Plane Dumb: A weird relic from another era

Is it worth your time?

Honestly? Only if you are a film historian or you have a morbid curiosity about how movies used to handle... well, everything. If you are looking for a breezy watch, look elsewhere. If you are easily offended or just want a movie that makes sense, you will probably hate this.

The whole premise is just wildly uncomfortable by modern standards. Tom and Jerry end up in Africa and decide the best way to survive is to pretend they belong there. It is the kind of 'fish out of water' comedy that feels less like a joke and more like a fever dream.

The pacing is all over the place. One minute they are frantically running from something, and the next, the movie just stops for a bit of awkward physical comedy that goes on for way too long. It reminds me of the weird pacing in Not So Dumb where you just sit there wondering when the scene is actually going to end.

There is this one moment near the middle where they are trying to fix a piece of equipment, and the focus is so tight on their faces you can practically see the sweat. It felt like the director was shouting 'Be funny!' at them. They weren't.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Plane Dumb (1932) through its definitive frames.

Sometimes the movie just forgets it has a plot entirely. You get these long stretches of nothing, just filler that feels like it was cut from The Man on the Box and glued in here by mistake. 🤷‍♂️

The lead performances by F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles are... intense. They are clearly trying to sell the gag, but the gag is so thin that the whole thing feels brittle. It’s like watching someone try to run on ice.

I found myself checking my watch a lot. Not because I had somewhere to be, but because the silence in the room started to feel heavier than the movie itself.

Quick notes from the notebook:

• The crash landing scene is shockingly quiet. No budget for sound effects, I guess?
• The 'local' costumes are just a mess. It is painful.
• There is a transition between scenes that literally just cuts to black for a full three seconds.
• Why is there so much luggage in the plane wreckage? Nobody is going on a vacation!

It is not the worst thing I have ever seen, but it is certainly not good. It feels like a rough draft that somehow got a release. If you want something from a similar era that actually lands its jokes, The Tinker is miles ahead of this.

Anyway, I am going to go watch something else now. Anything else. ✈️