The Sex Life of the Polyp

Early Robert Benchley talkie catches the flavour of his comic monologues, but it's an antiquated kind of humour that barely raises a smile today.

Robert Benchley must be an acquired taste. I know that he made a lot of short films in the 1930s and 40s, so he obviously was quite popular. Heck, he even got an Oscar for his short, HOW TO SLEEP. He has a reputation for being extremely glib and clever. However, after seeing several of his shorts, I can say that at least for me, his routine does very little. I don't particularly find his films interesting and it could either mean I am an idiot (the jury's still out on that one) or that his style was popular years ago but doesn't translate well to the 21st century. Mind you, I love older films and am NOT saying that I disliked these shorts because they were old fashioned--I just don't like these particular shorts.

As for THE SEX LIFE OF THE POLYP, it was apparently a popular routine and Benchley was reprising this quaint little speech for a sound short--a novelty in 1928. And this is exactly why I think the film is important--historically, it's among the earliest shorts that were sound. So, it certainly is important in this sense. As for the lecture on the sex lives of these microorganisms, I can't for the life of me see why this was so knee-slapping funny--especially since they weren't all that prudish back in the late 1920s and early 30s (despite this stereotype). Just look at some of the very salacious so-called "Pre-Code" films of the era--where sex was talked about rather openly at times.

For this film to work, the audience reaction or Benchley's reaction should have been more intense. Either he should have behaved even more uncomfortable talking about sex (even among sea life) or the audience should have either become incensed or turned on by this "dirty lecture". On television, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" did a bit perhaps inspired by this Benchley film, but the audience reacted strongly as did the lecturer--making it all very funny. Too much droll humor, for me, made the Benchley film a chore to even complete.

By the way, the film is available at archive.org but the sound is very, very poor. This is common in such early films and its badly in need of conservation.

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. Although it's technically primitive I consider The Sex Life of the Polyp one of his funniest short comedies. 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 prosperous looking ladies wear large hats, and resemble the matrons in Helen Hokinson's famous New Yorker cartoons. "Doctor" Benchley, who sports a professorial swallowtail coat, initially seems a bit chagrined to be discussing such intimate matters before this well-bred crowd; after all, 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. The Benchley of later years was 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 proficient. According to biographers 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 was an accomplished comedian! He makes it look easy, which is something only the most skilled professionals can do.

Sex Life of a Polyp, The (1928)

** (out of 4)

This Fox short shows Robert Benchley doing what he would do countless times and that's play a lecturer who finds himself giving a talk about a subject that keeps messing him up. In the film he plays a doctor who is at a women's club talking about the sex life of a polyp. Along the way he grows more and more nervous and soon begins to mess up and this is especially true when he goes to the photos and can't remember which is the boy and which is the girl. I've said it several times but these type of Benchley shorts never work for me so if you're a fan of them then I'm sure you'll want to check this out as it features that same type of humor. I'm really not sure what it is but Benchley has always been hit and miss with me and this is yet another miss. I've yet to find any of the film in this ones structure to be very entertaining because I just don't find someone messing up to be funny. There are certainly ways to make it funny but these shorts always play it straight, never go over-the-top and to me this just equals boring and nothing else.

This is an entertainingly offbeat little comedy that took some chances both with the material and with the then-new capacity of sound in the movies. Robert Benchley's imaginative writing is complemented by his equally imaginative ideas for using visuals and sound, and the result is a short feature that is quite good for the early sound era.

Benchley plays a lecturer visiting a Ladies Club, the kind of role that usually brought out the best in him, since it allows him to use a dryly amusing style that fits well with his writing. Here, the weird topic is a particularly suitable choice for Benchley's writing and speaking. The 'lecturer' also moves back-and-forth between his lectern and a display screen that shows moving pictures of his lab specimens. It's interesting both in creatively using the format and in recreating (and satirizing) the way that a thorough lecturer might well approach the subject.

Benchley's jokes and gag ideas rarely if ever try for the big laugh. Instead, he tries to build up a comic effect through the accumulation of dry and ironic comments or visuals. This is a case where it works very well, and especially so given the limited resources and experience of film-makers in the early sound era.