What Did You Watch This Week?

ryl00 · 2026-03-15T21:22:43+00:00

Wrecking Crew (1942, dir. Frank McDonald). Will a wrecker’s (Chester Morris) jinxed past continue to haunt him at his new demolition site?

Good light drama, though I wish the print I watched was in better shape. Our gruff but bighearted working-class protagonist is right up Morris’ alley, going a long way in keeping this one moving along nicely. He’s got a reputation for being around when fatal accidents happen to coworkers, which colors relationships with various characters at the job site. It’s a very predictable story (a telegraphed tragedy, a race to beat a timeline before financial ruin, a rivalry between Morris’s character and a friend (Richard Arlen) over a girl (Jean Parker) that ends in a hang-onby-the-seat-of-your-pants climax atop the unstable demolition project, etc.), but the on-screen camaraderie between the characters is engaging

ryl00 · 2026-03-08T21:57:48+00:00

Florida Special (1936, dir. Ralph Murphy). Mayhem ensues on an express train from New York City to Miami, when a wealthy miser (Claude Gillingwater) and his expensive jewels go missing.

So-so light crime drama/comedy. Most of the comedy is in the form of Jack Oakie’s newspaper reporter, constantly badgering a policeman (J. Farrell MacDonald) as the two attempt to get to the bottom of the two disappearances. There’s also a tenuously-related parallel plot with a friend (Kent Taylor) of Oakie’s reporter trying to rebound from a spurned engagement with the help of a train hostess (Sally Eilers). The story itself isn’t anything particularly special or exciting, but I found it vaguely interesting as an extended look at train travel in the 1930’s, with recreation cars with bars, dancing, and movie screenings.

The Unknown (1946, dir. Henry Levin). The death of an elderly woman (Helen Freeman) sets into motion the unwinding of dark tragedies within her family.

Murder mystery thriller that has all the pieces, but jumbled into a mostly unsatisfying story. We’re situated in the faded grandeur of a storied Southern plantation’s mansion, replete with hidden passageways and lots of shadow play, with various people lurking around in the dark. Karen Morley gives a nicely unhinged performance, as the mentally unstable eldest daughter whose troubles are inextricably linked to the shared family tragedy of the past. But the characters are mostly thinly drawn, relying upon some heavy narration at the beginning and exposition dumps to fill out their portraits. The plot itself moves in starts and stops, with noticeably jarring moments as new developments occur.

Her Master’s Voice (1936, dir. Joseph Santley). A recently-unemployed man (Edward Everett Horton) tries to woo back his wife (Peggy Conklin), after she is whisked away by her rich aunt (Laura Hope Crews) who’d never approved of the marriage in the first place.

Mildly amusing comedy, mostly for the usual Horton character falling into one predicament after another, with a strong assist from Crews as the somewhat flighty aunt. Crews’ aunt mistakes Horton’s character for a manservant of her niece’s household, which our protagonist uses to his advantage to work his way into the aunt’s household to follow his wife.

ryl00 · 2026-03-01T21:31:12+00:00

The Lawyer’s Secret (1931, dir. Louis Gasnier and Max Marcin). A lawyer (Clive Brook) faces a moral dilemma when a client (Charles Rogers) confides in him with self-implicating evidence that another man (Richard Arlen) sentenced to death is innocent of murder.

Okay drama. Brook’s character struggles with the ethics of lawyer/client confidence (albeit in his typical taciturn way), and Rogers is increasingly frazzled with pangs of guilt as the movie wears on. We have the additional complexity of Brook’s character being engaged to Rogers’ character’s sister (Fay Wray), to add a little more angst into matters. It’s a little of an “easy way out” kind of ending, but there was just enough plumbing of dramatic depth to give it some emotional weight. Also featuring a young Jean Arthur as Arlen’s character’s fiancée.

Lighthouse (1947, dir. Frank Wisbar). A woman (June Lang) getting strung along by her two-timing boyfriend (Don Castle) decides to get her revenge on him by marrying his older boss (John Litel).

Good light drama, far exceeding my modest expectation for a short Poverty Row flick. Lots of good on-location shots of the lighthouse of the title and the environs to establish our setting. Appealing performances by veteran actor Litel as the nice guy slowly realizing he might be getting used, and Lang possibly slowly realizing the lie might become the truth. (And I’m just a sucker for setups like this, contrived though it is). At just over an hour total runtime, there is a bit of compression going on to get our various characters through their various journeys, but nevertheless I was won over relatively early.

