Post by Doghouse6 on Feb 23, 2019 0:06:56 GMT
One of no fewer than a dozen screen adaptations of the 1928 novel, "Dvenadtsat stulyev" (known to we English speakers as "The Twelve Chairs"), It's In the Bag (1945) stars Fred Allen as flea circus empresario Fred Floogle, on the trail of one of several chairs in which is concealed an inherited fortune. The premise serves as not much more than something upon which to hang a series of extended comic sketches, some featuring cameos by those in the poster art above (appearing as themselves).
Perhaps the most memorable of these is a sequence in which Fred and his wife (Binnie Barnes) kill time by going into a theater showing Zombie In the Attic, outside of which is a sidewalk hawker proclaiming, "Immediate seating on the inside!" Directed by usher after to usher to higher and higher balconies, each of whom meets Fred's protest, "But the man outside said there's immediate seating" with a hearty guffaw and a dismissive and noncommittal, "Oh, that's Joe," the Floogles finally find themselves at the uppermost balcony, from which the barely discernible screen appears the size of a postage stamp.
The frustrated pair go to see the manager (Emory Parnell), who meets Fred's complaint with the expected, "Oh, that's Joe." When Fred demands his money back, the manager fast-talks him: "Money, money, money. That's all some people ever think about. Do you remember what happened in 1929?" Fred's outraged reply is, "Yes, 1929 was the year I came into this theater to see Zombie In the Attic. I was a young man then. I was full of hope. Look at me now!"