Hypnotized

This movie has long had the reputation of being the worst comedy feature ever produced. I won't dispute that it *should* be the worst, but no record holds forever and Hollywood in the 1990s and 2000s has produced strong contenders for the title, if not outright record breakers.

We are, however, concerned with this movie, which is awful. First, it stars Mack & Moran, the Two Black Crows, blackface comedians who were wildly popularly in this period. They start out working for a carnival -- Moran disappears about a reel into the movie, which should improve it, but doesn't -- and wind up taking a ship across the ocean -- which ocean is never specified, nor should anyone care so long as they didn't come back -- where they are hypnotized by Ernest Torrence. You know they are hypnotized because they don't move. This is probably the funniest thing in the movie: a sequence where the lead comics do nothing.

This movie is a grave puzzlement: there is tremendous comic talent here, from the stars, through the supporting players down to people who have one line -- among them Herman Bing and Luis Alberni. It's simply that no one ever does anything that could be described as funny.

The coming of sound had put Mack Sennett, this film's producer and director, under severe financial strain strain. The depression had made things worse and this feature sank him. After this, he made his W.C. Fields shorts, including THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER, which everyone thought were even worse than this, and then basically retired against his will to write his memoirs.

Wallace Ford stars as Bill Bogard, a circus worker who wins a 150,000 Pound sweepstakes prize. He travels via ship to England to retrieve his winnings. Professor Limberly (Ernest Torrence), a hypnotist who is working on the cruise ship, gets wind of Bill's good luck. He manages to hypnotize Bill and get the ticket. Bill comes out of his mindless state to learn that the Professor has jumped ship, supposedly committing suicide. But Bill, with the help of a friend, manages to expose the disguised Professor and regain possession of his sweepstakes ticket.

An even balance of mystery and mirth, not nearly as bad as it's reputation.