How to Vote

Since 1936 was a presidential election year, Robert Benchley wrote this little bit of insanity (what else would you call it?), which should have been titled, "How To Lose Your Adoring Followers?"

The password is laryngitis. Since candidate Mr. Mirney is out sick, the committe chairman for a local election asks Robert Benchley to speak on his behalf? He has praise for this hard-working candidate, even bringing a large map to explain a proposed dam project.

What the audience gets... is a plate-full of verbal speghetti, as only Benchley could deliver, AND, I'll bet lots of this goofy stuff was ad-libbed, even though he supposedly wrote a script! Cliches, jokes with no punchline, more nonsenical chatter, and how about another lousy joke? The monologue should have gotten an award for conveying absolutely, positively nothing, and doing it in the most clever and insane way.

Look for 5 foot 2 comedian Billy Bletcher standing on the campaign platform, whose famous low voice was heard in hundreds of cartoons. Directed by Felix E. Feist, who also wrote material for Benchley, later to become a distinguished B film director.

FYI: This nutty film short may have been recalled by presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie four years later, who had a very real bout with laryngitis on the campaign trail. Rather than let someone else do the talking, he somehow kept going. Even his oppenent, President Roosevelt, felt sorry for him and gave Wilkie much praise for not giving in.

Thank you Mr. Benchley for making all us laugh sooo much, then and now.

Remastered MGM dvd with other Benchley classic shorts. Also thanks to TCM for running these solid gold oldies for a new generation of fans.

How to Vote (1936)

* (out of 4)

A political candidate comes down with laryngitis so he can't talk about the city's water dam so he sends Robert Benchley to do it instead and of course things don't go as planned. I've seen quite a few of these Benchley shorts over the years thanks to Turner Classic Movies and I think this one here has to be the very worst of the group. There wasn't a single scene here that made me laugh and in fact the entire film made me appear stoneface just like Buster Keaton. The attempts at humor deal with Benchley not knowing what he's talking about and not knowing how to do anything else.

Whether or not you're registered to vote in the 8th District you might want to listen to this stirring campaign address, as you'll surely learn a lot about the Grounds Water Dam project so crucial to the forthcoming election. Unfortunately Mr. Murney couldn't attend in person, but he's sent his personal assistant Robert Benchley to explain it all for you. (Maybe it's just as well for him that Mr. Murney is too ill to see this.) Happily, Mr. Benchley has brought along a list of figures and an illustrated chart to help make things less clear -- which he does with spectacular success, I might add.

Fans of Benchley's nonsense lectures will enjoy this entry, as How to Vote presents the great humorist at the peak of his powers. From the moment he steps up to address the audience he is stumbling over his words, launching into a joke he never finishes and questioning whether "our" candidate will actually win the election. His chart, a confused map of Odney County where the proposed fake dam will be built (the real one, we're told, will be hidden under some bushes), is a riot of nonsensical notations, pointless digressions, and helpful labels such as Proposed Post Office, Mens' Locker Room, Place to Leave Bicycles, and Possible Indians. Oh, and there's that captive balloon he was telling you about!

This is an amusing short for the campaign season or any other time, and it makes as much sense as many actual political speeches. Better still, it's shorter than most.

The principal speaker being too ill to attend, chairman. Frank Sheridan asks Robert Benchley to make a speak in his place. Sheridan spends the rest of the movie regretting it.

Robert Benchley had been giving this sort of confused lecture since he was a student at Harvard. Later, he did it on the Broadway stage, and transferred it to the screen as THE TREASURER'S REPORT in 1928. Now he was doing the same for MGM, and had already won an Oscar for HOW TO SLEEP.

My reaction may be due to the fact that I have just come from voting (New York has early voting), but this one is just as good -- if that's the right word for it -- as any of his lectures. In sum, you don't learn anything, but at least now you know it.