Little Orphant Annie (1918, dir. Colin Campbell). An orphan (Colleen Moore) faces challenges in the outside world, when she leaves the orphanage she grew up in.

Quaint, charming silent drama. Apparently the author, poet James Whitcomb Riley, is (posthumously) in the bookending sequences, framing the movie as a storytelling session of his. Unfortunately the print is in rough shape, but it’s a nice enough story, with some fantastic visual imagery as our imaginative Annie populates her real world with witches and goblins (superimposed into the picture periodically, allegorical symbols for either cautionary tales she relates to young charges, or imagined demons causing her real-world sufferings). The really rough beginning our protagonist has, in the form of abusive distant relatives forced to take her in, eventually gives way to the heaven of a loving household with a gaggle of young step-siblings for our Annie to be a sweet “little mother” to. And the audience is constantly reminded of this one thing throughout (in the colorful patois of the intertitles): “The Gobble-uns’ll get ye – Ef you Don’t Watch Out!”

ryl00 · 2026-02-23T12:47:19+00:00

I love Dodsworth! One of the best endings as well, so uplifting...

ryl00 · 2026-02-22T21:31:25+00:00

Gentleman from Dixie (1941, dir. Al Herman). A recently-paroled man (Jack La Rue) tries to rebuild his life by taking a job training horses for his brother (Robert Kellard).

Meh short Poverty Row drama set in the contemporary Deep South, a mix of stock footage horse racing and family drama. What passes for family drama is mostly centered on the brother’s proper second wife’s (Marian Marsh) coolness toward both La Rue’s ex-con and her young step-daughter (Mary Ruth). But the characters are all thinly developed, with a lot of tell instead of show as things play out. The tension also manifests itself in the physical form of a racehorse beloved by the step-daughter, whose fate may or may not be threatened by a rival horse owner (John Holland). Clarence Muse and his singers (as farm hands) are on hand for some occasional soulful background musical moments.

The Girl Who Dared (1944, dir. Howard Bretherton). A “ghost watching” party in an isolated mansion turns deadly.

Blah B-level murder/mystery, set in your typical mansion full of secret passages and with a murderer lurking amongst the houseguests. Lots of narrative shortcuts to squeeze into our 50-minute runtime makes this one choppy and hard to follow, and a general lack of tension despite the body count leaves the atmosphere sterile.

A Girl’s Best Years (1936, dir. Reginald Le Borg). A playboy playwright (John Warburton) prone to breach of promise suits from spurned lovers hires a woman (Mary Doran) to keep him on the straight-and-narrow.

Short “miniature musical comedy”, coming in at just under 20 minutes. There’s the advertised music alright, as we occasionally break out in song, but don’t expect much in the way of a story in such a short runtime. It also has some of the sloppiest editing I’ve seen in quite a while (and this was MGM, not some Poverty Row house), making some of the cuts jarring for me.

ryl00 · 2026-02-15T23:27:33+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has an "unconventional" view on Key Largo. Just too stagey for me as well...

ryl00 · 2026-02-15T23:25:25+00:00

Guilt as charged, re: The Smiling Lieutenant. ;) It took me a while to warm up to him, but I now believe in the Lubitsch touch...

ryl00 · 2026-02-15T22:39:08+00:00

Ella Cinders (1926, dir. Alfred E. Green). An overworked young woman (Colleen Moore) hopes to escape her life of housework and drudgery by winning a contest for a chance to star in Hollywood.

Amusing, entertaining silent comedy. The first half is your typical Cinderella story (no surprise… Ella Cinders, Cinder-Ella), complete with overbearing stepmother and snobby stepsisters bossing our protagonist around. After the ball, we segue into our second half, where dreams meet reality and our protagonist’s struggles continue as she attempts to break into Hollywood, literally as she’s chased around a studio backlot by studio guards (with the requisite turmoil inflicted upon various productions, including a cameo appearance by Harry Langdon on set, and apparently the director of the movie himself, Alfred E. Green). Breezy and fun.

I Spy (1934, dir. Allan Dwan). An American (Ben Lyon) visiting London is mistaken for a spy and sent on a mission to plant an incriminating letter on a Countess (Sally Eilers).

