REVIEW: Charley's Aunt (1941)

Charley's Aunt (1941)

Charley's Aunt began life in 1892 as a British stage play, and has been performed in one form or another basically ever since. At least eleven film versions have been produced around the world. So, given the long-term popularity of this one, I won't bother going into the plot here.

The long and short of it is Oxford University undergraduate Lord Fancourt Babberley is conned into wearing a dress and impersonating fellow student Charley Wykeham's aunt, Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez, a rich widow from Brazil, in order to act as chaperone for two girlfriends. Things get more and more complicated from there, with two different fathers competing for the fake aunt and her money, etc.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone who has ever listened to a good quantity of Jack Benny's radio shows knows he once played Charley's Aunt. There were many gags regarding the costume itself. But it took me until this year to acquire and watch the 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives DVD (2018).

The first few scenes almost made me not watch the rest of it. Jack trying to sound English was, well… sad. Sure enough, after doing a little reading about the original play, I found out that those very scenes were in fact different than the original story, and thankfully things picked up a bit once Jack Benny put on the dress… and that fake accent seemed to fall by the wayside as well!

Most of the casting is good, though Benny does seem a bit out of place at times, as does James Ellison, who also doesn’t pull off being English.  But Benny does an admiral job as Aunt Donna Lucia, especially with the sight gags.  I’m not used to seeing Jack MOVE so much!  I certainly don’t associate him with slapstick. Laird Cregar is convincing as Ellison’s father, but was actually under 30, younger than the man he was playing the father of!  The three female leads (Kay Francis, Anne Baxter, Arleen Whelan) look stunning in their costumes.

If you pay attention, you can almost imagine which scenes could be the beginning and end of on-stage acts, just by the amount of time spent on one set.

Get past the beginning, and you end up with a fun little movie with some good sight gags.

If you would like to watch Charley's Aunt on DVD, the UPC is 024543586173 (20th Century Fox)