It's in the Air

This is one of the lee than stratospheric flicks that sent Jack Benny screaming back to Radio. He seems rather bored to be playing an almost straight man to Ted Healy (who as usual seems lost without 3 stooges...and who tries to make up for it by being VERY loud and Very monotonous). There is a spooky line about Benny adding 10 years to Ted's character's life...ironic given his tragic end around five years later. Benny seems a bit happier to be playing a more or less standard romance with Una Merkel...who is given nothing to do but look pretty and whine at Benny to go straight...advice which he seems to have taken FAR too much to heart. Reliable buffoon Nat Pendleton scores a few smiles...and there is a very strange and oddly nasty cameo by what appears to be a real bald eagle which ends up being treated very roughly.

A more pleasant bit is played by future leading man Dennis O'Keefe who can be spotted nonchalantly dancing by the stars...and actually has a line later on as a radio announcer.

Watchable as a curio...and it may be an eye opener for some to see how primitive effect shots were in 1935...and check out the trailer which promises an "all star" laugh riot...it is nice to know that some things like high flying hype never change.

Jack Benny has had a reputation for making pictures no one liked particularly, but I think he is too harshly judged. Perhaps it is his rather nonchalant air and breezy manner which has him virtually walk through each scene flippantly. Here he plays a confidence trickster who eventually comes clean. His sidekick in his nefarious endeavors is Ted Healy, a rather loud-mouthed comedian (who met an unfortunate end two years after this picture was made.)

Benny comes to some place called Desert Springs to do some more trickery. A bevy of local businessmen are also doing a bit of trickery of their own. The gist of it is that Benny is to ride up into the stratosphere in a balloon. The businessmen are going to fund his mission in return for advertising and Benny is to run off with his loot before he makes his ascension. But that would break the production code, so complications ensue.

This has plenty of places where some mirth can be readily attained. It also has a good cast of supporting players led by Una Merkel as Benny's rather attractive and estranged wife, with Grant Mitchell heading the list of businessmen. Nat Pendleton is an IRS agent and there is a brief appearance by Clarence Wilson whose little appearances here and there are always welcome. In the blink or you'll miss them department are Dennis O'Keefe and Shirley Ross.

This was made by MGM. I wonder why Turner Classic Movies never plays it?