It's in the Bag! (1945)

Am I Missing Something?

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Delightful nonsense, especially for fans of old radio. Searching for loot stashed in one of twelve old chairs amounts to a great plot gimmick. Flea circus Allen better find the right chair or he's up the creek and into debtor's prison. So he's tracking them down one-by-one. That way the screenplay can cycle the cameo'ed stars in and out. Does Allen's old nemesis Jack Benny have the loaded chair or maybe wild man Jerry Colonna or maybe gangster Bill Bendix or maybe even cantankerous Mrs. Nussbaum from "Allen's Alley". Meanwhile, Allen's lawyer Carradine's got his own plans and they don't include the flea circus impresario. And what about gangster Bill Bendix. Wow, with all that happening, Allen better flee the movie set and get back to the safety of radio home base, and fast.The baggy eyed comedian is excellent throughout, showing he could do visual comedy as well as the audio kind. I was hoping for a crab-fest between him and legendary rival Benny. But miserly Benny's only interested in how fast his cash registers can empty Allen's pockets. At least he does it in friendly fashion. And catch Minerva Pious, not exactly a household name, as the pint-sized Nussbaum. She's a real hoot. And catch Allen ping-ponging in the packed theater. Movies were big during the war, so the crowds are likely no exaggeration. However, I'm mystified by Gloria Pope as Allen's erstwhile wife Marion. Pope's quite good, and I would think qualified for a Hollywood career. But this was one of only two movie appearances (IMDB), along with no bio info. So I'm mystified as to what happened. Anyway, the 90-minutes amounts to a delightful spoof that racks up a number of audience asides. Especially, that very last one. Meanwhile, I'm leaving really early next time I go to the movie theatre. Maybe they'll even be showing Zombie In The Attic.

War era radio audiences got a laugh or two out of the Fred Allen/Jack Benny feud, and in this, Allen's only sole-starring film, he gets to not only slam his chincy rival but go after a few other top celebrities as well. A distant uncle leaves Allen his estate and the down-on-his-luck flea circus owner must trace down five chairs (as opposed to Mel Brook's 12) to find it after the uncle is murdered. A slew of wacky characters and sketches get in his way which includes a Hollywood Bowl sized movie theatre without even a single seat available, a group of "has-beens" (Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee and Victor Moore) reduced to singing (along with Allen) in a barbershop quartet, William Bendix as a health-obsessed gangster (by the same name) and Jerry Colonna as a wacky doctor. The sketches come fast and furious, some really like the goose that laid the golden egg, others just laying there waiting to rot.Binnie Barnes is truly funny as Allen's put-upon wife with tons of wisecracks, Robert Benchley an inventor with a wacky mouse trap, and John Carradine as the uncle's sinister estate lawyer. The Benny sequence will have you in stitches and make you wish that there was more of him. Some of the humor seems truly fresh and original, others seem older than vaudeville. A true "popcorn" movie, you won't be disappointed, but you won't be sore from laughing too much, either.

Well, actually more like an "Uncle Scrooge" adventure turned into a movie, with acerbic Fred Allen subbing for Carl Barks' peripatetic miser, running into, across and over a panoply of bizarre characters in search of (what else, Uncle Scrooge?) a lost fortune. "Bag" offers the usual Barks-type exotic locales -- there's a byzantine movie theater that seems deliberately Disney-esque -- and colorful characters, here embodied by some surprising Hollywood figures (Rudy Vallee, Don Ameche, Jerry Colonna, etc,)The inevitable encounter with jack Benny is funny enough, but my favorite cameo here was etched by John Carradine as an organ-playing arch-villain, complete with cape and top-hat. Not to be missed!

"It's in the Bag" is pretty obscure, but it's very funny. I am a big fan of old radio comedy shows, and thus was interested in seeing Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and other OTR personalities in a movie. Jerry Colonna as a nutty psychiatrist is the funniest role in the movie. Lots of good typical one-liners from Allen, and the opening, featuring Allen making sarcastic comments about the credits as they appear on the screen, was, I presume, a very original idea for a 1940s movie. If your local video store has this movie and you want some good laughs, check this one out.