Wikipedia: "Athanael (Jack Benny), the third trumpet player in the orchestra of a late night radio show sponsored by Paradise Coffee... falls asleep listening to the announcer, who is doing his best to prove it is 'the coffee that makes you sleep.' Athanael dreams he is an angel (junior grade) and a trumpeter in the orchestra of Heaven.... [H]e is given the mission of destroying planet 339001 (Earth) and its troublesome inhabitants by blowing the 'Last Trumpet' at exactly midnight, signaling the end of the world...."
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46 comments:
Is ‘warneriot’ a pun? What is this? I thought it might be a movie but no…
Benny classic,
"Your money or your life!"
"I'm thinking it over!"
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3medZdEBcTg
Wait- is the radio guy stealing a tag line? Cock full o nits is that ‘heavenly’ coffee…which came first?
nuts
I'm gunna watch it. It's gotta be better than Supergirl.
Chock full o nits is Hell…
I remember watching this on Teh Late Show--movies broadcast after the 15 minute 10pm local news. Of course, we could only watch on non-school nights.
The big coffee cup was cool.
I assume they did Sunday - Thursday too but have no memory of it, nor when the old movies were replaced by Carson et. al. in this market.
I heard the radio play recently on Sirius classics. I loved it.
Also loved Jack Benny in "To Be or Not to Be."
Yeah, probably. I like old movies and never heard of it.
The poster is really trying to sell it. Jack Benny is humping that baritone horn while Dolores Moran looks enticing. Is Alexis Smith dancing or trying to scare somebody?
Wikipedia says it was Jack Benny's last lead role. The movie flopped and its failure became a running joke on Benny's radio and television shows.
The write-up reminded me of "Gabriel Over the White House" (1933) another fantasy, this time politically oriented, that came out the month FDR took office.
To be or not to be.
Yeah, I saw it. Either on TV or on DVD/VHS. I remember thinking "Oh Jack Benny was in movies?" and it was pleasant but entirely forgettable. When I learned it was last Benny's movie, I wasn't shocked.
He had a great comic persona for Radio/TV which didn't translate on film. I always thought "To be or Not to be" would've been 10x better with Bob Hope. But the script is so good, Benny doesn't ruin it.
You'd think these sorts of films would be on Youtube in their entirety but I suppose some hollywood exec thinks he can get 5 extra cents by keeping it under copyright.
Benny also made "George Washington Slept Here," about a Manhattan couple who move to the country. "Inspiration" for Bob Newhart's innkeeper series.
They used to do abridged versions of movies for presentation on radio. Here's an hour-long Horn Blows at Midnight:
https://youtu.be/AHa2R0r1FV4?is=5sYgsNmb497hoQee
I thought they stole the "heavenly coffee" line from the Chock Full o Nuts jingle, but that came out a decade later. The line in the jingle "better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy" was originally "better coffee a Rockefeller's money can't buy," but someone from the family objected and it was changed -- an indication of how famous and how powerful the family was back then.
Haven’t seen this one, but sounds like I need to.
My buddies and I did the same thing with 1941’s “Tobacco Road” (Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Ward Bond)… we memorized dialogue lines and antics of Jeeter Lester and Dude Lester. As funny as that dramedy was, after we smoka da spliff, it was a laugh riot.
“You'd think these sorts of films would be on Youtube in their entirety”
The TV remake is on Youtube.
One of my father's favorite movies. One of the UHF channels had a Sunday Afternoon Movie. About once every other year they'd have on The Horn Blows at Midnight. Saw him watching that film at least half-dozen times.
I guess, in his memory, I should go watch it for myself.
"Is ‘warneriot’ a pun? What is this? I thought it might be a movie but no…"
Warner Brothers + Laugh Riot = Warneriot?
Tuba, mirum spargens sonum
Per sepulchra regionum,
Coget omnes ante thronum
Yes I love that movie when I was a little kid. I waited years for it to come on TV again, but when I did it seemed kind of stupid. I'd give it another chance.
I haven't seen the movie (yet) but recall many references to it on Benny's radio and TV shows.
It seems that To Be or Not To Be disappeared from view until after Jack Benny died. He had been doing jokes on his radio show,about how he held the ladder while Clark Gable eloped with Carole Lombard, which of course stopped abruptly.
"You'd think these sorts of films would be on Youtube in their entirety but I suppose some hollywood exec thinks he can get 5 extra cents by keeping it under copyright."
Warner Bros. is a publicly traded company with a responsibility to make a profit. Its stock price has doubled for its investors in the past year.
But sure, tell us all about how "Hollywood execs" love their nickels. We always get what you mean.
"To Be or Not to Be" is a great movie. Loved it when I first saw it (in my college years) and watched it again pretty recently. Surprised I didn't blog about it, but for some reason I don't naturally blog a movie. Seems like a big project!
