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5.6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Meet the Baron remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you're into the kind of 1930s slapstick that moves faster than the plot can keep up with, you'll probably have a blast. People who hate movies where the 'hero' is just a guy screaming at walls until things work out should probably stay far away. It’s loud. It’s frantic. It’s very, very old.
There's this moment early on where the sheer scale of the confusion just hits you. You’ve got Jack Pearl playing the fake Baron, and he’s doing this manic, high-energy thing that feels like he’s trying to inflate his own importance just to keep the frame from collapsing. It’s not subtle. Nothing in this movie is.
Then, of course, the Three Stooges show up. Seeing Moe, Larry, and Curly just doing their thing—which is mostly just being absolute chaos in janitor uniforms—makes the rest of the film feel like a weird, jittery fever dream. It’s like they wandered onto the wrong set and just decided to stay. Honestly? I’m here for it. They are the only ones keeping the energy up when the script starts to drag.
It’s not as sharp or as cynical as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I caught recently, but it’s got its own frantic rhythm. The pacing is all over the place. Sometimes it feels like it’s sprinting, and other times it just stands there, waiting for someone to deliver a line that’s barely funny enough to justify the setup.
You can tell the writers were just throwing stuff at the wall. Some of it sticks, most of it slides down the paint, but the sheer effort is kind of impressive. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Once a Plumber, just way more loud.
I don't think this is a 'good' movie by any standard metric, but it’s definitely a watchable one if you’re in the mood for something that doesn’t ask you to think too hard. It’s basically just a vehicle for personalities to collide. 🤡
