Jack Benny brings his own distinctive touch to
Brandon Thomas' venerable (and oft-filmed) stage farce
Charley's Aunt. Utilizing a gloriously unconvincing broad-A English accent,
Benny is cast as Lord Fancourt Babberly, a somewhat overaged undergraduate at Oxford University. Babbs' roommates Jack Chesney (
James Ellison) and Charley Wyckeham (
Richard Haydn, in his film debut) are desirous of inviting their lady friends Kitty Verdun (
Arleen Whelan) and Amy Spettigue (
Anne Baxter) to their quarters, but first they must secure the services of a proper escort. When Charley's aunt Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez (
Kay Francis) is detained, Jack and Charley coerce Babbs, who has dressed up as an old lady for a school play, to pose as the absent Donna Lucia. The fun really begins when, for reasons far too complicated to detail here, both Jack's father Sir Francis Chesney (
Laird Cregar) and Amy's uncle Stephen Spettigue (
Edmund Gwenn) romantically pursue the bogus aunt. The third-act arrival of the real Donna Lucia only adds to the comic confusion-but at least poor Babbs has finally found a lady friend closer to his own age. The female-impersonation angle in
Charley's Aunt has been known to descend into vulgarity, but Jack
Benny remains both hilarious and tasteful throughout. Understandably, the film was one of
Benny's favorites. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
