Jack makes the list of famous movie flops!

[Brad from Georgia]

...and it isn't what you would expect, I'll bet. Check out number twenty in Cinema's 50 Greatest Flops.

But if you're looking it up at midnight, you needn't bother listening for the sound of a horn.[/url]

[Mister Kitzel]

Well, did the movie make money or not when it came out?

[Jack Benny]

...and it isn't what you would expect, I'll bet. Check out number twenty in Cinema's 50 Greatest Flops.

But if you're looking it up at midnight, you needn't bother listening for the sound of a horn.[/url]

Quite a quote from the same article. "Arguably the funniest film ever made." I mean I love Jack and this movie, but even I wouldn't go that far.

[Maxwell]

...and it isn't what you would expect, I'll bet. Check out number twenty in Cinema's 50 Greatest Flops.

But if you're looking it up at midnight, you needn't bother listening for the sound of a horn.[/url]

Quite a quote from the same article. "Arguably the funniest film ever made." I mean I love Jack and this movie, but even I wouldn't go that far.

I tend to agree, but as political satire, it's right up there with Dr. Strangelove.

[Brad from Georgia]

Oddly, the article missed the major reason (in my opinion at least) for the film's not being successful on its initial release: the lovely Carole Lombard died in a plane crash in mid-January, 1942, and when the film hit the theaters in early March, the audience still vividly remembered a stricken, grieving Clark Gable (and many Benny fans probably still had strong memories of Jack's cancelling a broadcast because the death hit him so hard). No wonder few felt like laughing.

[helloagain]

I love Jack on radio and TV and in most of his movies. However, I believe the critics and the picture going public were right about 'The horn blows at midnight'. I think it's a dozer.

[Maxwell]

"The Horn Blows at Midnight" wasn't as bad as Jack and his writers made it out to be. HOWEVER, the ending was all physical comedy with the obvious use of a double for Jack. It was the antithesis of Jack's humor. This is similar to the misfire in "The Big Store" with stunt doubles on roller skates dressed up like the Marx Brothers.

[Brad from Georgia]

"The Horn Blows at Midnight" wasn't as bad as Jack and his writers made it out to be. HOWEVER, the ending was all physical comedy with the obvious use of a double for Jack. It was the antithesis of Jack's humor. This is similar to the misfire in "The Big Store" with stunt doubles on roller skates dressed up like the Marx Brothers.

Agreed. The shortened radio version of the plot is actually enjoyable, though it ends in a sentimental way. But then maybe hoping for a world living in peace isn't sentimental, exactly. It's a sweet version, though, dispensing with the frame device--Jack plays Athaniel as an actual angel, not in a dream-within-the story.