I just saw this at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Silent movies require great skill. Trying to tell a story with no dialogue. Until 1930 that's what movies did. You could "cheat" with those speech frames that would pop up and tell you what one person said, but better directors used them as little as possible. Hitchcock, whose career began in silent movies, said that making silent movies helped him be a better director. In the opening of Rear Window he sets up the entire movie, everything we need to know about the place and the character without any words. By the end of the 1920's there were actually only a few directors who were making most of the movies since there were only a few directors who had the skill to make movies of the quality the public was demanding. The coming of sound allowed lesser directors back into the industry.
I would give any director 5 stars for even attempting a silent movie and Dr. Plonk is much better than just an attempt. It's clear the director wanted to make more than just a tribute to silent movies but wanted to make a funny movie also. The scene where Dr. Plonk cuts holes in the time machine so the President's feet could fit through and after the time transportation the feet/boots are left behind. There's a terrible pregnant pause where characters in the movie and the audience wonder if it's just the boots or were the feet left behind also. That gag would be worthy of Keaton or Chaplin. Another nice joke is when the time-machine transports into a present-day parking lot. Later Dr. Plonk wanders around as he's forgotten where he's left the time-machine. It got a great laugh from the audience as past meets present.
This is as much a tribute to the history of silent movies and an actual silent movie. But it's a great tribute and a pretty good movie.
Silent movies require great skill. Trying to tell a story with no dialogue. Until 1930 that's what movies did. You could "cheat" with those speech frames that would pop up and tell you what one person said, but better directors used them as little as possible. Hitchcock, whose career began in silent movies, said that making silent movies helped him be a better director. In the opening of Rear Window he sets up the entire movie, everything we need to know about the place and the character without any words. By the end of the 1920's there were actually only a few directors who were making most of the movies since there were only a few directors who had the skill to make movies of the quality the public was demanding. The coming of sound allowed lesser directors back into the industry.
I would give any director 5 stars for even attempting a silent movie and Dr. Plonk is much better than just an attempt. It's clear the director wanted to make more than just a tribute to silent movies but wanted to make a funny movie also. The scene where Dr. Plonk cuts holes in the time machine so the President's feet could fit through and after the time transportation the feet/boots are left behind. There's a terrible pregnant pause where characters in the movie and the audience wonder if it's just the boots or were the feet left behind also. That gag would be worthy of Keaton or Chaplin. Another nice joke is when the time-machine transports into a present-day parking lot. Later Dr. Plonk wanders around as he's forgotten where he's left the time-machine. It got a great laugh from the audience as past meets present.
This is as much a tribute to the history of silent movies and an actual silent movie. But it's a great tribute and a pretty good movie.