What makes it different from others?

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

War era radio audiences got a laugh or two out of the Fred Allen/Jack Benny feud, and in this, Allen's only sole-starring film, he gets to not only slam his chincy rival but go after a few other top celebrities as well. A distant uncle leaves Allen his estate and the down-on-his-luck flea circus owner must trace down five chairs (as opposed to Mel Brook's 12) to find it after the uncle is murdered. A slew of wacky characters and sketches get in his way which includes a Hollywood Bowl sized movie theatre without even a single seat available, a group of "has-beens" (Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee and Victor Moore) reduced to singing (along with Allen) in a barbershop quartet, William Bendix as a health-obsessed gangster (by the same name) and Jerry Colonna as a wacky doctor. The sketches come fast and furious, some really like the goose that laid the golden egg, others just laying there waiting to rot.Binnie Barnes is truly funny as Allen's put-upon wife with tons of wisecracks, Robert Benchley an inventor with a wacky mouse trap, and John Carradine as the uncle's sinister estate lawyer. The Benny sequence will have you in stitches and make you wish that there was more of him. Some of the humor seems truly fresh and original, others seem older than vaudeville. A true "popcorn" movie, you won't be disappointed, but you won't be sore from laughing too much, either.

It's in the Bag! (1945)I watched this for the bizarre reason that I wanted to see William Bendix in a film I'd never seen. And here this presented itself.And Bendix does finally show up in the last twenty minutes. And he plays himself, William Bendix. I didn't imagine he ever had that kind of star power.But more interesting are the other characters, or actors, who make their own appearances as themselves, and who are far and away the bright spots in a patchy and silly movie. Jack Benny, for one, is great to see being Jack, but not just as a stand up comedian. And throw in brief appearances by Don Ameche, John Carradine, and Rudy Vallee to give it a little more fun. Finally, use the quirky, very 1945ish style of Fred Allen in his only feature film role to hold the whole thing together, from talking to the camera intro through all the various comings and goings, famous and not.But don't get me wrong. This is a horrible experience as a movie, in all. It's downright stupid, which isn't a word I use in reviews. A better word might just by corny, but that gives too much credit to the crude way the movie is directed and mashed together into an apparent cohesiveness. It's not cohesive, so enjoy the bits. In fact, you might just fast forward to the parts with the actors you recognize and get some little rushes from that, including the last long section where a kind of crime is enacted, including some campy thugs and a fake out that will certainly fake you out.Okay, so Hitchcock's wife helped with the screenplay. Not something to brag about, probably, though there are a lot of laughs here. In fact, if it's gags you want, hang in there, because there is a steady stream, including some classic Allen schtick. Good enough for Mel Brooks to do a kind of remake of it in 1970 ("The Twelve Chairs"). This wasn't enough for me, totally, but you know if you like this kind of humor before going into it.And I did get my William Bendix fix, however, which was worth it.

Today, Fred Allen is practically forgotten. But, back in the heyday of radio, he was quite the star. Unfortunately, he never made much of a name for himself in movies or TV--mostly because he truly had a face for radio. In other words, he had a very sour and definitely unattractive visage--though he was very clever and funny.The film begins exceptionally well. That's because Allen comes out and begins talking during the credits. He makes a lot of wisecracks about them and says quite correctly that no one really cares about all these people!! And then, he says that the only reason that a lot of the folks were in the film was because they were family and friends of the producer! It's all very cynical--the sort of stuff that you might expect from Fred Allen.The plot is a variation on the Russian story by the same name by Ilf and Petrov. This story has been made in LOTS of different countries lots of different times. I've seen the Cuban version as well as Mel Brooks' famous version of the story. This Fred Allen one, however, is much further removed from the story than most--retaining only a bit of the original story. Most of it is new material--and the 5 (not 12) chairs seem more like a plot device--around which all the gags are written. And the film is jam-packed full of gags--ones that sometimes seem incredibly random! Several famous folks guest stars appear as themselves--including Jack Benny, William Bendix and Don Ameche. Character actors such as John Carradine, Sidney Toler and Jerry Colonna also appear in the film.The film begins with a rich old guy dying--and someone helped him! Soon Fred learns that he's the sole heir and suddenly everybody loves him. However, when the will is read, he learns that the estate is bankrupt and all he'll get are five chair. He soon sells them--and almost immediately learns that there is $300,000 stuffed inside--as well as evidence to convict the folks who swindled the old man out of his $12,000,000. So, Allen and his family rush out to find the chairs...right? Well, no...there are LOTS of little vignettes that appear along the way that make it seem like a very leisurely search, that's for sure! Not all of them are all that funny, but they come so quickly that it seems to work anyway--and they are quite goofy. Trips to psychiatrists, the movie theater and fist fights. It's all very silly and a bit stupid--but on balance I think it's worth seeing.

For anyone who is considering a career as a comedian, It's In The Bag should be required viewing. For the rest of us it gives us many laughs and it's the one and only opportunity to see Fred Allen's talents on full display.Allen's brand of absurdist humor has influenced so many people right down to today. You can see traces of his influence in Rowan&Martin's Laugh-In, the Mighty Carson Art Players from the Tonight Show and even Monty Python's Flying Circus and may be most of all the work of Mel Brooks on the screen. Because the cinema of necessity a tightly controlled script is in order, one aspect of Allen you don't see was his quick wit with an ad-lib. Some even consider him faster with a quip than Groucho Marx.The premise for this film is that Fred is the financially strapped owner of a flea circus, owing everybody in town including bookie Ben Welden and barely supporting wife Binnie Barnes and children Gloria Pope and Richard Tyler. A long unheard of uncle however is murdered and the uncle left Allen a set of five chairs. Our genius of a hero sells them off before a phonograph record from his late uncle tells him that $300,000.00 is hidden in one of the chairs together with clues as to who murdered him. Of course the perpetrators are shadowing Allen's every move as he seeks to retrieve the chairs from their new owners and find his fortune in the lining. The whole thing is an excuse for several skits as Allen goes on his quest for the chairs. One of the chairs was sold to Minerva Pious who is Mrs. Nussbaum and a regular on Allen's radio show. She happened to sell the chair to one Jack Benny. Benny's character as a miser has become so ingrained in the American culture that even today people who've heard the name know that about him and can appreciate the cheap jokes. What they might not realize is that Jack Benny and Fred Allen engaged in one of the great famous radio feuds so that dimension of the scene with Fred Allen might be lost.Another couple of chairs goes to a nightclub where folks like Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee, and Victor Moore are picking up some extra money as singing waiters. Another goes to William Bendix, head of the criminal Bendix gang. Bendix is terrific burlesquing his own tough guy image and John Carradine who played many a sinister role on screen looks like he's having a ball playing a crooked lawyer.Even Jerry Colonna is in this film, on loan from Bob Hope's radio show playing a zany psychiatrist. There is so much in It's In The Bag packed into less than 90 minutes you can hardly stop for breath.This film is a rare comic treat and should never be missed when broadcast. Demand TCM acquire this film and broadcast it.