Charley’s Aunt **** (1941, Jack Benny, Kay Francis, James Ellison) – Classic Movie Review 9288

OMG ! Jack Benny in drag!

Director Archie Mayo’s effervescent 1941 black and white cross dressing comedy Charley’s Aunt [Charley’s American Aunt] stars the notable ensemble team of Jack Benny, Kay Francis, James Ellison, Anne Baxter, Laird Cregar, Edmund Gwenn, Reginald Owen and Richard Haydn.

The treasurable Jack Benny makes his own the famous old Brandon Thomas stage farce about an Oxford University student, Babbs Babberley, who impersonates his nutty aunt from Brazil to chaperone a couple of girls he is interested in.

There’s a plethora of silly but good-hearted fun as Edmund Gwenn courts auntie Jack until the real Brazilian lady, Donna Lucia d’Alvadorez (Kay Francis), arrives.

It is propelled by slick direction, with an admirably fast pace, and by deft performances all round.

The old material still stands up well. It was first filmed in 1925 with Sydney Chaplin, and there are five other earlier versions, including Walter Forde’s 1940 Charley’s (Big-Hearted) Aunt with Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Graham Moffatt, Phyllis Calvert and Moore Marriott. It is  remade as the musical Where’s Charley?

Also in the cast are Arleen Whelan, Ernest Cossart, Morton Lowry, Lionel Pape, Claude Allister, William Austin, Russell Burroughs, Gilchrist Stuart, John Meredith, Will Stanton, C Montague Shaw and Maurice Cass.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9288

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