George Washington Slept Here (1942) Dir: William Keighley <br /><br />Production: Warner Bros.<br /><br />Proto-MR. BLANDINGS plot of city-dwelling husband and wife team (Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan as Bill and Connie Fuller) purchasing a dauntingly run-down country house (where, it is said, George Washington once slept--or did he?) and renovating it to the point of both mental and pecuniary exhaustion. The two films have other similarities, despite both being based on different sources (this film has the more notable pedigree, taken from a George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart play, while MR. BLANDINGS is based on a novel). Outside of the main premise, both films also have the similar characters of the dull-witted local supervising the work (here played amusingly by 'Pa Kettle' Percy Kilbride) and a helpful male friend of the couple that the husband falsely believes is making a play for his wife (Melvyn Douglas in BLANDINGS, Harvey Stephens here).<br /><br />This kind of story walks a thin line between funny and cruel/bad (think THE MONEY PIT), as the humor derives from the situation getting worse and worse for the characters. Thankfully this film manages to be steady fun, with a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. I think it's something about the Jack Benny persona, a sort of benign pompousness that audiences enjoy seeing deflated, even when he's the 'good guy'. There's a slow start, the first ten minutes or so featuring Franklin Pangborn as the Fuller's landlord and his battles with the Fuller family dog isn't very good, but it's not long before Benny and the material start to work the situation for real yuks. Perhaps excessively slapstick-y at times (Benny falls into a well, falls through the floor, goes up the stairs and falls through the ceiling), but even that stuff gets its fair share of hits (one of the better sight gags is, after being forbidden the use of the neighborhood's main street, the off-road arrival by car of Benny at the house). The arrival of a couple of nightmare relatives of the Fuller's also works; with Charles Coburn playing an egocentric uncle they cater to in hopes he will one day leave his fortune to them and Douglas Croft (young George M. Cohan in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY) as Raymond, Connie's obnoxious adolescent nephew. Ann Sheridan is in her prime here, although she pales in unfortunate comparison to Myrna Loy in BLANDINGS and isn't really asked to carry much of the comedy. Hattie McDaniel is also along in a routine, thankless maid role.<br /><br />*** out of 4