Came the Dawn (1928) - A house that hates its owners

You should definitely watch this if you have ever felt personally insulted by a piece of furniture or a leaky faucet. It is perfect for a rainy afternoon when you want to feel better about your own living situation.

If you hate old silent slapstick where people fall down every thirty seconds, you will probably want to skip this one. But honestly, you would be missing out on some top-tier frustration acting.

Max Davidson has this face that just looks like he is constantly expecting the sky to fall. In this movie, it basically does, starting with the roof and working its way down.

The whole premise starts with a neighbor making a joke that the house took two days to build but two years to sell. I laughed out loud at that because it feels so modern, like something you would read on a bad real estate listing today. 🏠

As soon as the family moves in, the house starts fighting back. It is not haunted or anything, it is just terribly made.

There is a bit with a folding bed that is honestly terrifying if you think about it too hard. Max gets folded up like a human taco, and for a second, you can see real panic in his eyes.

Polly Moran is here too, and she is just such a force. She doesn't just react to the house falling apart; she looks like she wants to fight the carpenter who built it.

I noticed at one point the wallpaper seems to be held up by nothing but hope. When a piece peels off, the reaction from the cast feels almost unscripted, like they weren't sure if the set was actually going to hold up.

The pacing is a bit weird in the middle, though. There is a scene involving a bathtub that goes on for a while and I sort of lost the thread of who was supposed to be where.

It reminds me a little bit of the domestic chaos in It Must Be Love, but with way more physical property damage. The Roach studio guys really knew how to break things in a way that felt expensive and satisfying.

I love the small details, like the way the door handles just come off in their hands. It happens so often it becomes a running gag that actually gets funnier the third time it happens.

There is a dog in a few scenes that looks completely confused by the humans running around. He just sits there while the house is basically exploding, and it is the most relatable part of the film. 🐶

Some of the gags feel a bit recycled if you have seen a lot of these shorts. But Max Davidson’s mustache does a lot of the heavy lifting for the comedy.

The ending is a bit abrupt, which I guess is standard for 1928. Things just stop happening once the house is sufficiently destroyed.

I think the writers, including Leo McCarey, were just having a bad week with their own homes when they wrote this. You can feel the genuine spite toward bad architecture in every scene.

It is not a masterpiece or anything, but it is very honest about how much it sucks to move into a new place. I’d take this over a polished modern comedy any day of the week.

If you look closely at the background during the kitchen scene, you can see a window that doesn't actually lead anywhere. It is just a black void, which is kind of creepy if you dwell on it.

Anyway, it is a solid twenty minutes of watching a man’s dreams get crushed by bad carpentry. We have all been there, right? 🛠️

The print I watched was a bit grainy, but it actually added to the charm. It felt like watching an old family home movie of a disaster.