Checking in on the stars of 1931: Screen Snapshots, Series 11, No. 5

Is it worth your time?

Honestly? If you aren't obsessed with early 30s studio architecture or the way people stood before they knew how to act on camera, probably not. It’s a short, weird, and mostly silent-feeling relic. If you dig The Inside of the Cup or just want to see what a movie star’s lunch break looked like in 1931, you’ll find some charm here. Everyone else—stay away.

There is this odd, disjointed rhythm to these old shorts. You’re just looking at people walking toward a camera, smiling, and then immediately looking away like they forgot their lines. It’s charming in a very specific, awkward way. It lacks the polish of a modern documentary, which is exactly why I didn't turn it off.

There's a moment about halfway through where someone is leaning against a fake stucco wall. You can clearly see the paint peeling in the background. It’s a tiny detail, but it says more about the reality of those massive studios than any glossy retrospective ever could. It felt real.

It reminded me a bit of the frantic, earnest energy found in Warning! The S.O.S. Call of Humanity, though obviously with way less, uh, existential dread. It’s just people being people, mostly. Sort of.

The oddities

• The lighting is either blindingly bright or completely flat.
• Nobody seems to know what to do with their hands.
• The background extras in one shot are clearly just waiting for their own lunch break to start.

The whole thing feels like a scrapbooking project that someone forgot to put the captions on. You’re left guessing who is who and why they’re standing in a patch of dirt by a prop stage. It’s strangely hypnotic. 🎥

Sometimes, the camera lingers on a group of people laughing, and you realize you have no idea what the joke was. It’s like being a ghost at a party from ninety years ago. Very strange. I’m not sure if it’s a 'good' movie, but it’s definitely a piece of film that exists.