It's a Buoy

In the domestic comedy of errors 'It's a Buoy', Larry Kent portrays a man caught in the crosshairs of a linguistic catastrophe. The narrative pivots on a classic silent-era trope: the misheard or misread message. When a telegram arrives regarding the arrival of a 'buoy', Kent’s character—fueled by the anxieties and hopes of early 20th-century domesticity—convinces himself that he is about to become a father. The film explores the frantic preparations and the eventual, crushing realization that the 'new arrival' is a piece of nautical equipment rather than a human infant. Alberta Vaughn provides the necessary grounding as the wife who must navigate her husband's escalating delusions, leading to a climax that is as heavy as the iron object at the center of the joke.