A recent eBay purchase netted me a VHS copy of the 1940 Paramount comedy-musical Love Thy Neighbor—an interesting, though not entirely successful, attempt to bring the famous Jack Benny-Fred Allen radio feud to the silver screen. Although I have many reservations about the film, I can recommend it for its novelty value—though I think the Allen-Benny encounters in Buck Benny Rides Again (1940) and It’s in the Bag (1945) are far superior.

New Year’s Eve finds Fred Allen on his way to meet his niece Mary (Mary Martin) at the docks where she’s returning from a cruise; Jack is also headed in that direction, and slams into the back of Fred’s car with his Maxwell, igniting a heated exchange of words. Mary’s Aunt Barbara (Verree Teasdale) informs her that her “Uncle Fred” is a nervous wreck of late, owing to his squabbles with nemesis Jack. Mary, posing as a showgirl, lands a part in a musical stage revue spotlighting Benny, and the two of them quickly fall in love. Both Mary and her aunt valiantly attempt to patch things up between Jack and Fred in order to allow her uncle a little piece of mind—which is, of course, what he ends up giving his sworn enemy throughout the entire film.

Love Thy Neighbor is an entertaining film, but it falls a tad short of complete satisfaction for me. I think it’s because the feud (or “The Punch and Benny Show,” as Fred wryly referred to it) works much better within the confines of a half-hour radio show than an 82-minute feature film. The dialogue exchanges aren’t particularly all that strong (the film was co-written by Benny Program scribes Ed Beloin and Bill Morrow), and though a few clever lines appear here and there, it’s mostly just a series of uninspired insults, I much prefer Fred and Jack’s memorable squaring-off in Allen’s It’s in the Bag; forced to pose as the Nutley, New Jersey president of The Jack Benny Fan Club in order to get a chair containing his late uncle’s fortune, Allen tells Benny that the audiences for Jack’s film are fairly miniscule. (Jack: “Have you tried giving away dishes?” Fred: “Yes, and they ended up throwing them at the screen.” Jack: “Have you tried not giving away dishes?” Fred: “Yes, and they just went and brought them from home.”)

Another aspect of Love Thy Neighbor that fails to gel for me is Fred’s supposed “nervous breakdown” due to the toll the feud has taken on him. I think this would have worked much better if Jack had been the one at his wit’s end; his character’s insecurities and all-around schnookiness would have been ideal for this. I’ve always thought that in their radio encounters, Fred played Bugs Bunny to Jack’s Daffy Duck—and watching Fred being nervous and pop sleeping pills just doesn’t work. Jack’s character comes across as sort of a super-suave bon vivant, and although Benny certainly thought he was such on his radio show, he was never allowed to actually succeed at it.

Nevertheless, there are some great moments in the movie—Jack’s exchanges with Eddie Anderson (as “Rochester”) are comedy gold, equal to their dialogue from Buck Benny and 1943’s The Meanest Man in the World. Heck, I ought to just come right out and say it—Rochester walks off with the picture, getting the lion’s share of the laughs and even getting to sing a great duet (“Dearest, Dearest”) with Theresa Harris (as Josephine, his girl friend from Buck Benny Rides Again). My favorite scene with Jack and Fred has them hurling insults at one another in a swanky restaurant, but then being forced to whisper them by a stern maitre’d, and then being interrupted by an autograph seeker (Fred: “Oh, come on—how long does it take for you to make an X?”) The musical highlight of this movie is Mary Martin’s rendition of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” the classic Cole Porter tune that Martin introduced in the Broadway musical Leave It to Me.

A great cast of supporting players—Virginia Dale, Russell Hicks, Chester Clute, Mary Kelley, etc.—populate Love Thy Neighbor, though it’s a shame they couldn’t include more of the Benny cast other than Rochester (although you can hear Don Wilson in a voice cameo). Fred’s cast contribution consists only of the Merry Macs (Helen Carroll and Judd, Ted and Joe McMichael); no Portland Hoffa or Jimmy Wallington here. But you will see future Lucille Ball radio spouse Richard Denning as a stage manager, and Jack Carson also has a small role—a bit of a stretch for Jack here; he plays a cop who arrests Benny. The film was directed by Mark Sandrich, whose resume includes classic musicals like Top Hat (1935) and Follow the Fleet (1936); Love Thy Neighbor would be his third-go-around with Jack Benny, having also helmed Buck Benny and Man About Town (1939). (Sandrich also directed Benny’s bandleader, Phil Harris, in the 1933 Oscar-winning short So This is Harris and the feature film Melody Cruise.)
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