The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Thomas Chalmers

Writer:

Robert Benchley (writer)

Release Date:

25 July 1928 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

Dr. Benchley lectures the women's club on the unusual but important title-topic.

Plot Keywords:

Polyp | Club | Experiment | Lecture | Womens Club

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Robert Benchley

...

Lecturer

Runtime:

11 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Benchley first performed this routine in 1922.

Quotes:

Lecturer: Now the only way in which a polyp resembles other animals at all is that at certain periods of its growth, it does take a sentimental interest in polyps of the... oppositie sex. Now, this presents a very complicated situation as the polyp has no definite sex itself. That is... it's neither one thing or the other. By that I mean the same polyp may be either a boy or a girl according to what or how it happened to feel like being.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table (1987)

Droll comedy with an eye-catching title

The great humorist Robert Benchley wrote hundreds of magazine pieces and acted in dozens of short films and features, but for my money this early effort is one of his best. I consider THE SEX LIFE OF THE POLYP one of the funniest one-reel comedies I've ever seen. In this, only his second movie appearance, Benchley assumes the role that would become his signature: the smug lecturer who confidently spouts nonsense, liberally dispensing misinformation to his audience, in this case a ladies' club. The well-to-do ladies wear large hats and resemble the matrons in Helen Hokinson's famous New Yorker cartoons. "Doctor" Benchley, who sports a white lab coat, initially seems a bit chagrined to be discussing such intimate matters before this well-bred crowd; the subject at hand is somewhat naughtier than last week's topic "Emotional Crises in Sponge Life." But soon our speaker hits his stride and is rattling off all sorts of information you won't find in any encyclopedia . . . or anywhere else. His discourse on sexual reproduction among polyps is accompanied by strange animated slides depicting them as hairy, pulsating little beasts. Among the beasts on display is Dr. Benchley's own polyp, Mary.

Movie buffs familiar with our lecturer's comic turns in such features of the '40s as I MARRIED A WITCH and THE SKY'S THE LIMIT may not even recognize him here. In later years Mr. Benchley became a portly gent with thinning hair, but when this film was made he was still trim, youthful and bright-eyed (and, in the opinion of my wife, "really cute.") Despite his inexperience as a movie actor his performance is quite accomplished, however. According to biographers Robert Benchley dismissed his acting skills in private life, but his delivery here is superb, perfectly capturing the pomposity of the self-important professor, as well as a touch of semi-feigned, coy embarrassment over the risqué elements in his presentation. I don't care what he told his friends, the guy could act!