Dumb-Bell Letters No. 19: Someone really wrote this?

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have ten minutes to kill and a strange obsession with how bad people were at writing letters in the old days. If you’re looking for a plot, look elsewhere. If you want to laugh at how someone tried to order a piano while sounding like they were actively losing their mind, you're in the right place.

This isn't for everyone. Serious film buffs will probably think it's a total waste of celluloid. But if you're the kind of person who reads the 1-star reviews on Amazon just for the drama? You’ll get a kick out of this.

The vibe

It’s essentially just a series of snapshots of letters. No big budget, no grand acting. Just pure, unadulterated nonsense from real people.

There is this one bit about a plumbing request that goes on for way too long. The handwriting is so messy you can almost feel the person getting angrier as they reached the bottom of the page. It’s oddly relatable, even if the context is ancient history.

Why it’s weird

• The narrator clearly doesn't know how to pronounce half the words.
• The editing feels like it was done with a pair of rusty garden shears.
• Some of these letters are so nonsensical I wonder if they were just pranks.

Compared to something like The Paleface, this feels like an accidental comedy. You can tell they tried to make it funny, but the real comedy is just how bizarre people are when they put pen to paper. It’s like watching a train wreck of grammar.

It reminds me a bit of the chaos in A Tray Full of Trouble, where everything just sort of falls apart for no good reason. Except here, the disaster is the spelling. ✍️

I caught myself pausing just to read the screen closely. Some of the phrasing is so bad it’s actually kind of poetic. Who writes a letter to a company and starts by talking about their neighbor's cow? Apparently, someone in this film did.

It doesn't try to be meaningful. It doesn't offer a lesson. It’s just a weird little window into people being difficult for the sake of it. Maybe that's the point. Or maybe there isn't one. Either way, it's a strange trip. 🤷‍♂️