On a volé une bombe

Considering how many bad movies I've seen in the last year this one finally deserves high ratings from me. Especially since this is not a genre I normally even watch. I've never been a fan of silent movies or old school visual comedies like this. But I was surprised.

First you need to understand the context of this comedy. It was meant to be a parody of the "silent movie" era and did a great job of recreating one. I actually watched this twice, once with and once without audio. It was better without audio.

Second, back in the old days when this was made things were much different than today without all the woke and political correct nonsense. It was also a far more naive and trusting era. Some of the things you see in the movie you wouldn't see today. Like leaving main floor doors and windows open at night, cuffing a noisy bratty kid to shut up and the main character would have been arrested for being a sexual predator stalking a woman. LOL

Last but not least. Too bad the film lost a little of its original quality over time. There's so many interesting details in the background that some of it was lost and too dark or grainy to see. There's a Godzilla poster I really wanted to see but it was never clear enough.

Thieves steal an atomic bomb (about the size and shape of a large turnip) but when the caper goes awry, the satchel containing the deadly device ends up in the hands of an unknowing man who casually carries it around town, much to the terror of the criminals who are trying to recover it. There is no plot per se beyond a circular pursuit of the apocalyptic McGuffin, no dialogue (although characters occasionally make verbal noises (similar to Mr. Bean (1990))) and the humour comes from broad pantomime and sight gags, bordering on slapstick at times. The criminals are a gang of Runyonesque hoods who, in classic 'clown car' shtick, all emerge from a single small vehicle. The 'everyman' who unknowingly schleps the bomb around town is infatuated with a pretty streetcar conductor, who sprouts angel wings every time he gazes longingly at her (amusingly, she occasionally pulls the wings off and tosses them to the ground). There is lots of running up and down halls and in and out of doors, silly 'gun play', vintage gags involving closets and quick wardrobe changes, but also some clever comical touches (such as the helmets worn by the radiation workers: inverted buckets with eye slits that still have the handles attached). The film is funny in a goofy way and an odd blend of 1920's Hal Roach-style slapstick and 1960s atomic paranoia. Unique.