin is a delight in her song, "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." No doubt older people will enjoy this film more than younger viewers. It is a nostalgic look at some of the good entertainment of years gone bye.

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.

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.