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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you like looking at old black-and-white footage and wondering 'what on earth were they thinking?' then yes, absolutely. You should watch this if you miss the days when the internet was just weird niche blogs or if you’re a history nerd who likes the fringes of culture.
You should probably skip it if you need a plot or if you get easily bummed out by how people used to treat 'freak' attractions. It’s a product of its time, for better and mostly for worse. 🎞️
So, the movie opens with baby animals wearing gas masks. It is supposedly for their protection, but it looks like a deleted scene from a horror movie.
The masks are tiny and clunky. The animals just sort of sit there, looking confused and slightly suffocated.
I found myself staring at the grain of the film more than the animals. It has that flickering, shaky quality that makes everything feel a bit more ghostly.
Then we get to the fourteen-year-old boy who is six feet, eight inches tall. He’s standing next to a normal-sized man and he looks exhausted.
The movie doesn't really ask him how he feels. It just treats him like a tall building or a large tree.
It reminds me a bit of the spectacle in Just Imagine, but way less shiny and much more gritty. There's no budget here, just a camera and a guy with a loud voice.
There is a segment where three human brothers are pulling a plow through a field. It is presented as this feat of strength, but it just looks like a lot of hard, miserable work.
One of the brothers has this expression like he’d rather be literally anywhere else. I felt for him.
The 'smallest electric motor in the world' part was a bit of a letdown because, well, it’s tiny. You can barely see the thing on the old film stock.
The narrator, Jimmy Wallington, talks over everything with this super fast, chipper 1930s radio voice. It’s like he’s trying to sell you a vacuum cleaner while describing a tragedy.
It’s a similar vibe to the fast-talking energy you see in Gift o' Gab, which came out around the same time. Everything back then felt like it had to be loud and constant.
The part that actually stuck with me was the 'one-man hotel exclusively for hobos.' It’s just this tiny, cramped shack.
The guy running it seems proud of it. It’s one of those moments where the movie accidentally captures something real about the Great Depression without meaning to.
Most of these clips feel like they were filmed in about twenty minutes. The framing is often a little bit off, and people keep looking at the camera like they aren't sure when to start moving.
It makes the whole thing feel personal. It’s not a 'film' as much as it is a scrap-book that someone found in an attic. 📦
The collector of freak animals is exactly what you’d expect. Lots of taxidermy and weird biological mistakes that probably should have been left alone.
There is a weird rhythm to how the segments cut. One moment you're looking at a giant kid, the next you're looking at a motor, then back to an animal.
It’s high burstiness for sure. My brain felt a little bit fried by the end of the nine minutes.
It doesn't have the polish of something like Autour de votre main, Madame, which is fine. This isn't art; it’s a sideshow.
I noticed a stray hair on the lens during the plow scene. It stayed there for a few seconds and I couldn't stop looking at it.
That’s the thing about these old shorts—the mistakes are the most interesting part. The way a person blinks or the way the dust settles on the set tells a better story than the narrator does.
If you’ve seen The Phantom Horseman, you know how these B-movie productions can feel a bit hollow. But here, because it’s 'real' people, it feels heavier.
I don't think I'll ever watch it again, but I’m glad I saw the gas mask puppies once. Just to know they existed.
It's a weird little window into a world that was obsessed with the bizarre because the everyday world was so tough. Worth a look if you're bored. ✌️
IMDb —
1920
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