Jim Bray's Car & Tech rants - publishing online exclusively since 1995
The man who came to dinner and new Looney Tunes provide a real video feastBy Jim Bray Nothing quite says "screwball comedy" more than good old laughs from good old Hollywood and this week I have a couple of them to tell you about. The Man who Came to Dinner is a 1941 Yuk fest about a pompous ass of a writer (no, it isn't me) who finds himself taking over the house of some "ordinary folks" when he slips on ice outside their place and is forced to convalesce there, bringing about as much chaos to the homeowners as one could imagine. Meanwhile, Warner Archive has released Looney Tunes Collector's Vault volume 2, a collection of some 50 old toons from the golden area of Warner Brothers cartoons. There are some great ones, some I hadn't seen in decades, and some that show why they're been relegated to volume 2 instead of being part of the leading package. Hey, not every title is a classic just because it's old. "Dinner" stars Bette Davis in what's said to be an unusual comedic role for her. And she's great as writer Sheridan (Monty Woolley, reprising his stage role) Whiteside's secretary/girl Friday. She's tasked with keeping the world turning around Whiteside as he does his level best to throw a monkey wrench into it. She's very good at it, too, though by the end of the film she's had her fill with "Sherry" and with good reasons I won't get into here. The story is kind of a fish out of water tale, except here the fish is demanding the water be provided to him, while those whose lives he's, well, challenging, are finding out that their own fishbowl is being shaken up like the proverbial snow globe. Whiteside takes over their living room and library, forcing the homeowners to live upstairs and get into and out of the house via the back door stairs. He's very smart, but very arrogant and insulting to anyone he perceives as being less than him – which is most people – though he also befriends some of the locals he deems as adequate (or who can be used as weapons against his hosts and others). The laughs come mostly from Wolley's performance of a delightfully caustic script in which he perceives himself the only sane person in a sea of whackos, losers, lowlifes, etc. It kind of reminded me of Bob Newhart's TV series in which, either as a psychologist or innkeeper, he's the only sane person in a world of whackos, losers, lowlifes, etc. Except that, while Newhart was basically just trying to get along with life, Whiteside is trying to bend reality to his iron will. And he does, to a certain extent, until his abrasive ego and underhanded tactics become too much to bear – he tries to sabotage Davis' budding romance with a local newspaperman/wannabe playwright played by Richard Travis – which to Davis would be a, well, Travis-ty. During the ride we get as the audience, we're inundated by colourful characters, from Mary Wickes (in apparently her first screen role) as a well-hounded nurse, Jimmy Durante as, well, the weirdo Banjo, Ann Sheridan as the blonde bombshell Whiteside tries to weaponize, Billie Burke (Glinda the good witch!) as the rather flakey matron of the house. And more. There are penguins on hand, as well as an ancient sarcophagus and, well, you'll just have to check out this classic comedy yourself. The audio and video are surprisingly good, and there's a decent set of extras that remind me of the old Warner Brothers "Evening at the movies" DVD's they offered a couple of decades ago. In those, if you chose to watch the disc that way, critic/buff Leonard Maltin would introduce the production and then you'd sit back and revel in the old days when a trip to the movie theatre got you a short subject, newsreel, cartoon, etc. before the main feature. It was a great trip down Hollywood memory lane. Here, there's no newsreel and you can't watch the whole thing as an evening presentation the way those old DVD's would let you, but you do get some great extras anyway. There's a short feature on the production, a really enjoyable musical short by Glen Gray and his Casa Loma Orchestra (one of which I'm surprised didn't bring about a disclaimer such as I'm about to ridicule below), a classic WB cartoon "The Wabbit who came to Supper", and the original trailer. Also interesting are two old radio broadcasts of The Man who came to Dinner, one starring Jack Benny as Whiteside (and as much as I liked Benny, he's no Woolley here) with Rosalind Russell, and another with Clifton Webb and Lucille Ball. They're very worthwhile, if you like the story to begin with. I hadn't seen this movie in decades, and I'm really glad I had the chance to revisit it. 
Meanwhile, the Looney Tunes Collector's Vault volume 2 is also well worth your time, if you can get past the ridiculous disclaimer they make you sit through when you fire up the disc. It's revisionist political correctness incarnate: "The program you are about to see is a product of its time. It portrays ethnic, racial, gender, and other stereotypes and biases that existed in our society at the time this program was made. While such portrayals do not represent the values of Warner Bros. and its affiliates, this program is being presented in its original form in order to reflect the existence and history of these stereotypes and biases." Would it be kosher for me to say that it's awfully white of them to let us see these original cartoons (which, of course, were not documentaries) without them being hacked apart so as not offend today's snowflakes? Anyway, there are over 50 cartoons on two Blu-rays here and I'm glad to have seen some great old toons I hadn't seen in many, many years – if at all. Here's a list of all the toons:
The toons range from the 1930's on, mostly in colour, and there's a great variety of classic characters on hand. I loved seeing an old Roadrunner cartoon that I hadn't seen before, there's some Mac and Tosh, Tweety and Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd (who seems to evolve over the course of the years), etc. etc.. They look really good, all things considered; as comparison, these toons look as if they were done yesterday (more minimal colour palette etc. notwithstanding) compared to the one that's included with Man who came to Dinner. It's great! Audio is about as good as one would expect from such ancient soundtracks. There are even some extras, including commentaries from (as the box says) "animation experts". I found them quite interesting. I loved both of these titles and recommend them highly, as long as your constitution is strong enough that you won't get the vapours from some old cartoon that might not have been as woke as some folks today demand of them retroactively. Warners did the right thing by releasing these toons uncut, even with the ridiculous disclaimer that tells purchasers they're too stupid to understand historical context. Watch 'em anyway, if only to imagine liberal heads exploding! Copyright 2026 Jim Bray |