The Tonic (1928) is a weirdly fun mess

You should definitely watch this today if you have twenty minutes and like seeing famous actors act like total idiots. It's great for fans of silent comedy who don't want anything too heavy or intellectual.

If you're the type who needs a deep plot or high-brow drama, you will probably hate this. It is basically just people falling over and making faces.

The weirdest part is that H.G. Wells wrote it. Yes, the guy who wrote about martians and time machines also wrote a script about a family getting high on health juice.

Charles Laughton is in this, and he looks incredibly young and sort of... squishy? He hasn't become the serious prestige actor yet, so he just spends the whole time mugging for the camera.

There is this one bit where he drinks the tonic and his eyes just bulge out. It looks like his face is made of rubber. 🤪

Elsa Lanchester is also there, and she's just as chaotic. Her hair is already doing that wild thing it's famous for, even before she was the Bride of Frankenstein.

The way they move is so fast it feels like the camera operator was drinking the tonic too. It has that same frantic energy you see in Broke in China where everything just devolves into a chase.

I noticed one extra in the background who looks genuinely confused. Like they just wandered onto the set and didn't know they were supposed to be at a spa.

The spa itself looks like a very boring hotel. There’s not much to the set, but it doesn't really matter when everyone is jumping around like frogs.

The editing is a little rough in spots. Some of the cuts feel like they happen mid-blink, which makes it feel even more jittery than it already is.

It’s a nice change of pace if you’ve been watching darker stuff like Nachtgestalten lately. You don't have to think at all while watching this one.

The "tonic" bottle itself looks suspiciously like a bottle of gin. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the joke they were going for back then.

There’s a moment where a glass breaks and the reaction shots linger just a second too long. It becomes funny just because of how awkward the silence feels, even though it's a silent movie.

I like that it doesn't try to have a moral. They drink the stuff, they go crazy, and then the movie just ends. 🥤

It’s not a masterpiece or anything. It's just a fun little relic of when movies were still figuring out how to be funny.

If you see it on a playlist next to something like Circus Pals, give it a click. It's much better than it has any right to be considering the thin premise.

Laughton’s performance is the main reason to stay. He has this way of moving his shoulders that makes him look like a giant toddler.

Overall, it's just a bit of silly history. It won't change your life but it might make you grin for a few minutes.