La maison de mes rêves

George Washington Slept Here is a tour-de-force for the great Jack Benny. He is given the opportunity to fully display his comedic acting skills here, as the movie is written and directed with class and style. He's ably assisted in the hilarity by the equally great Ann Sheridan, and supporting cast members Percy Kilbride and Charles Coburn add even more comic class to the movie.

This is the kind of movie you can watch with your kids where you find that the entire family enjoys it equally. While some cynics may not enjoy this movie as much as I do (it is clearly a product of it's time), if you find that you enjoy classic comedies then you should give this one a chance.

Hopefully it will be released on DVD soon. (As of this writing, 2/05/05, it is not yet on DVD.)

I've always enjoyed stories about a couple moving to the country to either fix up an old house or deal with a house that turns out to be haunted, etc. Along these lines I think of films like 'Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House' and/or the suspenseful 'The Uninvited'. But, of course, with Jack Benny as the star you know you're in for comedy when he and his attractive wife (Ann Sheridan) decide to shed city dweller status and move to a more rural setting. Sheridan has her heart set on a ramshackle old house in Connecticut that seems to be falling apart--but with the help of movie magic she fixes it up and--presto--looks like something out of a House Beautiful catalog. The comedy is outdated and some of it falls short of the mark, but not when neighbor Percy Kilbride is around. Reportedly, Jack and Ann found it hard to keep a straight face when Kilbride cracked some of his dryly humorous observations (in Pa Kettle style). Benny ruined many a take when he was unable to stifle a laugh. Some of the slapstick he and others are subjected to is painful, but all in all this is diverting enough entertainment. Ann Sheridan is a sheer pleasure to watch and Charles Coburn shows up as a story-telling uncle who turns out to be a real phony. Hattie McDaniel and Franklin Pangborn add to the fun, making it worth a peek. One of Benny's better films.

Funny movie whose comedy premise was picked up several years later by the better known Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). Here Benny and wife Sheridan exit the city for a rural shack supposedly slept in by our first president. Of course the new digs turn out to be a bottomless money pit and source of irritation for the city-bred Benny. Add grouchy neighbor Charles Dingle, a nasty little nephew, a free-loading Charles Coburn, and a slow- talking handy-man and you've got a madcap mix of comedy antics.

It is an entertaining movie, but with all these promising ingredients why isn't the 90 minutes better than I think it is. For one, there's simply too much going on for director Kheighley to adroitly manage. The situations are inherently amusing, but lack the snap and polish needed to put them over. When Benny falls into the old well, for example, there's neither the reassuring dialog nor comedic reaction that would separate comedy from tragedy. Surprisingly, the scene closes with Benny down the well and viewers in doubt.

Jack Benny was one of the funniest guys around. But his humor was subtle and grew out of character. Radio and TV were perfect since he could play versions of his familiar tightwad personality. As good as he was in those venues, he was not a comedic actor. Here he's permanently flustered with a lot of dialog-- not the strongest suit for a comedian whose specialty were moments of quiet exasperation. He does well enough, but truth be told, the part could have been handled just as well by a dozen other actors. The role was perfect for a Cary Grant-type tizzy as Blandings would prove.

It's Percy Kilbride who walks off with the movie. There's been no one like him before or since. Drop a bomb on him and his deadpan expression wouldn't change. He's totally unflappable with a meat cleaver nose that could slice a side of beef. And what a moment of comedic inspiration when his crackling down-home voice slides into I'll Never Smile Again; it's like a head on Mt. Rushmore suddenly breaking into song. So out of character, it's a total crack up. The movie may not be front-rank, yet it does have its moments.

This is one of the funniest films I've ever seen. A local station in Houston used to run this show on new year's eve and I would watch it every year. Few comics can top Benny and his deadpan delivery but Pa Kettle came close in this one as he played the slow motion yard man.

Percy Kilbride shows up often on Jack Benny's radio show, particular those broadcast during World War II. His deadpan delivery always had the cast and audience in stitches and it is a real treat to encounter Kilbride in roles as a postal official or delivery man, bent on enforcing the "rules" much to the chagrin of Benny, and his sidekicks. Later, as Pa Kettle, Kilbride enjoyed his greatest success. Any fan of Jack Benny and anyone who has access to Benny's radio shows can benefit from "George Washington Slept Here" because you not only get a good look at the man himself, but in this case you get the extra benefit of seeing Benny and Kilbride reprise, so to speak, their wonderfully workable comedy.