Robert Benchley

AKA: Роберт Бенчли, Robert Charles Benchley
0.2061

1889-09-14

Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Biography

Robert Benchley (September 15, 1889 - November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, a newspaper columnist and an actor.

Crew Roles

The Witness
Writer
How to Behave
Writer
How to Vote
Writer
Furnace Trouble
Writer
Stewed, Fried and Boiled
Writer
How to Break 90 at Croquet
Writer
The Treasurer's Report
Writer
Lesson No. 1
Writer
The Spellbinder
Writer
An Evening Alone
Writer
Music Made Simple
Writer
Dark Magic
Writer
Home Movies
Writer
That Inferior Feeling
Writer
A Night at the Movies
Writer
Waiting for Baby
Writer
The Courtship of the Newt
Writer
How to Raise a Baby
Writer
Crime Control
Writer
The Trouble with Husbands
Writer
Murder on a Honeymoon
Screenplay
How to Be a Detective
Writer
Sky Devils
Writer
The Sport Parade
Additional Dialogue
The Romance of Digestion
Writer
Why Daddy?
Story
Why Daddy?
Writer
How to Figure Income Tax
Writer
Foreign Correspondent
Dialogue
How to Read
Writer
Blind Adventure
Additional Dialogue
The Sex Life of the Polyp
Writer
Home Early
Screenplay
How to Sub-Let
Writer
The American Venus
Title Graphics
Your Technocracy and Mine
Writer
How to Watch Football
Writer
Boogie Woogie
Writer
See Your Doctor
Producer
See Your Doctor
Screenplay
Mental Poise
Writer
Second Youth
Title Designer
You'd Be Surprised
Dialogue
Important Business
Original Story
Important Business
Screenplay
No News Is Good News
Original Story
No News Is Good News
Screenplay
Cast RolesCast Roles Played = {98}

Robert Benchley

1941-06-19 6.573

The Reluctant Dragon

Humorist Robert Benchley attempts to find Walt Disney to ask him to adapt a short story about a gentle dragon who would rather recite poetry than be ferocious. Along the way, he is given a tour of Wal ...
Genre :Animation, Family, Comedy

Dr. Dudley White

1942-10-30 6.8

I Married a Witch

A 17th-century witch returns to wreak havoc in the life of a descendant of the Puritan witch hunter who burned her. ...
Genre :Romance, Fantasy, Comedy

Prof. Oliver Wendel Holmes Dana

1941-02-21 5.3

Nice Girl?

Jane is a nice girl and has had her eyes on a young man who seems more interested in his hand-built car than in Jane. She decides to shed her "nice girl" image when an associate of her father comes to ...
Genre :Comedy, Drama, Music

Martin Cortland

1941-09-25 6.449

You'll Never Get Rich

A Broadway choreographer gets drafted and coincidentally ends up in the same army base as the boyfriend of his object of affection. ...
Genre :Comedy, Music, Romance

Narrator

1946-02-27 6.7

Road to Utopia

While on a ship to Skagway, Alaska, Duke and Chester find a map to a secret gold mine, which had been 'stolen' by thugs. In Alaska to recover her father's map, Sal Van Hoyden falls in with Ace Larson, ...
Genre :Adventure, Comedy, Music, Family

Philip 'Phil' Harriman

1943-07-13 6.2

The Sky's the Limit

Flying Tiger Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days of leave. He quickly falls for photographer Joan Manion, pursuing her in th ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance, Music

Ward King

1933-11-24 6.8

Dancing Lady

Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get a job in a real Broadway musical being directed b ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance, Music

Duffy

1937-08-20 6.2

Broadway Melody of 1938

Steve Raleight wants to produce a show on Broadway. He finds a backer, Herman Whipple and a leading lady, Sally Lee. But Caroline Whipple forces Steve to use a known star, not a newcomer. Sally purcha ...
Genre :Music, Romance

Albert Osborne

1942-09-16 7.054

The Major and the Minor

Returning to her hometown from New York, Susan Applegate learns that she hasn't enough for the train fare and disguises herself as a twelve-year-old to travel for half the price. She hides from the co ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

Eddie Turner

1941-12-25 5.5

Bedtime Story

A Broadway playwright wants to keep on writing plays for his wife to star in, but all she wants is to retire to Connecticut and, following a few 'worlds-apart" discussion of the issue, they get a divo ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

