Fly Hi: A weird, dusty relic you probably don't need to watch

If you're looking for a tight, well-oiled machine of a film, keep walking. Fly Hi is for the kind of person who enjoys watching old, fuzzy film stock and wondering why the lighting guy decided to give up halfway through the second act. If you want plot, go elsewhere. If you want to see two guys try their hardest to look busy while the camera just... hangs there, you might find something to like here.

Harry Bailey and John Foster are clearly trying, though there’s a moment in the middle where they both look like they’ve forgotten what the next line is supposed to be. They just kind of stare at each other. It lasts way too long. It’s almost painfully human.

The pacing is a complete disaster, but in a way that feels kind of honest. It isn't trying to be Seine Hoheit, der Eintänzer, which at least had a sense of its own rhythm. Fly Hi just sort of happens to you. It’s like being trapped in a room with someone telling a story they don’t quite remember.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Fly Hi (1931) through its definitive frames.

Odd bits I wrote down:

• There is a prop chair that wobbles every single time Harry sits down. Nobody fixed it.
• The background extras in the street scenes have clearly been told to just walk back and forth. You can see the same guy in the bowler hat pass by four times. 🎩
• The audio track sounds like it was recorded inside a tin can during a windstorm.

It’s nowhere near as coherent as Double Reward, but maybe that’s the point? It feels like the movie was made over a long weekend by people who were mostly interested in getting to the pub by five. It’s not 'bad' in a fun way, just very inconsequential.

I found myself zoning out and just watching the dust motes dancing in the light beams. The film is pretty scratched up, which actually adds more texture than the actual performances do. 🎞️

Anyway, don't go into this expecting a hidden masterpiece. It’s a scratchy, uneven, and largely pointless exercise in early screen presence. But hey, sometimes you just want to watch something that doesn't care if you're paying attention or not.