Screen Snapshots Series 9 No. 20 is a dusty, weird time machine

Is this worth your time?

If you love old movies and seeing people in silly hats from a hundred years ago, yes. If you need a plot or characters that actually do things, you will probably hate this with a passion.

It is basically a 1930s version of a TikTok vlog, but much slower and with way more grain on the film. I think most people today would find it boring, but for a history nerd, it’s like finding gold in a trash can.

Ralph Staub is the guy running the show here. He’s the one who made these Screen Snapshots for years, and you can tell he just liked being around famous people.

The movie starts and immediately you feel like you are intruding on a private party. There is this one shot of a group of actors sitting around a table, and they look so awkward waiting for the camera to stop rolling.

One guy is holding a cigarette and he just stares at it for like five seconds too long. I found myself wondering what he was thinking about, or if he just wanted to go home 🎥.

The sound quality is pretty rough, honestly. It has that high-pitched hiss that makes your ears feel a little itchy after a while.

I noticed that the way people talked back then was so different, even when they weren't acting. They use these weirdly formal words for just saying 'hello' to their friends.

It reminds me a bit of the vibe in The Dance of Life, where everyone is trying so hard to be show-business professionals. But here, the mask slips a little bit.

There is a scene at a baseball game—or maybe it was a charity match, I couldn't quite tell. The camera zooms in on a woman in the stands who looks absolutely miserable in the sun.

She’s wearing this giant fur collar even though it looks like it’s eighty degrees out. That is the kind of stuff I love about these old reels.

It’s not 'important' cinema, but it’s real life from a time that feels like another planet. You see a lot of this same energy in other stuff from the era like Woos Whoopee or even Frisco Sally Levy.

Everything feels a bit shaky. The camera movements aren't smooth at all.

Sometimes the screen just goes black for a second because the editing was done with what feels like a pair of kitchen scissors. I like that though. It feels handmade.

Stuff I jotted down while watching:

• The hats. Seriously, why were they so big?
• Nobody knows where to look when Ralph is talking to them.
• There’s a dog in one scene that looks more professional than the actors. 🐶
• The makeup is way too thick, everyone looks like they are wearing a mask of flour.
• Someone in the background is clearly trying to hide from the camera.

You can tell the studio was just using this to keep people interested in their stars. It’s a commercial, really. But a commercial that accidentally captured history.

I think about how different this is from something like The Common Cause. That one feels like it’s trying to teach you a lesson, while this just wants to show you a good time at a party.

Is it a 'good' movie? Not really. It doesn't have a story. But it has soul.

I’ve seen a lot of these shorts, and this one feels particularly disorganized. Some scenes just end right in the middle of someone’s sentence.

It makes me laugh how much they valued 'personality' back then. You didn't have to do much, you just had to be there and look shiny.

If you're looking for something deep, maybe go watch Sei no kagayaki instead. This is just a snack. A dusty, black-and-white snack from 1930.

I’m glad these things still exist. They are like ghosts on a screen.

Final thought: I wonder if Ralph Staub knew we’d be watching this on computers a hundred years later. He probably would’ve been confused as heck. 🎞️

It's short, it's messy, and I'll probably forget most of it by tomorrow. But for ten minutes, I was actually there.