Thanks to the enthusiasm and capable acting by the entire cast, as well as the opulently mounted art direction by Richard Day and Nathan Juran, this venerable stage vehicle comes across rather well. True, Archie Mayo's direction is not particularly distinguished. Nor could George Seaton's screenplay be described as a model of cinematic adaptation. But the film was made in a workmanlike fashion and its gains kudos for its lavish production values. Jack Benny plays "Babs" with an endearing enthusiasm, and receives excellent support from Kay Francis, James Ellison, Anne Baxter, Edmund Gwenn, Laird Cregar, Reginald Owen, Arleen Whelan, Ernest Cossart and company. It's still very much a filmed stage play, despite its cinematic opening sequence which includes some particularly well-timed slapstick. But then it goes straight into the play which has been filmed mostly in long takes – though they are skillfully disguised by fluid camera movements and smooth inter-cutting. Sad to say, the play itself has now lost its position as the most successful (in monetary terms) comedy ever written. Its author, Brandon Thomas was not a professional writer. The son of a Liverpool shoemaker, he was born on Christmas Day, 1848. At the age of twelve, he became a shipwright's apprentice in order to support his mother who took in lodgers – mostly actors who were always behind with their rent money! Eventually, Brandon took up acting himself and started to write plays – both with the same lack of success. One day, W.S. Penley, a highly successful London comedian, happened to cast his eye over one of Brandon's manuscripts. "This isn't bad!" he told the young author. "Why don't you write a comedy for me?" Young Thomas scratched his head. "What sort of a comedy?" he asked. "You've played every character under the sun! Wait a minute! Have you ever thought of playing a woman?" The play's record-breaking London run of 1,466 performances was only outclassed – until Agatha Christie came along – by "Chu Chin Chow" (a play so popular that its author, Oscar Asche, became such a household word that in rhyming slang, "Oscar Asche" became a synonym for "cash". "Got any Oscar Asche?" my grand-dad would often ask.)
Review of Charley's Aunt
