Lighthouse Love: A dusty, weird little comedy

Is this thing worth a look?

Honestly? Only if you’re deep into the weeds of early comedy and have a soft spot for silent-era tropes that refuse to die. If you’re looking for a tight plot, you’ll hate this. If you want to see a bunch of guys in uniform running around looking confused, you might find it charming.

The whole premise of Lighthouse Love is basically a bad joke stretched thin. Two marines in Hang Chow. They’re sick of women. They join a lighthouse patrol. That’s it. It’s the kind of logic that only makes sense in a black-and-white comedy where everyone walks funny.

Watching Tiny Ward and Ben Turpin try to be serious soldiers is… well, it’s a stretch. There’s a specific scene near the start where they’re trying to look stoic, but they just look like they’re waiting for someone to trip over a bucket. It’s awkward, but in a way that feels intentional.

The pacing is all over the place. Sometimes it feels like they forgot to cut the film, and other times it jumps ahead so fast you’ll miss half the gag. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Look Pleasant Please, but with more salt spray and less coherent direction.

The lighthouse set is clearly just a plywood box. Every time someone leans on a wall, the whole thing shakes like it’s made of crackers. I couldn't stop looking at this one specific prop—a lamp that looks like it was stolen from a desk in 1920. It doesn't even flicker right. It just sits there, being a desk lamp in a lighthouse.

Franklin Pangborn is in this, which is always a treat if you like that specific brand of panicked energy. He elevates things whenever he shows up. It’s like he’s in a completely different, much better movie than everyone else.

There’s a segment involving a sequence of misunderstandings that lasts way too long. I think I checked my watch twice. It’s not that it isn’t funny, it’s just that it insists on being funny until you’re just kind of tired of watching them wave their arms around.

If you’ve seen Spooky Spooks, you’ll recognize that familiar, slightly desperate vibe where they throw everything at the screen to see what sticks. Not everything sticks here. Most of it slides right off the lighthouse wall.

Random thoughts from the back row:

• The uniforms look like they’re three sizes too big for half the cast.
• The sea scenes? Definitely a bathtub or a very small tank. You can see the ripples hitting the edge of the screen.
• Ben Turpin’s eyes are doing a lot of heavy lifting.
• The dialogue cards are surprisingly short. Sometimes they just say "Huh?" and honestly, same.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly good movie. But there’s something about the way these guys throw themselves into these ridiculous roles that feels… human. It’s messy, it’s loud, and it’s weirdly endearing for about thirty minutes before it wears out its welcome. 🌊🔦