User Reviews

Although I'm giving this a "7", I do so -- in part -- because this is part of television history -- the famous CBS Omnibus series. Ironically, just as the original "The Horn Blows At Midnight" was a financial flop, so was Omnibus...though it continued to be broadcast for a decade. This DVD is distributed by SHOUT!Factory...an entertainment media company (a few other Omnibus shows are offered, as well).

While the premise here is the same as in the movie, the actual plot is significantly different. Once again, Benny (Athaniel) is chosen to destroy the earth by blowing his trumpet at midnight. Down to earth he goes, and immediately gets in the middle of a lover's quarrel...and the young man who walks away -- also a musician -- accidentally walks away with the magic trumpet. Meanwhile, he meets several nice people and ultimately convinces the "chief" (in heaven) to spare the earth.

The script here is uneven. Some pretty decent jokes seem to go right past the audience, and other times they laugh at things that are marginal. Jack melds his television/radio persona into the script nicely, and this often garners some good laughs. The script is not as good as the movie script, and the production values are, of course, much lower. And there are no special effects, unlike the film where they were pretty decent. The chief attraction here is Jack Benny, along with a glimpse of early television. If you can find this, it's worth watching.

Beethoven may not have had an ear for music, but as far as Jack Benny playing the trumpet is concerned, he's completely sound. When Denny indicates that the trumpet was his first love, Beethoven quips, "Well you certainly have been jilted!" Frank Jaquet delightfully plays Beethoven as a Borscht Belt comic, and every line out of his mouth is a gem. Lester Matthews is the angel in charge of the smaller planets, and when he is ordered to have Earth destroyed, he refers to it with complete distaste. Benny is the angel chosen for the job which gives Jaquet a vacation from his incompetence. Benny is sent to the former New Amsterdam, now known as New York, to stand atop the Waldorf Biltmore and blow his horn exactly at midnight, not one minute before and not one minute after. Fellow angel Dorothy Malone, obviously in love with Benny, wishes him well.

Benny continues to slam his participation in the original movie, giving narrator Alastair Cooke the opportunity to choose him in the opening introduction, and every time the title is mentioned in the context of the script, Benny looks at the camera with that famous aside of his, indicating that here we go again! The plot is similar to the movie, but major details have changed. Dennis Horn is accidentally switched with magician Martin Dean, and orders from heaven tell Benny to get his horn back, or else! While waiting for Dean in the hotel, Benny encounters sweet old lady Hallene Hill who makes him doubt his mission, especially when she tells him about the generosity she feels that actor Jack Benny (paged by the front deskl is hiding underneath his stingy behavior.

Outside of the fact that Denny like to slam the movie playfully, I've never understood the insinuations that the film was a bomb. It is one of my favorite comedies of the 1940s, and this is equally as enjoyable, making similar points but in a different way. The ensemble also includes Jeff Donnell as Dean's girlfriend, Benny Rubin as a typically gruff taxi driver and Beverly Washburn as a little girl whom Benny encounters. The Surly Anthology episode shows modern audiences of the little mini movies that viewers used to get that without leaving their home, and this is a perfect example of high-quality television that was much more than just a medium.