Robert Benchley

Born: 1889-09-14

Robert Benchley (September 15, 1889 - November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, a newspaper columnist and an actor.


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I Married a Witch

as Dr. Dudley White
Released: 1942-10-30

A 17th-century witch returns to wreak havoc in the life of a descendant of the Puritan witch...

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Foreign Correspondent

as Stebbins
Released: 1940-08-16

American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover...

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The Reluctant Dragon

as Robert Benchley
Released: 1941-06-19

Humorist Robert Benchley attempts to find Walt Disney to ask him to adapt a short story about a...

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The Pixar Story

as Robert Benchley (archive footage)
Released: 2007-08-28

A look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios - from the success of "Toy Story" and...

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Walt Disney's Fables - Vol.6

as Robert Benchley (archive sound)
Released: 2004-05-31

Two classic animated shorts from the Disney studios. In 'The Reluctant Dragon' (1941), a young...

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You'll Never Get Rich

as Martin Cortland
Released: 1941-09-25

A Broadway choreographer gets drafted and coincidentally ends up in the same army base as the...

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The Ten-Year Lunch

as Himself (archive footage)
Released: 1987-09-28

The story of the legendary wits who lunched daily at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during...

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The Major and the Minor

as Albert Osborne
Released: 1942-09-16

Returning to her hometown from New York, Susan Applegate learns that she hasn't enough for the...

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Dancing Lady

as Ward King
Released: 1933-11-24

Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton,...

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Live, Love and Learn

as Oscar
Released: 1937-10-29

A starving, uncompromising artist and an heiress fall in love on first sight and immediately get...

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Road to Utopia

as Narrator
Released: 1946-02-27

While on a ship to Skagway, Alaska, Duke and Chester find a map to a secret gold mine, which had...

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The Sky's the Limit

as Philip 'Phil' Harriman
Released: 1943-07-13

Flying Tiger Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and...

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That's Entertainment, Part II

as (archive footage)
Released: 1976-05-16

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time...

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Flesh and Fantasy

as Doakes
Released: 1943-10-29

Anthology film of three tales of the supernatural. The first story is set at the Mardi Gras in...

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China Seas

as Charlie McCaleb
Released: 1935-08-09

Captain Alan Gaskell sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret...

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Show-Business at War

as Self
Released: 1943-05-21

A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.

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Practically Yours

as Judge Robert Simpson
Released: 1944-12-20

In this screwball comedy a WW2 US pilot bombs a Japanese aircraft carrier, is assumed to be...

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Hollywood Victory Caravan

as Robert Benchley
Released: 1945-09-30

A girl is desperate to get to Washington D.C. to be with her lonesome brother, a wounded G.I....

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Song of Russia

as Hank Higgins
Released: 1944-02-10

American conductor John Meredith and his manager, Hank Higgins, go to Russia shortly before the...

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See Your Doctor

as Lecturer / Joseph H. Doakes
Released: 1939-12-16

A lecturer tells the audience that it is National Take Care Week. He tells the story of a man...

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Showbiz Goes to War

as (archive footage)
Released: 1982-12-31

While a few Hollywood celebrities such as James Stewart and Clark Gable saw combat during World...

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Pan-Americana

as Charlie Corker
Released: 1945-03-22

A New York magazine sends its editors to South America to find beautiful girls.

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Hired Wife

as Roger Van Horn
Released: 1940-09-13

Ad man Stephen Dexter asks his secretary Kendall to marry him as a loophole in order to protect...

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How to Be a Detective

as Mr. Benchley
Released: 1936-10-17

This Robert Benchley 'How To' comedy short attempts to teach us how to profile criminals by...

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Kiss and Tell

as George Archer
Released: 1945-10-04

Film adaptation of the Broadway hit, about the comic mayhem that erupts in a small town when a...

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Social Register

as Robert Benchley
Released: 1934-03-10

Chorus girl Patsy Shaw crashes a high-society party, meets playboy Charlie Breen, they fall in...

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Broadway Melody of 1938

as Duffy
Released: 1937-08-20

Steve Raleight wants to produce a show on Broadway. He finds a backer, Herman Whipple and a...

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See Here, Private Hargrove

as Mr. Holliday
Released: 1944-03-18

Journalist Marion Hargrove enters the Army intending to supplement his income by writing about...

