In this special collection of fourteen rare short films, Kino on Video pays homage to the great American Satirist Robert Benchley and two other witty literati who shared his company at the Hotel Algonquin's legendary round table and personified the sophisticated literary scene of New York in the 1920s and 30s.

From his first screen appearance in 1928, delivering his now-famous Treasure Report (which he first performed live in 1922), Benchley established himself as a sly satirist, even as he stammered and stumbled through his nonsensical monologue. Benchley's amusingly inept lectures were soon mimicked by Donald Ogden Stewart, who would earn an Oscar for his screenplay of The Philadelphia Story, and later be blacklisted for his Communist associations. Curiously, the Communist witch-hunts are the focus of the rarest and perhaps funniest short in the anthology: The Witness, in which Benchley turns the tables on the governmental inquisitors with hilarious results.

Benchley's wry filmic explorations of the headaches of everyday married life exhibit the literary acumen and clever insight that made him one of the best-loved humorists of the 20th Century.

Mr. W's Little Game stars New Yorker columnist Alexander Woollcott (self-proclaimed leader of the Algonquin Round Table) as a fussy nightclub patron who befuddles a young woman and stuffy waiter (Leo G. Carroll) with a simple word game.

Set Comprises:

The Trouble with Husbands
The Forgotten Man
Crime Control
How To Take A Vacation
Nothing But Nerves
The Witness
Keeping In Shape
The Man's Angle
Waiting For Baby
The Treasurer's Report
The Sex Life Of The Polyp
Mr. W's Little Game
Humorous Flights
Traffic Regulations