He's a Honey: A chaotic romp that barely holds together

Is it worth the time?

Honestly, you probably know if you’re into this or not within the first five minutes. If you want a movie that’s mostly just people shouting and falling over furniture, you’ll have a great time. If you prefer, say, the more grounded drama of Turkish Delight, you are going to be bored to tears. It’s a very specific kind of 1930s comedy that feels like a sugar rush that lasts way too long.

The whole thing moves at such a breakneck speed that nobody really has time to act. It feels like the director just yelled 'Go!' and everyone started sprinting. There’s a scene where Edgar Kennedy tries to fix a piece of furniture that is so clearly held together by tape and hope, and I think that’s the best part of the movie.

The Door Problem

There are simply too many doors in this house. People are constantly popping in and out, and eventually, it stops being funny and just feels like an architectural nightmare. I found myself counting them at one point. Why does a kitchen need three different exits? It’s just showing off at that point.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of He's a Honey (1932) through its definitive frames.

Eleanor Hunt does her best to anchor the chaos, but she’s mostly just there to look surprised. Every time she walks into a room, something explodes or someone trips. It’s exhausting to watch, but in a weirdly charming way. It definitely lacks the subtle touch you might find in something like The Clean Heart, but that’s clearly not what they were going for.

Odd Little Moments

• There is a dog in the background of the garden scene that clearly wants nothing to do with the actors.
• The sound editing is so crunchy it sounds like someone is eating chips right into the microphone.
• I swear the same background extra appears in three different scenes as three different people.
• Someone drops a tray of dishes and the sound effect happens about a full second *after* the tray hits the floor.

The pacing is entirely lopsided. The first act takes forever to set up a joke that isn't even that funny, and then the ending happens so fast you almost miss it. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in A Regular Trouper, but without the musical numbers to give you a breather. Sometimes I wonder if they even had a script or just a list of props they needed to break by the end of the day. 🥣

I wouldn't say this is a hidden masterpiece. It’s more like a relic of a time when people just wanted to laugh at someone getting hit with a pie. There’s something kind of honest about that, even if it’s not exactly high art. I watched it on a Tuesday when I was tired, and honestly? It did the trick. Just don't go looking for deep meaning here, because you won't find it under all that sawdust.