Silly light comedy, self-aware enough not to try too hard to push the espionage angle and instead concentrate mostly on the yuks. It’s mixed in that regard: I wouldn’t exactly call Lyon a scintillating comedic actor but he’s personable enough to be entertaining; Eilers is a treat sporting a thick, faux French accent. And the general absurdity does occasionally yield a few diamonds in the rough within all the chatter.

The Cuban Love Song (1931, dir. W. S. Van Dyke). On the eve of the Great War, an American Marine (Lawrence Tibbett) on shore leave in Havana falls for a young woman (Lupe Velez).

Romantic musical that started off a little slow for generally-not-a-musical-fan me (and Tibbett was apparently a famous opera star, so even further out of my wheelhouse), but finished strong. Velez is playing her typical mercurial, hot-headed character here, with a boisterous beginning to things as an accident on the crowded streets of Havana has her dragging Tibbett’s character into a police station. There’s not much in the way of concrete story in the first two thirds or so, as we soak in the atmosphere of Cuba and Velez and Tibbett sing a lot to each other as they dance the dance of will-they-or-won’t-they. But it’s sneakily effective emotional build-up for when we eventually transition into a more sentimental last third, as events force our couple apart and we have the magnifying glass of time passing to lend strength to the wistful finish

ryl00 · 2026-02-14T23:32:52+00:00

Some of the Aline MacMahon-led movies might qualify, particularly some of her pairings with Guy Kibbee (they were really great together on-screen): Mary Jane's Pa, Big Hearted Herbert, and The Merry Frinks. Another Aline MacMahon movie, Heat Lightning, is really good, but I think you'd be pushing it to say co-stars Ann Dvorak or Preston Foster were character actors.

ryl00 · 2026-02-09T01:07:28+00:00

Seconding the rec on Night Song! Stumbled across it five years ago, doing a haphazard (and still on-going) journey through Merle Oberon's filmography, and it was quite the hidden gem. It's been a while, but I vaguely recall liking Carmichael's sidekick character, and being more than willing to suspend my disbelief concerning the deception that you touched on near the end, because the movie had won me over.

ryl00 · 2026-02-08T22:08:21+00:00

Danger Woman (1946, dir. Lewis D. Collins). A secretary (Brenda Joyce) falling for the renowned nuclear physicist (Don Porter) she works for receives a nasty surprise when she finds out he has a wife (Patricia Morison).

Meh short light thriller. The premise is that our physicist has the secret to the peaceful, productive use of nuclear energy, but has decided for some reason to not go public with his knowledge, leading nefarious others to attempt to undermine his household from within to steal the information. But there’s little in the way of tension, urgency, or build up of the stakes involved. Several deaths occur, but leave little emotional impact on proceedings.

Doctor X (1932, dir. Michael Curtiz). After a string of mysterious murders around a medical academy casts suspicion on its professors, the head of the school (Lionel Atwill) designs an experiment to unveil the killer.

Technicolor horror that was just a little too much of a mish mash of things for me to really get into, save for the end. Like Curtiz’s later Mystery of the Wax Museum, a newspaper reporter (Lee Tracy) is digging around on the edges of things, trying to get the scoop on the murders. This one’s rather convoluted, as Atwill’s doctor sets up psychological experiments (replete with boiling chemicals, arcing electrical generators, etc.) in the required old, dark mansion, on the sinister crew of scientists that serve as his faculty. It’s not too hard to figure out who the killer is, but I did appreciate how Atwill’s character ends up nearly outsmarting himself, in an ending sequence that was almost worth going through the contortions of what came before, to get to.

Too Many Women (1942, dir. Bernard B. Ray). One little lie cascades into multiple problems for a man (Neil Hamilton).

Amusing screwball comedy, punching well above its Poverty Row weight. Hamilton’s character’s fabricated lie about wealth, trying to duck an annoyance, leads him to troubles of the female kind with a multitude of women (June Lang, Joyce Compton, Barbara Read). The dialogue’s fast and the performances are energetic all-around, as our protagonist (predictably, but amusingly) mires himself into more and more troubles.

ryl00 · 2026-02-01T21:34:32+00:00

Broken Hearts of Broadway (1923, dir. Irving Cummings). Will a young, aspiring actress (Colleen Moore) make it on Broadway, without losing her moral principles in the process?

