Mon 4 Jan 2016
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: IT’S IN THE BAG (1945).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[14] Comments
IT’S IN THE BAG. United Artists, 1945. Fred Allen, Binnie Barnes, Gloria Pope, William Terry, Richard Tyler, John Carradine and Sydney Toler. Also featuring appearances from Minerva Pious (as Mrs. Nussbaum) Jerry Colonna, Robert Benchley, Rudy Vallee, Victor Moore, William Bendix, Don Ameche and Jack Benny. Written by Lewis R. Foster, Fred Allen, Alma Reville (!) and Morrie Ryskind, from the novel Двенадцать Ñтульев, or Dvenadtsat stulyev (The Twelve Chairs) by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov. Directed by Richard Wallace.
Credits like those above are going to get my word count off to a healthy start for the New Year, but that’s not my only reason for mentioning this neglected treasure. It’s in the Bag is a fast-moving and witty little comedy with moments of surrealism to rival Hellzapoppin.
The “Twelve Chairs†plot is probably familiar to most readers by now, but to briefly recap, Flea Circus impresario Fred Floogle (Allen) inherits a fortune, only to find that crooked lawyer John Carradine has pilfered it down to five chairs and a phonograph record. Floogle sends the chairs to be sold at an auction house, then learns from the phonograph record that there’s a fortune hidden in one of them.
Zaniness ensues (as they say) as Floogle and his long-suffering family (Binnie Barnes, Gloria Pope and Richard Tyler) track down, chase down, and sometimes wrestle down the new owners to recover their fortune, dogged relentlessly by the sinister Carradine and a tough police detective (Sydney Toler.)
The turns by the Guest Stars here are consistently funny, and Jack Benny’s scene is a true delight, but to their credit, the troop of writers didn’t just sit back and let the thespians carry the load; Bag teems with clever lines and enough off-the-wall weirdness to give the viewer laughter and double-takes in equal measure. There’s a scene in an art deco movie palace (showing Zombies in the Attic) of Kafkaesque hilarity, and an action-packed musical interlude at a nightclub that just about defines fast-paced movie-making.
I have to say, though, that my favorite treat in the Bag is John Carradine’s splendidly crooked lawyer, a generous portion of old-fashioned Ham served up splendidly by Carradine and director Richard Wallace, who lets his bad guy stalk about in a top hat and cape, and indulge in sinister organ solos when not cheating widows and robbing orphans. It’s the perfect straight-faced complement for a film rich in laughs, and one I’ll recall fondly years hence.
January 4th, 2016 at 10:31 pm
Yep. It’s a real insight into 1940s comedy and that’s no joke, son; that’s no joke.
January 4th, 2016 at 11:29 pm
This one should have made Allen a major film comedy staple, but seems to have missed its audience. It is nice to see it appreciated here though. It really is a delightful film.
January 5th, 2016 at 1:03 am
In recent years, It’s In The Bag seems to have picked up a belated “cult” reputation.
The late British film historian Leslie Halliwell gave it a whole essay in his collection Halliwell’s Harvest; it’s loaded with caveats, mainly based on the fact that Fred Allen was not as well known outside the USA as some of the other players in the movie were.
Allen’s appearance wasn’t exactly “photogenic” in the conventional sense. His early death in 1956 caused him to “disappear” from even American consciousness far too soon (he was 61 years old – four years younger than I am now).
This was what an “independent” movie was in the mid ’40s; Jack Skirball was unaffiliated with a major studio – his best known credit was probably Hitchcock’s Saboteur (which might account for Alma Reville’s involvement with this one).
I finally got to see this when Olive Films put out the DVD. It’s all good, but the highlight is Fred Allen’s commentary on the opening credits. Halliwell quotes this almost in its entirety, but you really have to hear Fred’s sing-song drawl to get the full effect.
“Obscurity” is an awful word to use here, but when just about the only things you can see Fred Allen in these days are 60+ year-old What’s My Line?s on digital substations …
Oh well, if you haven’t got It’s In The Bag – get it.
January 5th, 2016 at 1:16 am
Back with a clarification of the writing credits:
– The “original story” is credited to Fred Allen and Lewis R. Foster, who was mainly a director (wild guess: Foster was likely the original director, but lost the gig somewhere along the line).
The screenplay credit goes to Jay Dratler and Alma Reville, both with experience in comedy-mysteries.
Morrie Ryskind, friend/collaborator to George S. Kaufman, the Marx Brothers, et al., gets a separate card for “special contribution” to the production (Fred’s explanation of the “contribution” is a highlight of his credits spiel).
I’m fairly sure that the two Russian guys got cut out of the deal. It happens.
January 5th, 2016 at 2:30 pm
I see that this film was reviewed on MYSTERY FILE by Walter Albert in 2011. Everybody liked it back then also.
January 5th, 2016 at 3:53 pm
Yes, you’re right, Walker. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=12939
It never hurts to tout a good movie a second time!
January 5th, 2016 at 4:19 pm
Yes, it sounds so good that I ordered the dvd on amazon just now.
January 5th, 2016 at 4:25 pm
I beat you to it. I ordered it last night. (It took this second review to really attract my attention.)
January 5th, 2016 at 7:26 pm
As revealed in HITCH Alma Reville often worked as a script doctor when not working on her husbands films, and may have started out doing that here. She was appreciated in Hollywood for just that.
Many writers who seem to have relatively few credits were successful script doctors. Max Brand was the best paid writer in Hollywood for doing that but has few direct screen credits. Before HARPER, William Goldman was also known mostly as a script doctor.
January 5th, 2016 at 9:34 pm
A quick take from 2009:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2009/08/10-forgotten-films.html
I’ll believe it’s Allen’s best film (what little I caught once of LOVE THY NEIGHBOR sadly didn’t suggest that it would dislodge this nor TO BE OR NOT TO BE from that spot for Allen or Benny)…but the radio shows are still happily available, many of them, in various fora…and we do have his two memoirs and his letters collection.
January 5th, 2016 at 9:39 pm
And I like it better than the Brooks TWELVE CHAIRS, though that one’s pleasant (and also probably didn’t provide too many rubles to the original authors)…
January 5th, 2016 at 10:26 pm
In my review of THANKS A MILLION, I quoted Fred Allen as possibly saying: “I have the perfect face for radio.â€
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=34929
January 5th, 2016 at 11:12 pm
You know, it finally dawns on me that Brooks remade TO BE as well as doing his own 12 CHAIRS…well, he knows who to follow.
January 5th, 2016 at 11:52 pm
And not to overhype my blog, but this was a most heartfelt tribute to Fred Allen’s passage…the night before he was due to be on his regular gig on WHAT’S MY LINE?:
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2015/12/two-tributaries-to-our-overlooked.html