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6.6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Oh! Oh! Cleopatra remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have twenty minutes and a high tolerance for 1930s chaos, Oh! Oh! Cleopatra is a strange little trip. It is definitely worth watching if you are the kind of person who enjoys seeing old Hollywood legends act like complete idiots.
Most people will probably hate it, though. If you need things like 'plot logic' or 'good sound quality,' stay far away from this one.
The whole thing starts in a lab that looks like it was put together in about five minutes. There is a mad scientist who has invented a time-travel pill.
I love that it is a pill. Not a machine, not a portal, just a big chalky-looking pill that you swallow to go back to the days of pharaohs. 💊
The two main guys, played by Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, take the pill and suddenly they are in Egypt. They do not seem particularly worried about the physics of this.
Wheeler and Woolsey are a specific taste, for sure. They talk fast, they make terrible puns, and they constantly look like they are about to break character and laugh at their own jokes.
It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in Ain't Love Grand?, where everything feels like it might fly off the tracks at any second.
The sets looks like they were made of cardboard and leftover curtains. You can almost see the edges of the studio walls if you look closely at the corners of the screen during the palace scenes.
Dorothy Burgess plays Cleopatra, and honestly, she looks mildly inconvenienced by the whole thing. She has to sit there while these two guys from the 1930s scream at her in bad Roman outfits.
There is this one shot where she is just staring into the middle distance. I think she was wondering if her paycheck was going to clear.
The costumes are also hilarious. One guy is wearing a Roman helmet that looks like it is about three sizes too big, and it keeps sliding down over his eyes when he talks.
They did not bother to fix it. They just kept filming. 🏛️
The movie gets noticeably better once the chariot race starts. It is not exactly Ben-Hur, let's put it that way.
The horses look confused. The actors look genuinely terrified that the chariots are going to tip over, which they probably were.
There is a moment where a chariot wheels wobbles so hard I thought the movie was gonna turn into a snuff film for a second. It adds a layer of real danger to the slapstick.
It is a short film, so it does not overstay its welcome. It just sort of... ends. 🏁
The humor is very hit-or-miss. Some of the jokes are so old they have whiskers, but the pure energy of the cast keeps it moving.
I noticed a few extras in the background of the crowd scenes just standing there with their arms crossed. They were not even trying to look like ancient Egyptians.
It is that kind of movie. It is sloppy and loud and doesn't care if you think it is smart.
If you liked the weird pacing of The Bride's Relations, you will probably find something to smile at here. It is just a bunch of professionals having a very expensive party on a soundstage.
Maybe it's just me, but there is something comforting about a movie that is this unpolished. It feels like real people making mistakes in real time.
Do not expect a masterpiece. Just expect a pill, a race, and a lot of shouting.
IMDb 7.6
1915
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