Passport to Paradise Review: A Silly, Fast Silent Globe-Trotter

Should you watch Passport to Paradise tonight? Only if you have a soft spot for silent-era comedies that feel like they were written on a napkin during a lunch break.

If you want high art, you will absolutely hate this. But if you like watching actors do goofy double-takes while pretending to be in exotic places, its a fun little time-waster.

The plot is basically a giant excuse for a road trip. Jack Mulhall has to travel the globe to get his inheritance because of some weird will. It is the classic "rich guy has to do tasks to get richer" trope.

Along the way, he runs into a deposed princess played by Gloria Joy. She has this incredibly dramatic way of sighing that made me laugh every single time. Seriously, her shoulders sink like she is carrying the weight of the entire world.

There is this one scene in a crowded street market where you can clearly see a random kid in the background just staring straight at the camera. He looks so confused. It is these little mistakes that make these old silent films so charming to watch.

The pacing is pretty fast, almost like Off His Trolley, but without the train. It just keeps bouncing from one location to the next.

Vernon Dent is also in this. You might know him from old comedy shorts, and he brings that same silly energy here. He has this face that looks like a disappointed potato whenever things go wrong.

The romance between Mulhall and Joy happens so fast it will give you whiplash. One minute they are strangers, the next they are looking at each other like they have been married for fifty years.

It does not make a whole lot of sense, but it does not need to.

Some of the sets look incredibly cheap, like they just painted some cardboard and hoped the camera would not get too close. And the camera does get too close a few times.

A few things I noticed:

• That one guy's fake mustache looks like it is about to fall off in the harbor scene. 🧔
• The title cards are surprisingly sassy.
• The "around the world" aspect mostly just looks like different corners of a California studio lot. 🌴

It is not going to change your life. But it is a neat little slice of 1920s fun if you have an hour to spare.