Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

angie-973-138516 I purchased this DVD on a chance. What an absolute delight. I had never seen Fred Allen perform nor heard his radio programs. He is absolutely hilarious, as are all the writers who contributed to this hidden gem. It begins with Allen commenting to the movie audience as the beginning credits roll. He comments about the names and how common they are, that they are a bunch of nobodys and these names can be found in any phone book. It's just plain interesting and unique from the get-go. I laughed aloud many times. I will be looking for other movies by this director and the writers. I am excited to go off on a new tangent with the comedian Fred Allen. I look forward to finding some Fred Allen radio broadcasts to listen to as well!

JLRMovieReviews Fred Allen is the ringmaster in a flea circus, until he inherits a fortune (and he needed it badly - but of course who doesn't), from a relative, who is murdered, but not before, the old man hid $300,000.00 in the seat cushion of a chair. Fred is told by the old man's friends (ha!) that there is no money (they squandered it all,) but he is bequeathed five chairs. Only after he has sold them to a furniture dealer for $300, does he get a record which the old man recorded stating that in one of them is $300,000.00! Apparently, they were sold instantly, and now he has to find that chair! This is a precursor to the Mel Brooks film The Twelve Chairs, but I believe that story was from a much older source. There is a scene much later on, that is similar to and is a precursor to Some Like It Hot. Binnie Barnes costars as his wife, who's grew tired of the life as a flea-master's wife a long time ago, and his boy is a real character, with supposedly the gift of a retentive memory. Then, there are a slew of cameos to look for: Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee, Victor Moore, William Bendix, and Sidney Toler, as a detective in a parody of his most famous role, that of Charlie Chan. But maybe the highlight of the whole film is the footage of Jack Benny, who once again is made fun of for being cheap. We see him first, as he has the first chair. Upon getting there, Fred Allen has to pay a check-girl to hold his hat (Fred says "only Jack Benny could think of a thing like that.") and has to use a cigarette machine in Jack's apartment for a cigarette! Then, when Jack refuses to give him the chair, he agrees to rent it to him! What a guy! (But in real life, Jack Benny wasn't like that at all. If he had been, he probably wouldn't have found any humor in being that way in films. He was known for his generosity to charities, for his own self-deprecating humor, and for letting other comedians get a laugh as well. Most comedians don't like their thunder taken from them, or a joke turned on them. But Jack wasn't like that at all.) With Jerry Colonna as a mixed-up psychiatrist and Robert Benchley as a future in-law who doesn't like Fred, this is one fun-filled escapade you don't want to miss. It's a chance to see Fred Allen, who's sadly been forgotten, Jack Benny and company at their best.

Larry Stauch The plot is so goofy that there is no need to make sense out of it. The self-deprecating humor that many of these performers show is one of the qualities that makes makes this film work. It's refreshing to see what real comedy was like before the present day comics started screaming filth at the public. Jack Benny was so funny. He had a way of laughing that makes me laugh just thinking about it. Nobody does that today. This little window to the past shows amazing wit. The delivery of the actors lines are quick and designed to leave the viewer in stitches from one scene to the next. Warner Oland was perfect as the inspector without the Charlie Chan guise which allowed him some very funny lines. John Carradine is fantastic as the crooked lawyer as well. This one is a personal favorite.

c532c Well, actually more like an "Uncle Scrooge" adventure turned into a movie, with acerbic Fred Allen subbing for Carl Barks' peripatetic miser, running into, across and over a panoply of bizarre characters in search of (what else, Uncle Scrooge?) a lost fortune. "Bag" offers the usual Barks-type exotic locales -- there's a byzantine movie theater that seems deliberately Disney-esque -- and colorful characters, here embodied by some surprising Hollywood figures (Rudy Vallee, Don Ameche, Jerry Colonna, etc,)The inevitable encounter with jack Benny is funny enough, but my favorite cameo here was etched by John Carradine as an organ-playing arch-villain, complete with cape and top-hat. Not to be missed!