Home Movies (1940)

Blunderer Robert Benchley is going to show some house guests the film he and his wife took on a vacation trip. He sets up the projector and the reel begins...and nothing good happens for Benchley from this point.

Director:

Basil Wrangell

Stars:

Robert Benchley, Marie Blake, John Butler

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Robert Benchley	...	Joe Doakes

Storyline

A tongue-in-cheek look at the making and showing of home movies. An everyman sits with editing equipment amidst piles of loose film. He explains to us the ease and fun of putting home movies together. In a flashback, he takes us to a recent dinner party at his home where he narrated a showing of footage from a family trip to a lake. Parts are dull or out of focus, scenes run backwards, principles (such as a child) are obscured, heads are cropped by the top of the frame, and he and his wife differ over details. Will anyone be left when the show ends?

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Plot Keywords:

film | out of focus | backwards | vacation | dinner party | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Short

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 February 1940 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

8 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included as a bonus on the Warner DVD of My Favorite Wife.

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Connections

Featured in MGM Parade: Episode #1.11 (1955)

User Reviews

Bad Studio Movie

I wondered what was the reason behind this silly short: where the old studios worried about the possibility of people making their own films? For those like me who believe that there will come a time when this would be something normal that will put industrial cinema in its place and not as "the only and best way" to make films, this short is a reactionary piece of uninspired filmmaking. It is not even aware that the edited home movie that Robert Benchley shows to his guests is by itself quite attractive. It is an irony. Today it could pass for an "experimental film"! For me this is funnier than what scriptwriter Benchley and director Wrangell intended to do: ridicule home movies. Now that we are thankful that new technology has permitted the democratization of cinema, little by little, "Home Movies" is more dated than it has any right to be.