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6.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Surprise! remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, you probably shouldn't watch Surprise! unless you have a really specific itch for 1930s variety shows. If you’re looking for a tight plot, you're going to be bored out of your mind in about three minutes. But, if you like watching people perform like they’re trying to reach the back row of a massive theater, you might get a kick out of it.
It’s barely a film. It feels more like someone set up a camera in a living room—well, a fancy plantation living room—and told everyone to just 'do their thing' for the lens. 🎭
The Duncan Sisters are the stars, and they have that hyper-energetic, wide-eyed style that was everywhere back then. They’re home from school, I guess? It’s hard to keep track of the premise when the whole thing just pivots to a plantation choir singing, then an eccentric dancer, then the sisters singing again.
There’s a weird disconnect in the tone. It feels very staged, which is obvious for the time, but it lacks that spark of genuine life you see in something like An All-Colored Vaudeville Show. It’s polished, sure, but it’s a bit cold.
Some random thoughts:
If you're a fan of early musical shorts, you've probably seen a dozen of these. It doesn't really stand out, but it's not painful to sit through either. It’s just... there. It’s a relic, really. Don't go in expecting a story; go in expecting a time capsule that’s a little dusty and definitely not trying to be a masterpiece. 📽️
It reminds me a bit of the weird, stilted energy you find in Santa's Workshop, just without the charm of animation to smooth over the rough edges. Sometimes I wonder why these survive while other better stuff gets lost, but that’s the mystery of film preservation, I suppose.