Oh Darling! Review: A Weirdly Frantic Silent Short

If you have about fifteen minutes and a high tolerance for scratchy, flickering film, you might find something to like here. It is definitely not a hidden masterpiece that will change your life.

Actually, it is mostly just people being annoyed at each other in small rooms. But if you like old-school physical comedy, it has a certain charm that is hard to hate. 🎥

Norman Peck is the main draw here. He has this way of twitching his mustache that is actually kind of impressive when you think about it.

He spends a lot of the movie looking like he just smelled something bad. It is a very specific kind of face that only silent actors could get away with.

Then there is Judith Barrett. She spends most of her scenes looking like she is waiting for her paycheck to clear.

I don't blame her. The plot is basically a series of misunderstandings that could be solved in two seconds if anyone just stopped moving for a moment.

There is this one bit where a character trips over a rug. It feels so poorly timed that it actually becomes funny for the wrong reasons.

The rug doesn't even look real. It looks like a piece of old felt someone found in a bin behind the studio.

I watched The Man-Getter last week and that felt like a blockbuster compared to this. This movie feels like it was made on a budget of about five dollars and a ham sandwich.

The lighting is basically just "is the sun out?" If it was cloudy that day, I guess they just didn't film.

Eva Thatcher shows up as a grumpy lady. She is really good at being grumpy.

She has a glare that could probably peel paint off a wall. Every time she enters a frame, the energy goes up because you know she's about to yell at someone.

The title cards are a bit of a nightmare. They stay on the screen for so long I had time to check my phone and look out the window.

I think the editors assumed the audience read at a pace of one word per minute. It really kills the pacing of the jokes.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Oh Darling! (1930) through its definitive frames.

It reminds me a little of The Heart Line but without any of the actual emotion. Just a lot of people moving their arms around.

There is a scene with Sidney Bracey where he just stands in the background looking awkward. He doesn't know what to do with his hands.

I felt for him. We have all been that person at a party who doesn't know where to put their hands.

The movie gets slightly better when the characters finally leave the house. But then they just go to a garden that looks exactly like the house but with more dirt.

If you enjoyed Freckles, you will probably find this too messy. It doesn't have that same kind of sweet, grounded feeling.

One reaction shot of Norman Peck lingers for about ten seconds too long. You can almost see him asking the director if he can stop making the face now.

It is those little human moments that make these old films worth a look, even if they aren't "good" in the traditional sense.

I noticed a dog in the background of one shot that clearly wasn't supposed to be there. It just wanders across the grass and looks at the camera like "what are these humans doing?" 🐶

That dog was the most relatable thing in the whole movie.

The ending just sort of happens. There is no big resolution or grand finale.

It feels like the cameraman just ran out of film and everyone decided to go home and have dinner. It is very abrupt.

I've seen better stuff from this era, like Nell Gwyn, which at least felt like it had a plan. Oh Darling! feels like it was made up on the spot during a lunch break.

Should you watch it? Only if you are a completionist or if you really, really like seeing people fall over furniture.

It's a weird little time capsule of a time when "darling" was the height of comedy. It's okay, I guess. Just okay.