Mental Poise

Mental Poise (1938)

** (out of 4)

Decent short has Robert Benchley playing a psychoanalyst who gets his toughest case when a look-alike named Mr. Ostegraft (also played by Benchley) comes in with a problem. These Benchley shorts have always been hit and miss with me and I'm not going to lie because the majority of them were misses. This one here certainly isn't the best but at the same time it's far from the worst. I actually thought the first few minutes of the film were entertaining as Benchley is trying to find the cure for another troubled man and the man's "problem" is that he's scared to fall off small heights. The second portion is when the trick shots come as we get both characters being played by Benchley. These early split screens were fairly well done but the print shown on TCM makes it obvious where the editing is taken place because the Mr. Ostegraf portion of the frame is a tad bit darker than the other side of the frame. These trick shots kept me interesting in the technical side of the film but it really didn't make me laugh or keep me that entertained in the "story" being told. The film ends on a cute twist though.

Robert Benchley plays the psychoanalyst and John Butler plays the patient. The patient has a fear of falling off of relatively low objects. As the patient fills out a form, another patient Mr. Ostegraf (Robert Benchley) comes in for an initial meeting. The two lookalikes try very hard to not mention their similar appearances.

This is a Robert Benchley comedy short. Honestly, I'm not really a fan of his, but this is weird enough to intrigue me. The first patient has a potential for comedy. Why not have him fall over and that solves his phobia? As for the double joke, I kept waiting for the punch line. It turns out to be not much and a shrug which how I feel about this short.

When Robert Benchley goes to see a psychiatrist, he discovers that the analyst looks exactly like him.

It's a very silly entry in the series of shorts that Benchley appeared in for MGM. Most of them consisted of Benchley lecturing confusedly on a subject which he seemed to be an expert, only in the end, the audience was more confused than before. This was his shtick, based on a routine he had performed in college and on Broadway, "The Treasurer's Report." This had been filmed in 1928. Benchley's short "How To Sleep" won an Oscar, and the series gradually morphed into the travails of an inept Everyman.

The MGM series of Robert Benchley short subjects produced some fine, dry and funny comedies. Benchley was at his best in the short 9 minute format. This entry, however, has very little going for it. It's a one gag affair using double exposure for Benchley to play both a therapist and his patient. There is very little in the way of wit here and most of the jokes fall flat. Now MGM was never a great studio for pure comedy, as can be seen by what Mayer did to the "Our Gang" series and his destruction of Buster Keaton, but the Benchley comedies usually get by Mayer's attempt to take out all of the humor. If this is the only Benchley short you've seen, please try others. This is one of the weakest in the series.