Crime Control

This is one of Robert Benchley's best short comedies, in large part because he makes such a ridiculous idea work so smoothly. The writing and delivery are both done with great skill, very carefully balancing the absurdity of the material with the dryly instructional nature of the format. It works on several levels, since it is funny in itself besides being a parody of public service spots plus an ironic look at human nature.

Benchley appears as a police officer who gives a talk to alert the public about the dangers caused by various inanimate objects, and then he appears as the 'victim' of a number of their 'crimes'. It's all in fun, since the 'criminals' are window shades, newspapers, and the like, and the situations are the kinds of routine annoyances that we all face numerous times each day. It doesn't seem as if such a topic could work for more than a couple of minutes without becoming overly cute or overly forced, but this is the kind of material that often brought out the best in Benchley.

Benchley was the kind of writer whose best material flowed so smoothly that you could barely notice the careful craftsmanship, and that is the case here. The words are chosen with care, and they work especially well in Benchley's deadpan style (which is also particularly apt for his policeman character).

Crime Control (1941)

** (out of 4)

Annoyinly simple Robert Benchley short has him playing a police officer who tells the audience that one of his hardest job is tracking down inanimate objects that cause more damage that real criminals. Some of the examples are newspapers, window shades, ties, shoe strings and things of this nature. The type of comedy you're going to get here can be seen by one example and that's when Benchley tries to get two window shades to stay at the same level. He fails and then goes into a violent outrage where the shades end up on the ground and him kicking them. That's pretty much what happens to each object as Benchley will try to work them, something will go wrong and then he goes over-the-top to try and get a laugh. I'll admit that I did laugh a couple times here and there but in the end this short just really got on my nerves because of how silly it was. At times the thing goes way too over-the-top while at the next second it's comedy is too dry to work. The two certainly don't mix very well together and in the end this is what causes the short to fall on its face more often than it makes one laugh. Benchley is pretty good in the role of the everyday guy who just keeps finding himself haunted by his own dumbness.