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The Stork Club

as Tom P. Curtis
Released: 1945-12-28

Director Hal Walker's 1945 musical comedy stars Betty Hutton as a hat-check girl at New York...

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Why Daddy?

as Joseph A. Doakes
Released: 1944-05-20

When Joe Doakes listens to a quiz show on the radio and knows all the answers, his wife...

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Her Primitive Man

as Martin Osborne
Released: 1944-05-29

An anthropologist unwittingly takes a man disguised as a "primitive man" back to New York as a...

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Nice Girl?

as Prof. Oliver Wendel Holmes Dana
Released: 1941-02-21

Jane is a nice girl and has had her eyes on a young man who seems more interested in his...

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How to Vote

as Mr. Robert Benchley
Released: 1936-09-04

A candidate has laryngitis, so his assistant must make a speech in his place. Both the speaker...

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How to Watch Football

as Football Fan
Released: 1938-10-07

Humorist Robert Benchley illustrates the fine points of attending an American football game.

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How to Figure Income Tax

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1938-03-01

A man humorously attempts to give an overview of income taxes.

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Take a Letter, Darling

as G.B. Atwater
Released: 1942-05-06

A struggling painter takes a job as a secretary to a female advertising executive. While working...

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Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs

as uncredited
Released: 1936-08-05

Winners of the Lucky Stars National Dance Contest - one woman from each state of the United...

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Piccadilly Jim

as Bill Macon
Released: 1936-08-14

Jim's father wants to marry Eugenia, but her sister Netta refuses to allow it. When Jim sees Ann...

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Dark Magic

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1939-05-12

A man buys a magic set for his son, but the tricks worked better in the store than they do at home.

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How to Sub-Let

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1939-01-29

A man fumbles through an apartment sub-let assessment while his wife is away.

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Bedtime Story

as Eddie Turner
Released: 1941-12-25

A Braodway playwright wants to keep on writing plays for his wife to star in, but all she wants...

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Rafter Romance

as Hubbell
Released: 1933-09-01

A working girl shares her apartment with an artist, taking the place in shifts.

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The Sport Parade

as Radio Announcer
Released: 1932-11-11

Two Dartmouth football players fall in love with the same girl following college graduation.

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That Inferior Feeling

as Joseph H. 'Joe' Doakes
Released: 1940-01-20

Joe Doakes, like most men, is unable to cope with personal emergencies or those in a position of...

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How to Read

as Lecturer
Released: 1938-08-27

Robert Benchley offers a humorous lecture on how to avoid different types of strain during reading.

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A Night at the Movies

as Husband
Released: 1937-11-06

A Night at the Movies is a short film starring Robert Benchley. It was Benchley's greatest...

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Music Made Simple

as Robert Benchley
Released: 1938-03-16

Benchley fills in for a music critic on a radio show. His performance is less than stellar.

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Duffy's Tavern

as Robert Benchley
Released: 1945-09-28

The staff of a record factory drown their sorrows at Duffy's Tavern, while the company owner...

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The Sex Life of the Polyp

as Lecturer
Released: 1928-07-25

Dr. Benchley is addressing the Ladies Club on the subject of the reproductive habits of the...

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Snafu

as Ben Stevens
Released: 1945-11-22

A 14-year-old boy lies about his age and enlists in the United State Marine Corps without his...

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It's in the Bag!

as Parker
Released: 1945-04-21

The ringmaster of a flea circus inherits a fortune...if he can find which chair it's hidden in.

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Hollywood: The Selznick Years

as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: 1961-12-31

Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O....

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Young and Willing

as Arthur Kenny
Released: 1943-02-05

For those, if any, who have wondered why so many Paramount contractees appeared in United...

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Janie Gets Married

as John Van Brunt
Released: 1946-06-22

Newlywed Janie's (Joan Leslie) World War II-veteran husband (Robert Hutton) goes to work at her...

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The Bride Wore Boots

as Uncle Todd Warren
Released: 1946-06-05

A bookish husband tries to win back the affections of his horse-breeding wife.

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The Witness

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1942-01-01

As Joe Doakes is reading the newspaper, he begins to talk to himself. Questioned by his wife, he...

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Home Movies

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1940-02-17

A comedy short staring Robert Benchley. He tries to show us how to make our own movies.

