ThiefHott Too much of everything

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

bkoganbing Since Brandon Thomas's play Charley's Aunt debuted on the London stage its popularity is unabated to this day. Somewhere in this world there's a stock company doing this material and some actor regaling his audience with the image of that cigar smoking matronly aunt in drag.For an English play this 1941 version boasts a mixed cast of Americans and English players that 20th Century Fox assembled. Purists would surely object to this mixed cast. But Darryl Zanuck in casting Jack Benny in the lead had guaranteed box office with one of the most popular radio stars around. James Ellison and Richard Haydn are trying to make time with a pair of young girls visiting Oxford played by Anne Baxter and Arleen Whelan. They kind of blackmail their roommate Jack Benny into donning the drag he will be using for one of the Oxford theater society plays into being Haydn's long lost aunt from Brazil.Trouble is that the long lost aunt has at the same time turned up in the United Kingdom. Kay Francis for reasons of her own has decided to visit her nephew Richard Haydn at Oxford. After this the story becomes hilariously confusing as both Edmund Gwenn as Baxter's guardian and Laird Cregar as Ellison's father become quite taken with Benny in drag. Think of Joe E. Brown in Some Like It Hot.Gwenn is an old miser who enjoys a rich income being the guardian of Baxter and her fortune. As for Cregar in real life he was three years younger than Ellison his son. But Cregar was a classically trained character actor could play a variety of parts. Back in the day Charles Laughton whose career Cregar's was starting to resemble said that the censor's could never censor the gleam in his eyes. Cregar had an exponential gleam in this and other parts. Sadly he would die within a few years.Probably an English production would capture the entire essence of Charley's Aunt. But the British were never blessed to claim Jack Benny as one of their own.

carver I have also looked for a video of this for years and found it recently at the Forgotten Films web site. (Unfortunately, as of 2008 they seem to have gone out of business) The quality of the print is only fair. It is recorded at EP speed, but clear enough to enjoy the fun. Benny is very droll and Kay Francis looks like she's having a lot of fun. Edmund Gwenn turns in an almost madcap performance as well. Also look for Anne Baxter playing the ingénue. I think this is funnier than the Charlie Ruggles version, though the latter comes pretty close. I recommend the video only with the caveat mentioned above - at least it's a way to view the film. It's about time Fox Movie Channel or TCM finally aired this little stage gem on television, and whoever has the rights to it cleans it up and makes it available .

drednm Lousy copy on CD from ebay that wouldn't play all the way through but from what I could see it looked funny. I've seen the 1930 version starring Charlie Ruggles so I already knew the story.Jack Benny masquerades as Charley's aunt and gets involved in several scrapes while a student at Oxford. Good cast with Jack Benny in one of his best roles. Kay Francis as the real aunt. James Ellison and Richard Haydn as the school friends, Anne Baxter and Arleen Whelan as the girls. Laird Cregar and Edmund Gwenn vie for Benny's hand. Reginald Owen is a professor.Best scene (I could see) had Cregar teasing Benny with a bottle of champagne and spilling it on a table. Benny (in old lady clothes) leaps onto the table to lick up the booze.....Oh well.....

JHW3 I saw this movie about 25 years ago and have never seen it since. I've asked around about it for years, and nobody knows anything about it. Video stores don't carry it, and, of course, the young people who work in these stores have never heard ot it. It stars Jack Benny in what, I believe, is his greatest and funniest movie role. It has stood out in my mind for all these years as a truly hilarious movie, and, when I ran across it in IMDb, I wanted to be sure to add my favorable opinion to the list of comments.