Love at First Flight: Slapstick, a Cat, and Cardboard Planes

You should watch this if you have twenty minutes and want to see people fall over things in a way that looks like it actually hurt. It is perfect for a lazy Sunday when you do not want to think too hard. People who hate silent movies or think slapstick is 'childish' should probably just stay away.

It is a Mack Sennett production, so you know exactly what you are getting. It is basically pure chaos from the second it starts. There is a wedding that goes wrong, which feels like a theme in these old shorts, especially if you have seen Bride and Broom.

Daphne Pollard is the standout here for me. She is so tiny but she fills up the whole screen with this weird, aggressive energy. She spends a lot of the movie looking like she is one second away from biting someone. I love her.

The plot is about a guy who gets into a mess and ends up on a flight. The airplane looks like it was built out of wood and hope. It shakes so much I thought the film might actually break. Pussums the Cat is also in the credits, which is the best thing I have seen all week. 🐱

There is a specific moment where they are in the air and the wind is just destroying everyone's hair. It feels real in a way that modern CGI stuff never does. You can tell they were actually uncomfortable while filming this.

The pacing is a bit weird. It starts at a ten and then tries to go to an eleven, but it kind of just stays at a ten until it ends. I noticed a guy named Roger Moore in the credits. Obviously not the James Bond guy, but it made me laugh anyway.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Love at First Flight (1928) through its definitive frames.

Some of the gags go on a little too long. There is a bit with a ladder that I think lasted about thirty seconds more than it needed to. But that is just slapstick, I guess.

The stunts are actually kind of scary. There is a scene where a guy is hanging off something and you realize there are no safety wires. People back then were absolutely fearless or just didn't care if they broke a leg. It reminds me of the energy in Broke in China where everything just feels dangerous.

I found myself wondering about the cat the whole time. Pussums. Does the cat have a trailer? Probably not. But the cat has better comedic timing than half the human cast. 🐾

The movie does not try to be deep. It just wants to show you a guy having a very bad day. It is loud even though it is silent. You can almost hear the yelling.

If you like seeing 1920s cars and weird hats, there is plenty of that. The background extras always look like they just wandered in off the street and were told to look surprised. One guy in the back of the wedding scene is just staring directly at the camera for like five seconds.

It is not a masterpiece. But it is short and fast. Sometimes that is all you need from a movie. ✈️