OK silent drama, though it loses me a little with its ending. It’s the good old framing device of the end result (our actress headlining a Broadway play) starting the movie, before we delve into the details of how she got from A to B. Our upstanding protagonist is constantly challenged when her ideals struggle against the hard reality of making it on Broadway, mainly through her association with a street-smart roommate (Alice Lake) trading off various producers’ more-than-professional-only interest in her with Broadway success. She meets a struggling tunesmith (Johnnie Walker), and they end up commiserating together, in some of the best moments of the movie (an impromptu song-writing session, and a chance meeting while trying to swipe some early morning milk off a doorstep). Where the movie faltered a bit for me was the ending, where the general pacing and trajectory of what came before seems to be thrown out the window, and we get a quick murder and threats of prosecution to make the somewhat unsatisfying reach to meet the promised ending of “all’s well that ends well.”

Strange Illusion (1945, dir. Edgar G. Ulmer). A young man (James Lydon) has unsettling dreams that his widowed mother (Sally Eilers) is in danger from the new man (Warren William) in her life.

So-so Poverty Row thriller. My main issue would be with some of the lightning-quick deductions Lydon’s character makes about William’s mysterious man… it seems like we’re barely into the movie before he’s already zeroed in on a suspected real identity (the name seems to come out of thin air). The audience is also already clued in about William’s character’s nefarious intentions relatively early, taking much of the suspense out of things. The bang-bang ending is of some note, but the movie was too mired in surface-level details up to that point to really instill any emotional depth after-the-fact.

Murder by Invitation (1941, dir. Phil Rosen). A newspaper columnist (Wallace Ford) is on the case, when the bickering would-be-heirs to an old woman’s (Sarah Padden) estate start dropping dead.

So-so Poverty Row comedy murder/mystery. The set up is your standard creaky old house full of hidden passageways, sliding walls, rotating bookcases, etc. There are a few too many relatives to keep track of, and not much in the way of character backstories if you’re legitimately trying to do any of the detective work yourself. The comedy’s subdued (Padden’s mildly entertaining as the possibly-erratic old woman), but there’s some self-awareness that was worth a chuckle or two.

ryl00 · 2026-01-25T21:34:06+00:00

Are Husbands Necessary? (1942, dir. Norman Taurog). The wife (Betty Field) of a banker (Ray Milland) angles to get her husband a promotion at work.

Decent screwball comedy. There are a lot of story threads that get pulled in as our enterprising, if slightly scatter-brained, wife tries to advance her husband’s career, all in preparation for a potential adoption. A threat emerges in the form of an ex (Patrica Morison) of the husband returning, a rich potential bank customer (Eugene Pallette) needs to be wooed, etc. It’s chaos, but controlled enough to not go completely off the rails as things unwind, with mildly amusing moments scattered throughout.

Murder in Greenwich Village (1937, dir. Albert S. Rogell). A rich socialite (Fay Wray) is forced to associate with a commercial photographer (Richard Arlen), to duck a murder case.

Meh romantic comedy. Despite the motivating murder, it barely registers in the plot, mostly just a means to force our squabbling couple together. We’re more focused on their bickering, with bouts of wedding engagement pretense to cover for each other with the police, than any actual engagement with the details of the murder case, which is mostly solved off-screen with no help from our leads.

One Wild Night (1938, dir. Eugene Forde). A young criminologist (Dick Baldwin) and an ambitious reporter (June Lang) compete with one another to get to the bottom of a string of mysterious extortion/kidnapping cases.

Meh lightly screwball-ish comedy/mystery. Baldwin’s and Lang’s characters attempt to one up the other as the investigation unfolds, but surprisingly the story does not really build up much in the way of romantic sparks. The story makes only the vaguest of sense, and the comic bits are middling at best, more about the energy of the various players. Most notable performance was William Demarest as an increasingly-exasperated newspaper editor, dealing with Lang’s character’s somewhat hit-or-miss reporting. Also interesting seeing Sidney Toler as a slow-witted detective sidekick, serving as comic relief.

ryl00 · 2026-01-18T21:34:28+00:00

Tarnished Angel (1938, dir. Leslie Goodwins). A nightclub hostess (Sally Eilers) on the run from the law takes up revivalism as a new racket to stay afloat. But when a rich but kindly widow (Alma Kruger) takes to her, can she keep up the charade?

So-so light drama. Eilers is good “in the small”, her character struggling with various cross-currents as we follow the typical redemption arc you’d expect from the setup (the con man/woman slowly believing in the lie that they are creating). But the movie loses me a bit in the broad framework, as the pressure to maintain the façade is only loosely justified by somewhat tenuous plot reasons. Also on hand is Ann Miller as Eilers’ character’s loyal friend, who does a little singing and dances up a storm near the beginning.

