Robert Benchley (1889-1945) has not aged well — at least as a cinematic wit and raconteur. While I don’t know about his comic essays published early on in the pages of the New Yorker, and I am not familiar with his writings for the Harvard Lampoon, Vanity Fair, and Life, Benchley’s renown as a man of letters was notable, so much so that he was lured to Hollywood as a script doctor, screenwriter, and actor. 

Benchley’s filmography is impressive. As a character actor, he worked for Alfred Hitchcock, Rene Clair, Billy Wilder, and Walt Disney, imbuing his roles with an erudition that never turned its nose up at humble pursuits. Benchley starred in close to 50 shorts, usually as a thinly veiled version of himself. Among the titles are “The Sex Life of the Polyp” (1928), “The Romance of Digestion” (1937), and “How to Sleep” (1935).