Charlie McCaleb

1935-08-09 6.1

China Seas

Captain Alan Gaskell sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret cargo: a fortune in British gold. That's not the only risky cargo he carries; both his fiery mistress and h ...
Genre :Adventure, Action, Drama

(archive footage)

1982-12-31 10

Showbiz Goes to War

While a few Hollywood celebrities such as James Stewart and Clark Gable saw combat during World War II, the majority used their talents to rally the American public through bond sales, morale-boosting ...
Genre :Documentary, TV Movie

Mr. Holliday

1944-03-18 6

See Here, Private Hargrove

Journalist Marion Hargrove enters the Army intending to supplement his income by writing about his training experiences. He muddles through basic training at Fort Bragg with the self-serving help of a ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance, War

Randy Morton

1945-10-04 6

Week-End at the Waldorf

Anything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets a world-weary war correspondent and mistakes him for a jewel thief; a soldier learns that without an op ...
Genre :Comedy, Drama, Romance

Wilburforce Puddle, hotel manager

1941-10-23 5.3

Three Girls About Town

Faith and Hope Banner, sisters, are "convention hostesses" in a hotel. A body is discovered next door as the magician's convention is leaving and the mortician's convention is arriving, and the sister ...
Genre :Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Romance

Doakes (scenes deleted)

1942-05-22 6.2

Syncopation

A young trumpeter rises through the jazz world and finds love. ...
Genre :Music, Romance, Drama

Roger Van Horn

1940-09-13 6.8

Hired Wife

Ad man Stephen Dexter asks his secretary Kendall to marry him as a loophole in order to protect his finances during an important business deal. Once the deal is completed, he asks Kendall for a divorc ...
Genre :Comedy

G.B. Atwater

1942-05-06 6.5

Take a Letter, Darling

A struggling painter takes a job as a secretary to a female advertising executive. While working to obtain an account from a tobacco company, they end up falling in love. ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

Arthur Kenny

1943-02-05 4.7

Young and Willing

For those, if any, who have wondered why so many Paramount contractees appeared in United Artists' films during the war years, this is another one of the Paramount productions that was sold to United ...
Genre :Drama

Robert Benchley

1928-12-13 0

The Spellbinder

The Spellbinder is a comedy short. ...
Genre :Comedy

Lecturer

1929-02-12 0

Lesson No. 1

Lesson No. 1 is a 1929 comedy short. ...
Genre :Comedy

Robert Benchley

1929-02-04 0

Furnace Trouble

Furnace Trouble is a 1929 comedy short. ...
Genre :Comedy

Lecturer

1929-03-29 0

Stewed, Fried and Boiled

Stewed, Fried and Boiled is a 1929 comedy short. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1935-06-04 0

How to Break 90 at Croquet

Robert Benchley shows how to successfully play croquet. ...
Genre :Comedy

Robert Benchley

1937-10-02 3.8

Sunday Night at the Trocadero

A series of vignettes with a loose plot. Featured are Frank Morgan, Groucho Marx, Frank McHugh, Robert Benchley and The Brian Sisters. Not bad, more interesting for the historical significance than fo ...
Genre :Music, Comedy

Hubbell

1933-09-01 6.5

Rafter Romance

A working girl shares her apartment with an artist, taking the place in shifts. ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

Tom P. Curtis

1945-12-28 4.7

The Stork Club

After aspiring singer Judy Peabody rescues the elderly J.B. Bates from drowning, she assumes that the disheveled man is a vagrant and goes back to her job checking hats at New York City's famed Stork ...
Genre :Comedy, Music

Doakes

1943-10-29 6.8

Flesh and Fantasy

Anthology film of three tales of the supernatural. The first story is set at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The second involves a psychic who predicts murder. The third is about a man who literally me ...
Genre :Mystery, Romance, Thriller, Horror

Lecturer

1928-07-25 4.8

The Sex Life of the Polyp

Dr. Benchley is addressing the Ladies Club on the subject of the reproductive habits of the polyp, a small aquatic organism. Although he is not able to display his live specimens, he has prepared a se ...
Genre :Comedy

Bill Macon

1936-08-14 6.5

Piccadilly Jim

Jim's father wants to marry Eugenia, but her sister Netta refuses to allow it. When Jim sees Ann at a club, he falls for her even though she is with Lord Priory. He meets her the next day at the ridin ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

Mr. Benchley

1936-10-17 6.5

How to Be a Detective

This Robert Benchley 'How To' comedy short attempts to teach us how to profile criminals by physical characteristics. ...
Genre :Comedy, Crime

