THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT (1945)

Third string trumpeter, Jack Benny, falls asleep one evening during a live broadcast for Paradise Coffee, "The Coffee that Makes You Sleep".  He dreams that he's an angel in Heaven.  And because the people of Earth are being naughty, Jack has been selected to blow the judgement call on a magic trumpet that will destroy the Earth. He's sent down to Earth on a magic elevator with the instructions to blow the horn at exactly midnight.

Naturally if he did that this wouldn't be much of a movie so all kinds of things stand in his way, including two fallen angels looking to steal his trumpet, two beautiful women, his discovery of food and swing music. Oh yeah, he also gets fired out of a cannon and then later falls off a skyscraper into a cup of coffee.

Overall, I thought it was pretty funny. I giggled a few times and enjoyed myself the entire way through. Benny had a few snappy lines and the story had a few clever moments like the lack of angel power in Heaven, the endless bureaucracy in Heaven and the elevator from Heaven to Earth lands in a hotel, much to the irritation of the guests. My favorite thing though was all the great faces: Jack Benny, Alexis Smith, John Alexander, Guy Kibbee, Allyn Joslyn, Dolores Moran, Mike Mazurki and Franklin Pangborn, plus others! And we can't forget the direction by Raoul Walsh. Check it out.

THE MEANEST MAN IN THE WORLD (1943)

At only 57 minutes long, this might be one of the shortest "feature length" film ever released into theaters.  From what I've read, there were quite a few troubles with the production, so I guess we're lucky we got anything at all!

Jack Benny is a small town lawyer who can't get any clients because he's honest and has a soft heart.  His lack of money doesn't sit well with his fiancee's (Priscilla Lane) father.  He suggests that Benny move to New York City to try and strike it big.  He does and he's an even bigger failure there than he was back home.  Unfortunately, he's been lying to Priscilla and telling her that's he's struck it rich!  He knows that the biggest hindrance to him being a successful lawyer is him being nice, so in an effort to be mean he steals a lollipop from a little kid and as chance would have it a newspaper guy photographs him during the act.  suddenly he's the biggest lawyer in New York, but how long can he keep this mean act up?

The premise has potential, but it's not very funny.  Most of the jokes are stale and the whole thing (not surprisingly) feels rushed and slapped together.  If you're new to Jack Benny you'd be better off watch the previous year's GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE which is much funnier. I'd love to see an extended version of this film, but I doubt it even exists.