The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)

A surreal comedy from Warner Bros., apparently made while studio heads were on vacation. How else do we explain such inspired lunacies as a hotel elevator to heaven, angels with periodic bouts of delirium tremens (likely what the writers were suffering), or a giant coffee service hanging from the side of a skyscraper! Somehow this exotica got from storyboard to screen without the usual deadening hand of studio convention. It's pretty funny too, although the big screen is not the best venue for Jack Benny, whose personal brand of humor shows best on radio or tv. Still, the laughs are there among the general weirdness, and anyone who turns down the sound of the final scene should experience a nightmare of urban existence as frightening as any from vintage film noir, with Benny literally drowning in a sea of caffeine. This is also a chance for men to scope out that heavenly body known as Alexis Smith. Her statuesque bearing was probably a little too stiff for major stardom, but no one ever looked better in a toga or the high fashions of the day. All in all, this inventive little comedy was far ahead of its time, and despite Benny's running radio gag, possesses all the underpinnings of a minor cult classic.

Jack Benny probably could have cut himself some slack over this picture, after all, it was all virtually a dream sequence so none of it had to make any sense. And if his acting was less than exemplary - dream sequence! He looked older than thirty nine - dream sequence! You see, it's easy to blame it all on the dream sequence business.Usually it's this type of picture that irritates me but this time you know it's a dream right up front so you can go along with the premise. The writers put together some clever gimmicks like the hourly twinges endured by Osidro (Allyn Joslyn) and Doremus (John Alexander), along with Slippy Tompkins' Tomcats and Tarzola the Rocket Man. The hotel elevator business was kind of a neat touch too.OK, so it's not Oscar material but who expected that? I always liked jack Benny as a performer, even though I prefer his variety show format and TV sketches. As a member of the Third Phalanx, Fifteenth Cohort, he did a reasonable enough job here to garner a few chuckles. All the rest of it - well, dream sequence.

This movie is very mediocre. Jack Benny isn't used nearly as well as he could be, and the script is very weak. I can't stand any movie that uses the "it was just a dream" cheat to get the hero out of a difficult situation, and this one does it very poorly. We're told at the beginning of the movie it's a dream, and I quickly lost interest from that point onward.On the other hand, Jack Benny made a 1-hour radio version of this movie for The Ford Theater in 1949. That version isn't great; it's like most comedy from that era that hasn't worn as well as those from earlier or later time periods. However, it has a better script, and it is NOT a dream! More importantly, whoever did the update was able to come up with a pretty good ending for a story that sets up an impossible situation (destroying the world isn't typically considered a good ending in a comedy). The radio version's ending was very timely for 1949, and a little sad listening to it today.If you want to hear it, the radio version is relatively easy to locate on the internet. Just search for "The Horn Blows at Midnight" and "Ford Theater", and you should be able to find multiple sites with the mp3.

Angels were an all-too-familiar sight on movie screens during World War II and perhaps audiences had had enough of it by the time this film came along; this is the only valid reason I can think of to explain its resounding box office failure (that resulted in Benny's premature bowing out of the movies) because, otherwise, it's one of his most enjoyable outings. In fact, it's quite an original and delightful comedy-fantasy about Benny (playing a second-grade angel and trumpet player) securing an important assignment (being sent to blow up sinful Planet Earth with his horn at the stroke of midnight) through the machinations of his girlfriend (Alexis Smith) who's secretary to the Chief (Guy Kibbee). Needless to say, he bungles the job when he decides to play Good Samaritan and save a fetching would-be suicide (Dolores Moran) from jumping off the roof of a hotel wherein reside an assortment of colorful characters: smooth-talking crook Reginald Gardiner and his dim-witted bodyguard Mike Mazurki, carousing fallen angels Allyn Joslyn and John Alexander (hilariously suffering an hourly "twinge" for defecting to Earth!) and flustered hotel detective Franklin Pangborn – most of whom, as the appointed hour draws near, end up dangling from the hotel rooftop in the film's wacky climax. Benny spent the rest of his radio and TV career making fun of this movie but, as I said, its maligned reputation is highly undeserved if you ask me!