Radio Announcer

1933-07-28 6.2

Headline Shooter

A newsreel photographer neglects his love life to get the perfect shot. ...
Genre :Adventure, Drama

Judge Robert Simpson

1944-12-20 0

Practically Yours

In this screwball comedy a WW2 US pilot bombs a Japanese aircraft carrier, is assumed to be dead, and then is misquoted in the press as fondly remembering his days back home walking his dog Piggy. Ins ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

Oscar

1937-10-29 5.143

Live, Love and Learn

A starving, uncompromising artist and an heiress fall in love on first sight and immediately get married. She loves his outrageous behaviour, his strange room-mate and the best apartment poverty can b ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

Host / Narrator

1935-09-14 6.5

How to Sleep

A lecturer seated at a desk promises an informative film about how to sleep; it's a sequel to and inspired by "How to stay awake," which put his audience to sleep. He plans to examine the causes of sl ...
Genre :Comedy

Husband

1937-11-06 5.5

A Night at the Movies

A Night at the Movies is a short film starring Robert Benchley. It was Benchley's greatest success since How to Sleep, and won him a contract for more short films that would be produced in New York. I ...
Genre :Comedy

Uncle Todd Warren

1946-06-05 5.857

The Bride Wore Boots

A bookish husband tries to win back the affections of his horse-breeding wife. ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

Treasurer

1928-03-11 3

The Treasurer's Report

Assistant Treasurer Benchley reports on the annual expenditures of the club for its home for "boys between the ages of 14", and other projects. ...
Genre :Comedy

John Van Brunt

1944-09-02 5.5

Janie

Teenage Janie falls in love with a private from an Army base opposed by her editor father. ...
Genre :Comedy, Romance

John Van Brunt

1946-06-22 6

Janie Gets Married

Newlywed Janie's (Joan Leslie) World War II-veteran husband (Robert Hutton) goes to work at her father's (Edward Arnold) newspaper. ...
Genre :Comedy

Lecturer

1937-11-11 6

How to Start the Day

Benchley tries his best to demonstrate the routine one should follow to start the day right. ...
Genre :Comedy

Stebbins

1940-08-16 7

Foreign Correspondent

American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover the imminent war. When he walks into the middle of an assassination and stumbles on a spy ring, he seeks ...
Genre :Thriller, Mystery, Action

George Archer

1945-10-04 5.6

Kiss and Tell

Film adaptation of the Broadway hit, about the comic mayhem that erupts in a small town when a 15-year old high-schooler (Shirley Temple) is wrongly suspected of being pregnant. ...
Genre :Comedy

Charlie Corker

1945-03-22 3.167

Pan-Americana

A New York magazine sends its editors to South America to find beautiful girls. ...
Genre :Music

Robert Benchley (archive footage)

2007-08-28 7.555

The Pixar Story

A look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios - from the success of "Toy Story" and Pixar's promotion of talented people, to the building of its East Bay campus, the company's relationship with ...
Genre :Documentary

Radio Announcer

1932-11-11 4.75

The Sport Parade

Two Dartmouth football players fall in love with the same girl following college graduation. ...
Genre :Drama, Romance

Robert Benchley

1934-03-10 4

Social Register

Chorus girl Patsy Shaw crashes a high-society party, meets playboy Charlie Breen, they fall in love, and are on their merry way to wedded bliss. However, Charlie's snobbish, ever-loving mama doesn't t ...
Genre :Comedy, Music, Drama, Romance

Lecturer / Joe Doakes

1939-06-10 6

How to Eat

Humorist Robert Benchley discusses the issue of food and how different situations can affect one's ability to consume and digest food, using his stock everyman and slightly bumbling character Joe Doak ...
Genre :Comedy

Joseph A. Doakes

1944-04-29 0

Important Business

Robert takes a train ride to Washington, DC, on "important business." ...
Genre :Comedy

Mr. Benchley

1936-04-25 7.5

How to Behave

Two men working below a manhole cover wonder what they would do if a woman was to fall in. This leads to one of the workers saying that Robert Benchley always has the best advice about any social situ ...
Genre :Comedy

Joseph A. Doakes

1943-12-04 7

My Tomato

Joe Doakes is lamenting to his wife the lack of variety in his meals. In particular, he misses eating stewed tomatoes, the fruit which he believes incorrectly is being rationed as a war measure. Mrs. ...
Genre :Comedy