Apropos of nothing, Alexis Smith is from Penticton, Britih Columbia, in the Okanagan Velley wine district, and where they have an annual Peach Fest.
I likely watched it on WCAU, Philadelphia, circa 1966. Not sure it was at night, though. 'CAU ran a movie every day at 4? 5, maybe, that used "The Syncopated Clock" as the theme song. Saw many a movie that way. I thought that was billed as "The Early Show." (Saw many an old movie via the Bernie Herman-hosted show that ran in the afternoons. Channel 17 (WPHL), if I recall. He'd present the movie and provide commentary prior to commercial breaks much like that fellow on TMC. I learned a lot about Hollywood and movies that way. Then I'd deliver the daily newspaper. Good times!)
The running joke on the Benny radio show was that The Horn Blows at Midnight was the worst movie ever made, and it almost put Warner Bros. out of business.
Benny had a remarkable sense of allowing the comedy to be about him and his many foibles, ot at least those of the vain, stingy, egocentric character he created. Just as remarkable, his character was still mostly likeable.
If you only know Jack Benny from TV or movies, his radio show is a revelation, far better than his other efforts. Despite his later reputation for sight comedy in his reactions and takes, the radio show permitted the other characters around him to shine. The radio humor was in the mind's eye, and could not be duplicated visually.
Saw this when I was a kid and bought the dvd a over a decade ago. Loved the animated coffee sign.
I'm an old man and I have fond memories of his radio show. I'm the last surviving generation of those who listened to radio shows like the Lone Ranger, Gangbusters, and Jack Benny.. Even Top 40 DJ's are now a fading memory.......I do remember him joking about the failure of that movie. I did see the movie one time. I don't remember anything about it except the fact that it was pretty lame. Well, Jack Benny made one great movie which is one more than most people make......When the horn blows at midnight, I would think a tuba would be more appropriate than a bugle, but, if you're playing it for laughs maybe the slide trombone has more potential.
I'm in. I've never heard of the movie, but it looks interesting enough, if in an old 1940s way.
That’s what you get when you cast a violinist as a trumpet player.
I love old footage of everyone dressed up for a radio show…
I looked at the poster and wondered who are Jack Alexis and Benny Smith. Never heard of them.
How seriously fun, Althouse!
I didn't see it when you did, of course, but I did see it decades later, when it was released on videotape and I was working part-time at an independently owned video store. I enjoyed it, but hadn't thought of it in many years until you brought it up today.
You may very well already know this, but for anyone else who might be interested, these days people can stream it on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) or rent it on Amazon Prime.
Thanks for the smile and chuckle! Rough day today, but this really provided a lift.
Regards,
Lori (reader_iam)
As Wilbur noted, the radio program was the epitome of Jack Benny's comic genius. This link goes to the October 10, 1948 show when Benny's pals come over to listen to the World Series on the radio. One of the funniest episodes ever, and I've listened to all 932. Frank Nelson is manic and hilarious as the ballgame announcer. This episode contains all the established foibles of every cast member, a characteristic multi-episode gag with repeated clever callbacks throughout the program, and the perfrect comic timing of everyone from the stars to the sound man. Something to listen to that makes you laugh out loud.
https://youtu.be/s8MPP-RKNM8?is=eWzV_13IRvrj1Wi3
“ I love the poster, but that's not a trumpet.”
It looks like a poster for a really bad horror movie.
“ [H]e is given the mission of destroying planet 339001 (Earth) and its troublesome inhabitants by blowing the 'Last Trumpet' at exactly midnight, signaling the end of the world...."
Is that midnight EST, PST, or UTC?
…what do you think last year’s Warneriot was?
"…what do you think last year’s Warneriot was?"
Arsenic and Old Lace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_and_Old_Lace_(film)
"I'm an old man and I have fond memories of his radio show. I'm the last surviving generation of those who listened to radio shows like the Lone Ranger, Gangbusters, and Jack Benny.."
The archive.org website has thousands of episodes of old radio shows - comedy, suspense, westerns, etc. They're pretty well-organized:
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Home_Page
Youtube probably has most of these, but I think in more scattered locations.
Two-eyed Jack said...
I looked at the poster and wondered who are Jack Alexis and Benny Smith. Never heard of them.
Good to know I wasn’t the only one to wonder that.
YouTube: Stay with the video I promise it’s relevant to this here post.
I'll put it on my list of shame if only for Benny's exquisite comic timing.
You can stream To Be Or Not To Be on the Criterion Channel or buy the disk from the Criterion Collection.
I was born in 1945. Listening to Jack Benny on our car radio, coming back from our ritual "Sunday drive" was a sacred tradition, with everyone laughing uproariously at his martini dry humor. I saw this on tv sometime before '54 when we moved (I remember the den in which it was televised). At that age I was easily amused, but I loved it.
Looking at the poster, I thought the stars were Jack Alexis and Benny Smith, and thought, "Who the hell are these guys...?"
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