CIVIC THEATRE

Chronicle (Levin), 4 March 1946, Page 2

CIVIC THEATRE

"GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE" There are no restrictions of. laughter, as you will discover when Warner Bros.' "George Washington Slept Here" makes its debut at th Civic Tneatre to-morrow. As a pla it kept New Yorkers laughing, an advance reports indicate that th motion picture, boasting one of th finest casts of this season's crop o laugh hits, will carry on that repu tation. In the leading roles are Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan. Benn is cast as the average American big city dweller reared in comfort able apartment houses, whose wife an avid antique hunter, carrie matters too far when she buys a house where George Washington was supposed to have slept. Against Benny's protests, they move in to find the house in a state of dilapidation so advanced that i leads Benny to wonder what's hold ing it up. Fun is provided when they ar informed by the lugubrious caretaker, played by Percy Kilbride that the well is dry, and it will b necessary to dig a new one. In the midst of it all, the proverbial rich uncle Charles Coburn's role) arrives, and must be mad comfortable and happy at all costs

The house proves to be a veritabl gargantua for it swallows repair without showing signs of improve ment, and the situation become more involved when the money fo the mortgage must be raised — o else. When matters close in on the couple, and there's no quarter in sight, Rommie, the dog, saves the situation in a laughter-provoking climax. "George Washington Slept Here' was directed by William Keighley Everett Freeman wrote the screen play, from the stage production by Moss Hartand George S. Kaufman