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An Hour for Lunch

as Lecturer / Joe
Released: 1939-03-17

Benchley shows how to budget one's time during lunch hour to get things done efficiently....

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Week-End at the Waldorf

as Randy Morton
Released: 1945-10-04

Anything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets...

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How to Eat

as Lecturer / Joe Doakes
Released: 1939-06-10

Humorist Robert Benchley discusses the issue of food and how different situations can affect...

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How to Start the Day

as Lecturer
Released: 1937-11-11

Benchley tries his best to demonstrate the routine one should follow to start the day right.

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Syncopation

as Doakes (scenes deleted)
Released: 1942-05-22

A young trumpeter rises through the jazz world and finds love.

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Mental Poise

as Psychoanalyst / Mr. Ostegraf
Released: 1938-12-10

In this comedic short, a psychoanalyst encounters a patient who eerily resembles himself.

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Headline Shooter

as Radio Announcer
Released: 1933-07-28

A newsreel photographer neglects his love life to get the perfect shot.

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The Big Parade of Comedy

as Joseph Doakes in 'That Inferior Feeling' (archive footage)
Released: 1964-09-02

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

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Three Girls About Town

as Wilburforce Puddle, hotel manager
Released: 1941-10-23

Faith and Hope Banner, sisters, are "convention hostesses" in a hotel. A body is discovered next...

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Sunday Night at the Trocadero

as Robert Benchley
Released: 1937-10-02

A series of vignettes with a loose plot. Featured are Frank Morgan, Groucho Marx, Frank McHugh,...

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How to Sleep

as Host / Narrator
Released: 1935-09-14

A lecturer seated at a desk promises an informative film about how to sleep; it's a sequel to...

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How to Behave

as Mr. Benchley
Released: 1936-04-25

Two men working below a manhole cover wonder what they would do if a woman was to fall in. This...

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The Day of Rest

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1939-09-05

Joe Doakes tries to take a day off.

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The Trouble with Husbands

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1940-11-08

Benchley, in his own unique way, starts to drive his wife crazy. First he waits until just as...

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How to Train a Dog

as Lecturer / Dog Owner
Released: 1936-07-01

This comedic short provides a lesson in how NOT to train a dog.

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How to Raise a Baby

as Lecturer Father
Released: 1938-07-01

American humorist Robert Benchley provides a comedic look at the difficulty in being a father.

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Janie

as John Van Brunt
Released: 1944-09-02

Teenage Janie falls in love with a private from an Army base opposed by her editor father.

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Nothing But Nerves

as Mr. Benchley
Released: 1942-01-02

After some investigation, Robert Benchley finds his nerves are in a bad state. He has the...

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Home Early

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1939-05-26

A businessman goes home early to surprise his family and is treated with suspicion, mostly by...

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The Forgotten Man

as Joe Doakes / Father
Released: 1941-05-22

Robert Benchley's wry forerunner to "Father of the Bride" detailing his perspective of the...

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My Tomato

as Joseph A. Doakes
Released: 1943-12-04

Joe Doakes is lamenting to his wife the lack of variety in his meals. In particular, he misses...

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The Romance of Digestion

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1937-03-13

A brief, illustrated lecture on digestion. Aburdist humor is the hallmark of this...

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Crime Control

as Sgt. Benchley / Joe Doakes
Released: 1941-04-11

A police officer alerts his audience to the fact that inanimate objects can be as dangerous as...

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Opening Day

as City Treasurer Benchley
Released: 1938-11-12

The City Treasurer stands in for the mayor, throwing out the first pitch on Opening Day.

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Boogie Woogie

as Frederick Stumplefinger
Released: 1945-06-15

While his wife is away, Frederick Stumplefinger lets his kids go out jitterbugging on a school...

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The Courtship of the Newt

as Zoology Lecturer
Released: 1938-07-22

Robert Benchley revamps his pre-code classic "Sex Life of the Polyp" for a new generation.

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Important Business

as Joseph A. Doakes
Released: 1944-04-29

Robert takes a train ride to Washington, DC, on "important business."

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Waiting for Baby

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1941-01-24

Robert Benchley aims his keen observational skills toward expectant fathers.

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An Evening Alone

as Joe Doakes
Released: 1938-05-13

Robert Benchley's everyman spends an evening home alone.

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