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Man About Town (1939 film)

Man About Town is a 1939 musical comedy film starring Jack Benny, Dorothy Lamour, and Edward Arnold.

Plot
A producer tries to get his leading lady to take him seriously romantically by pursuing other women. ==Cast==
Cast
• Jack Benny as Bob Temple • Dorothy Lamour as Diana Wilson • Edward Arnold as Sir John Arlington • Binnie Barnes as Lady Arlington • Monty Woolley as Henri Dubois • Isabel Jeans as Mme. Dubois • Phil Harris as Ted Nash • Betty Grable as Susan Hayes • E. E. Clive as Hotchkiss • Eddie Anderson as Rochester • The Merriel Abbott Dancers as Themselves • Matty Malneck and His Orchestra as Themselves • The Pina Troupe as Themselves • Charles Coleman as Hotel doorman (uncredited) • Cecil Kellaway as Headwaiter (uncredited) • Cliff Severn as English bellboy (uncredited) ==Premiere==
Premiere
Paramount Pictures, Benny's radio show's sponsor Jell-O, Young & Rubicam (Jell-O's advertising agency) and NBC staged a lavish premiere in Benny's hometown, Waukegan, Illinois. ==Reception==
Reception
Time described it thusly: "As lavish, tuneful, talent-packed as a good radio variety hour, Man About Town is just about as entertaining, just about as memorable." In her 2017 book Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy, media studies professor Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley wrote that "Man About Town, a lightweight film, was far funnier and fresher than anybody had anticipated." Silver Screen magazine called it "the best of the Jack Benny pictures. It has swell gags, sprightly dialogue, and some pleasing acting by Jack—but lordy, lordy, it's Rochester who fairly wraps up the picture and takes it home. Others also praised Anderson, who played Benny's valet Rochester in the radio program. Cue magazine stated that the "brightest star in the picture is, oddly enough, not Benny but ... Eddie Anderson." Howard Barnes wrote in the New York Herald Tribune that "you are likely to come away from the picture remembering the colored player's laugh-provoking and versatile performance as vividly or more vividly than the star's." Paramount, seeing how successful Man About Town was, immediately produced another film starring the radio cast, Buck Benny Rides Again, released the following year. ==References==
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