Molly Picon is kinda weird and great in this 1929 short

I just got done watching this Molly Picon short and my brain is a little scrambled. If you're into old-school Vaudeville or just want to see how weird 1929 could get, this is worth a few minutes of your life. 🍿

Anyone who needs a cohesive plot or high-def action will probably hate this though. It's basically a filmed stage act, and it's very old.

The first part is the strangest. Molly is sitting in her dressing room wearing these pajamas that are basically see-through. 👗

She's playing this high-maintenance star being interviewed. The weirdest part is her voice.

She keeps jumping back and forth between a really fake French accent and her normal American voice. It's not a good accent, but I think that's the point? Maybe?

She starts talking about how she shot her husband. Apparently, killing your spouse was a hilarious topic for a joke back then.

She says it so casually, like she's talking about what she had for breakfast. It's a bit dark if you actually think about it for more than a second.

The lighting in this scene is really flat. It makes the whole dressing room look like it's made of cardboard, which it probably was. 📦

Then the movie just... shifts. Suddenly she’s not a glamorous star anymore.

She's playing her famous persona, the tired, inner-city woman. She looks totally different, like she aged twenty years in a costume change.

She's got this thick Yiddish dialect now. It feels way more real than the French stuff from the first half.

She’s talking to her Irish neighbor about her husband. This husband is apparently a total loser, but she says she still loves him.

It’s that classic "can't live with him, can't live without him" trope. It reminded me a little bit of the domestic energy in The Humdinger, but much more focused on the character's voice.

The way she uses her hands while she talks is fascinating. They never stop moving. 👋

It’s like she’s trying to grab the words out of the air. It’s very theatrical, which makes sense because that was her whole world.

The sound quality is pretty rough, honestly. You can hear that constant hiss that old Vitaphone recordings always have.

Sometimes her voice gets a bit shrill and it almost hurts the ears. You can tell the microphones back then weren't ready for her energy.

I noticed a small shadow flickering on the back wall during the second sketch. It looks like a stagehand walked past a light or something. 🎥

It’s those little mistakes that make these old movies feel more human to me. They didn't have the budget or the tech to fix every little thing.

If you've seen Heebee Jeebees, you know how these early sound shorts can be hit or miss. This one is a hit mostly because Molly is just so magnetic.

Even when the jokes don't land, you can't really look away from her. She’s got this huge personality that barely fits on the screen.

It’s way more interesting than something like Scrambled Wives which feels a bit more formulaic. Molly is doing her own thing here.

The transition between the two characters is the most impressive part. It shows she wasn't just a one-trick pony.

I wish the second sketch went on a bit longer. It felt like she was just getting started with the gossip when it ended.

The neighbor character doesn't really do much. She’s just there to give Molly someone to talk at.

It’s a bit like a monologue with a witness. The neighbor looks slightly bored, or maybe she was just trying to remember her cues. 💤

There’s a moment where Molly almost breaks character and smiles. It’s right after a joke about her husband's laziness.

It’s very quick, but it makes the whole thing feel like a live performance. I love that stuff.

The pajamas in the first scene are still the thing I can't get over. They are so incredibly 1920s "chic" but they look like they’d be itchy as hell.

Anyway, it’s a short film, so it’s not like you’re losing a whole afternoon. Give it a look if you want to see a legend in her prime.

It’s not as polished as Careers or some of the bigger features from that year. But it has more heart in its pinky finger than those big studio films do.

Just don't expect a lot of production value. It's a woman, a chair, and some weird dialogue. 🎭

And that’s really all you need sometimes. It beats a lot of the over-produced junk we get now.