Lecturer / Dog Owner

1936-07-01 7

How to Train a Dog

This comedic short provides a lesson in how NOT to train a dog. ...
Genre :Comedy

Psychoanalyst / Mr. Ostegraf

1938-12-10 5.5

Mental Poise

In this comedic short, a psychoanalyst encounters a patient who eerily resembles himself. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1937-03-13 8

The Romance of Digestion

A brief, illustrated lecture on digestion. Aburdist humor is the hallmark of this pseudo-scientific description of biting, chewing, swallowing, and digesting food. The on-screen narrator begins with t ...
Genre :Comedy

Ben Stevens

1945-11-22 6

Snafu

A 14-year-old boy lies about his age and enlists in the United State Marine Corps without his family's consent or knowledge. He is sent into battle in the Pacific war-zone, decorated, and spotted in a ...
Genre :Comedy

Lecturer / Joe

1939-03-17 4.5

An Hour for Lunch

Benchley shows how to budget one's time during lunch hour to get things done efficiently. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1938-03-01 6

How to Figure Income Tax

A man humorously attempts to give an overview of income taxes. ...
Genre :Comedy

Mr. Robert Benchley

1936-09-04 7

How to Vote

A candidate has laryngitis, so his assistant must make a speech in his place. Both the speaker and his audience are soon befuddled. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joseph A. Doakes

1944-05-20 5.2

Why Daddy?

When Joe Doakes listens to a quiz show on the radio and knows all the answers, his wife encourages him to go on a quiz show himself. He appears on a new show called "Why Daddy?", where a child and an ...
Genre :Comedy

Martin Osborne

1944-05-29 6

Her Primitive Man

An anthropologist unwittingly takes a man disguised as a "primitive man" back to New York as a specimen. ...
Genre :Comedy

Lecturer / Joseph H. Doakes

1939-12-16 5.8

See Your Doctor

A lecturer tells the audience that it is National Take Care Week. He tells the story of a man who gets stung in his garden and the problems the man has when he seeks treatment at the doctor's office. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1940-02-17 6

Home Movies

A comedy short staring Robert Benchley. He tries to show us how to make our own movies. ...
Genre :Comedy

Parker

1945-04-21 5.667

It's in the Bag!

The ringmaster of a flea circus inherits a fortune...if he can find which chair it's hidden in. ...
Genre :Comedy

Mr. Benchley

1942-01-02 1

Nothing But Nerves

After some investigation, Robert Benchley finds his nerves are in a bad state. He has the jitters so bad he can't hold his cup still enough to drink his coffee, and he thinks the arrival of some plumb ...
Genre :

Lecturer

1938-08-27 5.2

How to Read

Robert Benchley offers a humorous lecture on how to avoid different types of strain during reading. ...
Genre :Comedy

J.B. Mitcham

1944-09-24 0

The National Barn Dance

This film gives a fictionalized version of how the popular real-life radio program of the title began. ...
Genre :Music, Comedy

Hank Higgins

1944-02-10 8

Song of Russia

American conductor John Meredith and his manager, Hank Higgins, go to Russia shortly before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Meredith falls in love with beautiful Soviet pianist Nadya Stepanova ...
Genre :Drama, Music, Romance, War

Frederick Stumplefinger

1945-06-15 0

Boogie Woogie

While his wife is away, Frederick Stumplefinger lets his kids go out jitterbugging on a school night, only to have his wife return early. ...
Genre :Comedy, Music

Joseph H. 'Joe' Doakes

1940-01-20 5.4

That Inferior Feeling

Joe Doakes, like most men, is unable to cope with personal emergencies or those in a position of authority (real or imagined). ...
Genre :Comedy

Football Fan

1938-10-07 4.8

How to Watch Football

Humorist Robert Benchley illustrates the fine points of attending an American football game. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1939-05-26 0

Home Early

A businessman goes home early to surprise his family and is treated with suspicion, mostly by his wife's bridge club. ...
Genre :Comedy

Robert Benchley

1945-09-30 5.2

Hollywood Victory Caravan

A girl is desperate to get to Washington D.C. to be with her lonesome brother, a wounded G.I. She persuades Bing Crosby to let her join his caravan. ...
Genre :Music, Comedy

Robert Benchley

1945-09-28 6.1

Duffy's Tavern

The staff of a record factory drown their sorrows at Duffy's Tavern, while the company owner faces threats of bankruptcy. ...
Genre :Comedy, Music

