GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE scheduled on TCM

[Brad from Georgia]

George Washington Slept Here, one of Jack's better films, will appear on TCM on Dec. 19, 10 pm EST. I saw the last broadcast of it on TCM and it is a very crisp print, probably restored, so this time I just may record it.

Probably everyone knows the story behind the movie: GWSH had been on Broadway in 1940 as a Kaufman and Hart play, starring Ernest Truex and Jean Dixon as Newton and Annabelle Fuller, a New York couple. Newton, a history buff, buys a decrepit old farmhouse in which, allegedly, the father of our country once passed a night of slumber. Hilarity ensues as the Fullers try to fix up the place, which would probably better be disposed of with a few gallons of gasoline and a match. Annabelle is furious with her husband for saddling them with the wreck of a house, a neighbor is threatening a lawsuit, the farmhand (Percy Kilbride) who is charged with digging a new well manages to strike only mud, and so on.

When it became a movie vehicle for Jack, he had a brilliant idea: to play off his own character, he took the wife's lines and gave her the husband's. His trademark exasperation brings the show to life. The characters are renamed: Jack is Bill Fuller, his wife (Ann Sheridan) is Connie. The lone Broadway actor still in the cast is Percy Kilbride as Mr. Kimber. He effortlessly broke Jack up with his deadpan delivery (the moment he gets a little schnockered and starts to sing is a gem), and Jack later used him in several radio shows--during which Jack inevitably broke up.

There are a couple of laugh-out-loud moments (Bill Fuller makes a snide reference to a certain bandleader), and although the plot bogs down in improbability and silliness at the very end, the film is pleasant. It's one of my elderly mom's favorites, by the way.[/i]