Tonight's Movie: Man About Town (1939) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

One of the Kino Lorber releases I've most looked forward to in early 2026 is the Jack Benny Comedy Classics set.

This two-film set, released at the end of February, contains the Benny films ARTISTS AND MODELS (1937) and MAN ABOUT TOWN (1939).

I started off watching MAN ABOUT TOWN this weekend, which I found quite enjoyable.

The screenplay was by Morrie Ryskind, from a story he wrote with Allan Scott and Z. Myers. Ryskind had a long history of writing (or cowriting) solid comedies, including ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930) and MY MAN GODFREY (1936), so I had hopes for the quality of this film and was not let down. It's an amusing movie with a handful of laugh-out-loud funny moments.

Jack Benny plays Bob Temple, an American theatrical producer and performer who has brought his latest hit show to London.

Bob is in lovely with his show's beautiful star Diana (Dorothy Lamour), but she doesn't think they're a fit, finding Bob too "solid and respectable," and has been dating Ted Nash (Phil Harris), the show's conductor.

Soon Bob is entangled with Lady Arlington (Binnie Barnes) and Madame Dubois (Isabel Jeans), who are hoping to use him to make their husbands (Edward Arnold and Monty Woolley) jealous. Meanwhile Bob is hoping to make Diana jealous with any combination of these two ladies or one of the chorus girls, Susan (Betty Grable).

They all end up at a country house party...

This was quite a fun 85 minutes. It ends a bit abruptly, in terms of Bob and Diana's romance, but there's also a good laugh at the end to make up for it.

Benny is funny but doesn't overdo things. One of my favorite moments was early on, when he was walking in the fog and ended up circling back to the same place he'd started.

Lamour is exquisitely lovely, though I'm still trying to understand why she sang a song in the musical review in chains. It was odd staging.

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is quite funny and at times threatens to steal the movie with his great repartee. A scene where Rochester chats with a butler (E.E. Clive) is hilarious. I was especially impressed by a dance he does during a party sequence; I didn't realize Rochester was such a smooth dancer!

The cast also features Charles Coleman as a hotel doorman and Clifford Severn as a bellboy.

Famed "dress extra" Bess Flowers can be spotted at the party. I recall when her IMDb credits numbered in the 800s, and she's now listed in over 1100! I've added a couple titles to that list myself. It's always fun to notice her.

MAN ABOUT TOWN was directed by Mark Sandrich, who directed several of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. It was filmed in black and white by Ted Tetzlaff.

Kino Lorber's lovely print is from a new HD master from a 2K scan of the 35mm fine grain. Sound quality is strong.

Disc extras include a commentary track by Paul Anthony Nelson and Lee Zachariah; the trailer, newly mastered in 2K; and a gallery of nine additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

I enjoyed this and found it a relaxing fun time. I'll be reviewing ARTISTS AND MODELS in the near future.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a copy of this Blu-ray collection.

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