1933-03-31 0

Your Technocracy and Mine

Robert Benchley explains Technocracy with visual aids in his classic befuddled manor. ...
Genre :Comedy

Lecturer Father

1938-07-01 5

How to Raise a Baby

American humorist Robert Benchley provides a comedic look at the difficulty in being a father. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes / Father

1941-05-22 9

The Forgotten Man

Robert Benchley's wry forerunner to "Father of the Bride" detailing his perspective of the upcoming nuptials. ...
Genre :Comedy

Master of Ceremonies

1935-01-01 0

David O. Selznick: Your New Producer

Clip-filled promotional short by MGM Studios celebrating the body of work by producer David O. Selznick. ...
Genre :Documentary

Joe Doakes

1942-06-22 2

Keeping in Shape

Robert Benchley lectures on physical witness in middle age. ...
Genre :

Husband

1941-10-09 7.5

How to Take a Vacation

In this Robert Benchley instructional video, he demonstrates the pitfalls of a homebody husband attempting to take a vacation apart from his wife. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1941-01-24 0

Waiting for Baby

Robert Benchley aims his keen observational skills toward expectant fathers. ...
Genre :Comedy

Zoology Lecturer

1938-07-22 0

The Courtship of the Newt

Robert Benchley revamps his pre-code classic "Sex Life of the Polyp" for a new generation. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1938-05-13 6.5

An Evening Alone

Robert Benchley's everyman spends an evening home alone. ...
Genre :Comedy

City Treasurer Benchley

1938-11-12 6

Opening Day

The City Treasurer stands in for the mayor, throwing out the first pitch on Opening Day. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1939-09-05 4.5

The Day of Rest

Joe Doakes tries to take a day off. ...
Genre :Comedy

Answer Man

1943-12-18 4

No News Is Good News

Robert Benchley answers questions ranging from across the political spectrum. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1939-01-29 3.5

How to Sub-Let

A man fumbles through an apartment sub-let assessment while his wife is away. ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1939-05-12 6

Dark Magic

A man buys a magic set for his son, but the tricks worked better in the store than they do at home. ...
Genre :Comedy

Self

1943-05-21 7

Show-Business at War

A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort. ...
Genre :Documentary

(archive footage)

1976-05-16 6.91

That's Entertainment, Part II

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers. ...
Genre :Documentary, Music

Joe Doakes

1942-01-01 6.5

The Witness

As Joe Doakes is reading the newspaper, he begins to talk to himself. Questioned by his wife, he explains that he is disturbed by the paper's account of the ways that a government investigative commit ...
Genre :Comedy

Joe Doakes

1940-11-08 6.2

The Trouble with Husbands

Benchley, in his own unique way, starts to drive his wife crazy. First he waits until just as she is serving dinner before he goes to wash his hands and shave. Then she sends him to the store for some ...
Genre :Comedy

Sgt. Benchley / Joe Doakes

1941-04-11 4.8

Crime Control

A police officer alerts his audience to the fact that inanimate objects can be as dangerous as human criminals. He then displays several offenders that have recently been brought in. Shoelaces, for ex ...
Genre :Comedy

Robert Benchley

1938-03-16 0

Music Made Simple

Benchley fills in for a music critic on a radio show. His performance is less than stellar. ...
Genre :Comedy

Himself (archive footage)

1987-09-28 6.5

The Ten-Year Lunch

The story of the legendary wits who lunched daily at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the 1920s. The core of the so-called Round Table group included short story and poetry writer Dorothy P ...
Genre :Documentary, TV Movie

Robert Benchley (voice) (archive sound) (uncredited)

2004-05-31 8.8

Walt Disney's Fables - Vol.6

Two classic animated shorts from the Disney studios. In 'The Reluctant Dragon' (1941), a young boy and a famous dragon fighter team up to teach a docile dragon the art of being a force to be reckoned ...
Genre :Animation, Family, Comedy

Joseph Doakes in 'That Inferior Feeling' (archive footage)

1964-09-02 6.3

The Big Parade of Comedy

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history. ...
Genre :Comedy, Documentary

1936-08-05 1

Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs

Winners of the Lucky Stars National Dance Contest - one woman from each state of the United States - are welcomed to Palm Springs. Palm Springs being the desert playground for the movie stars, the wom ...
Genre :

Mr. Benchley

0

The Causes Of The Depression

Mr Benchley first expounded his interesting theory in December 1931, and as it remains the clearest and most searching analysis of the situation yet made we reissue it. ...
Genre :