The thing to remember about It’s in the Bag! is that the last thing it’s interested in is making any sense — a good thing, since it doesn’t. The tone is set during the opening credits with Fred Allen making snide remarks about the participants (the associate producer is “the only man who will associate with the producer”), noting you can find names like these in any phone book, etc. (There is apparently an alternate version of the film where Allen comments on the entire movie. I’ve never seen it, but I think it would quickly become tiresome.) No attempt is made to make you forget you’re watching a movie. Characters often speak directly to the camera and the guest stars never pretend to be doing anything that could reasonably be called acting. It’s basically an excuse for gags, in-jokes, and bizarre characters — all served up with massive silliness. It has no further desire.
I’m sure it does work better the more you know the era in which it was made and if you have some kind of grounding in old time radio (which, of course, wasn’t old time when the movie was made). Chances are, for example, Mrs. Pansy Nussbaum (Minerva Pious) — a character from Allen’s Alley — will seem more random than funny today. Other largely forgotten players — like Jerry Colonna — still work on their own manic (and in Colonna’s case, bizarre) terms. In fact, Colonna’s scenes — with him preposterously playing a psychiatrist — are among the film’s funniest.
A sequence in a movie theater — where Allen and his wife (Binnie Barnes) vainly try to see a movie called Zombie in the Attic — works as pure comedy. (And if you’ve ever worked in a theater, the beleagured manager saying, “You understand we don’t make these pictures, we only…show them,” will have extra resonance. If you’ve only been a customer, it works on another level.) That it’s somehow shoehorned into what passes for the plot — the search for the chair with the money — is even amusing in itself. Nearly every scene in which John Carradine appears rings the gong, as do the ones with Sidney Toler as the detective. The overall tone is so manic and so off-the-wall that you really don’t have time to worry much about the topical gags that no longer register.
The Asheville Film Society will screen It’s in the Bag! Tuesday, Aug. 18, at 8 p.m. in Theater Six at The Carolina Asheville and will be hosted by Xpress movie critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.