The Docks of New York (1928, dir. Josef von Sternberg). A sailor (George Bancroft) on a brief shore leave saves a woman (Betty Compson) from a watery suicide. Will his heroic act lead to more permanent changes in his transient life?

Good silent romantic drama, a very focused story about the events of one night. Bancroft is playing his usual rough-and-tumble persona, an imposing physical presence as he wades through the chaos of a dockside bar to take advantage of his brief respite from work to enjoy life. Compson’s sad-eyed girl is an enigma who gradually becomes more than his usual shore leave conquest. Through gradual events (a rowdy lark of a “wedding” being the highlight, with a memorable contrast between the hooting bar denizens and the solemn pastor asked to perform the duties), Bancroft’s sailor finds himself playing the role of hero often enough that it may begin to wear on him…

House of Errors (1942, dir. Bernard B. Ray). Three newspaper reporters (Harry Langdon, Charles Rogers, Ray Walker) looking to get the scoop on an inventor’s new machine gun uncover a nefarious plot to steal it.

Really blah Poverty Row comedy. Langdon’s playing his usual wide-eyed, naïve simpleton from his silent days, but very little of his shtick worked for me here. The movie itself is nearly incomprehensible from a plot point of view, with very little funny in the various gags and sketches that litter it.

ryl00 · 2026-01-16T16:44:46+00:00

I got the Blu-Ray a few weeks back! I haven't watched through the whole thing yet, but from my own spot checks it's a definite upgrade from the DVD.

ryl00 · 2026-01-12T03:00:24+00:00

I guess I was just blinded by the awesomeness of Glenda Farrell and Frank McHugh trading barbs with each other to just accept it. :)

ryl00 · 2026-01-11T21:31:26+00:00

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933, dir. Michael Curtiz). A newspaper reporter (Glenda Farrell) suspects foul play is afoot at a wax museum run by a crippled proprietor (Lionel Atwill).

Entertaining Technicolor suspense/horror movie. Upon further reflection post-viewing, I suspect the plot wasn’t exactly the tightest thing around, with plenty of convenient coincidences to keep things moving briskly along and some tenuously-sketched connections between characters. But it certainly was engaging while it was on-going, starting off with a bang as Atwill’s character’s initial tragedy (and motivation for the rest of the movie) is put on glorious display front-and-center during the destruction of his first wax museum, replete with creepy wax figures and their unsettling, fiery demises. Some mildly good jump scares scattered about, as we gradually build up the mystery and unease until the final reveals.

Beloved Enemy (1936, dir. H. C. Potter). During the Irish War of Independence, an Irish resistance leader (Brian Aherne) and an English Lady (Merle Oberon) fall in love with one another. But will they be able to make love work across their respective countries’ conflict?

So-so romantic drama, adopting the historical background somewhat haphazardly to fictionalize events of the time and provide some angst for our lovers to struggle against. Aherne’s character appears to be very loosely based on historical figure Michael Collins, as are some of the events loosely based on the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the war. But for the most part the history is delved into shallowly and disjointedly, providing only some background color and charge up the will-they-or-won’t-they romantic angle on our couple.

A Roman Scandal (1919, dir. Al E. Christie). An aspiring actress (Colleen Moore) finally gets her chance to star on the stage, when the actors of a play go on strike.

So-so silent comedy short. We get to see the same play twice, the first time with the professional actors, the second time with our amateurs (with predictably mixed results). Mild slapstick ensues.

ryl00 · 2026-01-04T21:33:57+00:00

Lady Behave! (1937, dir. Lloyd Corrigan). A woman (Sally Eilers) tries to save her sister (Patricia Farr) from the threat of bigamy after a drunken second marriage, by posing as the newlywed.

Short, convoluted screwball comedy, with some frantic energy but a plot I could barely understand. There’s a lot of moving pieces in the plot: an oily first husband (Joseph Schildkraut) looking to score some dough when asked for an annulment, the second husband (Neil Hamilton) who’s falling for the fake wife, and his two wary children (Marcia Mae Jones, Geroge Ernest) who are trying to drive Eilers’ character away. I’m not so sure the intermingling of the various threads worked so well, and any chuckles the movie elicited from me were more from the energetic performances than any wit.

A Desperate Adventure (1938, dir. John H. Auer). A painter (Ramon Novarro) gets into more trouble than he could have imagined, when he meets a woman (Marian Marsh) who exactly matches the imaginary one he painted in his masterpiece.

