Custard Pies Review: A very sticky silent mess

If you want to see grown men lose their dignity over dessert, this is for you. It's short, it's sticky, and it is basically a blueprint for every food fight ever filmed.

Paul Terry is the main face here. He mostly just looks very worried before getting hit with something white and fluffy.

There isn't a plot so much as a series of excuses to throw things. It feels like they had a surplus of bakery items and ten minutes of film left.

The way the pies actually land is the best part. They don't just hit; they explode in a way that modern CGI just can't get right.

You can see the actors trying not to laugh. Or maybe they are just trying not to choke on the flour.

It reminds me a bit of The Fraidy Cat in terms of that nervous energy. Everything is slightly too fast.

There is this one guy in the background who gets hit twice. He looks genuinely annoyed the second time, like he didn't sign up for this.

It’s not 'high art' or whatever people call old movies these days. It’s just a mess. 🥧

I noticed that the pies look surprisingly heavy. They don't fly like frisbees; they drop like rocks.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Custard Pies (1929) through its definitive frames.

One scene has a dog running through the background. I don't think the dog was supposed to be there at all.

It’s way more fun than some of the drier stuff from that year like The White Raven. That one felt like doing homework.

This feels like a Friday night at 2 AM. It's stupid but you can't really look away.

The film quality is grainy as heck. Sometimes you can barely tell who is who until they get hit with a pie.

Then the white cream makes them stand out against the dark clothes. It’s like a low-budget special effect that actually works.

I wonder how many takes they did. Probably just one because the cleaning bill would be insane.

Cleaning that set must have been a nightmare. I hope they got paid well for getting custard in their ears.

If you hate slapstick, you will absolutely hate this. It’s relentless and loud, even though it's silent.

But if you like seeing the origins of cartoon logic, it’s a gold mine. Paul Terry clearly took these vibes into his later animation work.

Watch it if you have ten minutes and don't want to think. Don't watch it if you're hungry or if you hate seeing food go to waste.