Other reviewers have explained the plot, so I'll simply tell you that I find this film funny and one of my top-rated movie comedies of all time (Blazing Saddles, Some Like it Hot, Olsen & Johnson's Hellzapoppin, Radio Parade of 1935, most of the film comedies starring Monty Python, Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Alec Guinness and almost all the classics by Chaplin, Keaton, Langdon, Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Mae West and Mel Brooks. During what seems in retrospect a scant decade following WWII, English language movies along with some stage plays, literature, network radio and early live television appealed to an American public better educated and verbally literate than generations before and after. In comedy of that fleeting era, there was frequently an absurdist streak and occasionally some commentary and deconstruction of the very medium in which it appeared. It's in the Bag is a good example of wit, absurdist comedy and deconstruction. An independent production built around the twin poles of a satiric Russian novel and acerbic comedian Fred Allen, it attracted co-stars willing to work for less than their usual salaries: Jack Benny, Binnie Barnes, Don Ameche, Robert Benchley, Rudy Vallee, Victor Moore, William Bendix, John Carradine, Sidney Toler and Jerry Colonna. The result is a series of scenes encountered by Fred Allen as he follows the trail of his missing chairs, one of which conceals a fortune. The script (written by Fred Allen, Morrie Ryskind, Lewis Foster, Jay Dratler & Alma Reville (Hitchcock's swife) is tight, clever, stuffed with incident and characters (most of them spoofing their on-screen personas). Directer Richard Wallace is efficient and compatible wirth the material and performers, and cinematographer Russell Metty was one of filmdom's finest and a favorite of Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Don Siegel and Stweven Spielberg.

Fred Allen made a living hurling brickbats and biting the hands that fed him, and one may surmise that his only starring role in a major motion picture would push the envelope. "It's in the Bag" does so, sometimes with breathtaking efficiency -- it's like a whole different world opened up in this film apart from typical 1940s screwball comedy, a negative, street smart and cynical attitude more in line with the comedic tone of later eras. But if you want to laugh, you might do better with a more typical screwball comedy of the period than with "It's in the Bag," as its episodic and composite construction as a film doesn't maintain a consistent level of hilarity, and parts of it are more confusing than funny. Fred Allen is terrific, and one wishes he'd been more interested in appearing in films, though his best work is unquestionably found in his radio programs; his deadpan mug, though, is effective in movies even though he had "a great face for radio." Binnie Barnes, Robert Benchley, John Carradine and William Bendix all stand out in this piece, and in the main "It's in the Bag" is definitely worth seeing at least once for its value as a dark, non-conformist alternative to American film comedies of the 1940s. However, it's a little too long, has too many moving parts and Fred Allen seems aware of that, stating in his ad-libbed annotation of the opening credit for producer Jack Skirball, "It's his picture."

Ridiculous and utterly moronic film with Fred Allen as a circus barker who inherits $12 million and then it goes to $300,00, providing he can find the loot in a chair, stashed away by his murdered uncle.The premise is all right until we get to the locating of the chair. We chase around Mrs. Nussbaum's apartment for it, get involved with a brawl, and meet up with gangster William Bendix, ready to be overthrown by his gang of cut throats.Jack Benny plays himself and again shows how stingy he is. Had the film stuck with the original bad guy lawyer and his crowd, it would have been far better.Don Ameche and Victor Moore play themselves as has-beens and are in the huge brawl scene.Allen is funny, but no one could really rise above such a foolish script.

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.