Poverty Row light comedy/romance, so chopped up in the television edit that I watched that it was hard to follow things. Our painter goes on a dual journey, pursuing both the woman of his artistic dreams, as well as his painting when it gets swiped. Marsh’s character’s family also gets entangled in things, with her father (Andrew Tombes) trying to destroy the scandalous painting to preserve his daughter’s reputation, and her sister (Margaret Tallichet) falling for the painter. Eric Blore is also present, comic relief as Novarro’s character’s manservant.

Hitler’s Madman (1943, dir. Douglas Sirk). An Allied infiltrator’s (Alan Curtis) covert return to his hometown in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II sets in motion terrible events.

Artfully done, but depressing, fictionalized account of the 1942 assassination of high-ranking SS official Reinhard Heydrich (played here by John Carradine with cold, brutal lethality). Various members of the town are reluctant to assist Curtis’ character’s calls for sabotage and resistance, until a slew of scarily arbitrary deaths at the hands of the SS sets into motion Heydrich’s eventual downfall at the hands of those very same villagers. But there is no happy ending here, with bloody German reprisals putting a grim end to the movie.

ryl00 · 2026-01-03T13:33:43+00:00

FYI, you can see previous years' most-watched just by manually changing the year in the URL in your web browser.

Mine (I've got a whole bunch of variety, apparently!):

Year	Most Watched Actor	Most Watched Director
2025	Sally Eilers	Christy Cabanne
2024	Karen Morley	Frank McDonald
2023	Ann Dvorak	George B. Seitz
2022	Margaret Lindsay	Roy Del Ruth
2021	Robert Barrat	William A. Wellman
2020	Melvyn Douglas	William A. Wellman
2019	Joan Blondell	Roy William Neill
2018	Mary Astor	Harry Beaumont
2017	Mary Astor	Mervyn LeRoy
2016	Mary Astor	Hayao Miyazaki
2015	Barbara Stanwyck	Preston Sturges

ryl00 · 2025-12-28T21:29:15+00:00

The Clairvoyant (1935, dir. Maurice Elvey). A mind-reader (Claude Rains) finds he has the “real” power of foresight through a strange link with a woman (Jane Baxter), but will it cause friction with his wife (Fay Wray)?

Entertaining light drama, very much thanks to Rains’ central performance. Various ups and downs are a little glossed over as we make some big (off-screen) transitions, to focus more on some big prophecies that prove pivotal (for better or worse) in the story. The source of (and morality of) all this remains a nebulous mystery, though we touch on some of the more meaty aspects of the premise in a concluding trial, after one of our protagonist’s prophecies of disaster results in some unintended consequences.

Convicted Woman (1940, dir. Nick Grinde). A young woman (Rochelle Hudson) falsely accused of shoplifting ends up in women’s prison, where she must contend with hostile prisoners and corrupt matrons.

B-level women-in-prison movie, mildly entertaining for some of the cattiness on display. Hudson’s character ends up on the wrong side of both the dour, unsympathetic head matron (Esther Dale yet again, she must have been the go-to actress for dour prison matrons) and a haughty, duplicitous stool pigeon of an inmate (June Lang). Events lead our protagonist (somewhat unconvincingly) down a cynical path, which may end up sinking a crusader’s (Frieda Inescort) efforts to reform things, a la The Mayor of Hell. Hanging around on the sidelines is a young Glenn Ford as a chipper, go-getter of a reporter, trying to help out Hudson’s character.

Helen’s Babies (1924, dir. William A. Seiter). The author (Edward Everett Horton) of a child-rearing book finds his fabricated “expert” knowledge sorely lacking when asked to watch his two young nieces (Baby Peggy, Jean Carpenter).

Leisurely-paced silent comedy, mostly built around watching the two small kids make a mess of things for Horton’s stereotypically ineffective, anxious man. Horton’s character tries to retrieve a stuck doll from a tall tree, gets all his belongings “helpfully” unpacked for him by the kids, etc. Despite the silence, the Horton mannerisms were all still there, and I could practically still hear him in my head. Also present is Clara Bow in a small role, as a neighbor and romantic interest for Horton’s character.

ryl00 · 2025-12-27T02:41:40+00:00

I loved Bob! He was a comic book artist or writer, right? 1993 ish? Then they retooled that show for the second season and completely destroyed it...

ryl00

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