An Evening Alone

Evening Alone, An (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Better than expected short from Robert Benchley has him playing Joe Doakes, a husband who gets left home alone when his wife decides to go out with a girlfriend. This short is a warning to wives about what could happen if you leave your husband alone. Joe starts off wanting to learn about some household items and starts off with the cuckoo clocks, which he ends up breaking. He then decides to start a small fire, which grows out of control and even smoking his favorite pipe doesn't work out. AN EVENING ALONE features the type of humor fans have come to expect from Benchley but I've always been very hit and miss on his work. I thought this film was certainly much better than most because there are some very funny gags that get carried out to a good effect. One happens when Benchley bites into an orange and gets juice all over himself. He must then find a place to wipe his mouth. Another funny gag has him reading a horror story and then getting scared to close a window. Both of these gags get a couple big laughs and they alone make this film worth sitting through.

This is another strong entry in the always dependable 'Joe Doakes' series of shorts that Benchley wrote and starred in for MGM and occasionally Paramount in the 1930s and 1940s. They took two forms: in the first, Benchley would lecture confusedly on some subject that his character would seem to know nothing about, like the Oscar-winning HOW TO SLEEP. In the second, he would play Joe Doakes, who would go about creating havoc in his ordinary way. This is an episode of the second; the Missus has gone out, leaving him alone to do catch up on those tasks he has put off, like destroying the cuckoo clock and filling the house with smoke. As usual, Benchley is low key, befuddled and amusing.

You can well see how and where writers Robert Lees and Frederic I. Rinaldo got their material for Abbott and Costello films.

This one is pure Robert Benchley, or Joe Doakes at your service. The wife is away and the gentleman of the house is left to his own devices -- how to occupy one's mind?

Oh, yes, there are several possibilities... Best comes at the very beginning as Joe meets his match with a cuckoo clock. Something all of us are fascinated with anyway, if not the Three Stooges or the Ritz Brothers.

How about listening to some classical music, and smoking your favorite pipe? Beware of LOTS of smoke, and that includes setting a cozy fire in the fireplace. At this stage you're probably also thinking Laurel and Hardy. Toss in another messy bit with an orange that refuses to cooperate? Food that fails (and sqwirts you) is an audience pleaser.

Finally, how about reading a spooky late nite mystery? Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi for company?

Robert Benchley's famous one man show of shows. Remastered on dvd, a collection of his classic short films. Thanks TCM for running these oldies, which we haven't seen for decades.