Spur of the Moment is as messy as it sounds

Is this even worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a very specific appetite for early cinema oddities or you just happen to love watching people run around looking stressed for no good reason. If you want something tight and logical, you’ll probably hate it. It’s the kind of movie that feels like it was written on a napkin during a lunch break.

It’s not quite as charming as The Fall Guy, which at least had a bit of a rhythm to it. Here, everything just sort of happens. Characters appear, they look confused, they shout, and then they exit stage left.

The general vibe

There is a lot of frantic energy, but it doesn't really go anywhere. You can almost see the actors trying to figure out where they are supposed to stand, especially in those wider shots where the blocking looks like a game of musical chairs that nobody bothered to finish.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Spur of the Moment (1931) through its definitive frames.

One scene in particular, the one with the desk? It goes on forever. It’s just two people staring at a piece of paper, and I swear I could hear the camera operator sighing in the background. It made me miss the clarity of Blackmail, even if that’s a completely different genre.

• The lighting is surprisingly moody in the third act, though it seems totally accidental.
• Someone definitely forgot to clear the set of an extra in the background who is just standing there, picking their nails.
• The dialogue feels like it was translated from a different language and then put back into English by someone who had never heard a human speak.

I found myself wondering if anyone involved actually watched the final cut. It has that haunted, unfinished quality that makes you feel like you are looking at something you weren't supposed to see. Not in a cool way, though. Just in a 'maybe we should have shot this again' way.

It’s definitely not on the same level as Westfront 1918. Not even close. But hey, it kept me off my phone for about thirty minutes, which is a minor miracle in itself. 🙄

If you like movies that feel like a fever dream you had after eating too much cheese before bed, give it a whirl. Just don't go looking for any deep meaning. It isn't there. It barely even has a surface.