Call of the Cuckoo

1927

Comedy

IMDb Rating 5.9/10 10 729 729

black and white silent film short film

Director

Clyde Bruckman Photo
Clyde Bruckman

Top cast

Charles Meakin Photo
Charles Meakin as House Buyer
Edgar Dearing Photo
Edgar Dearing as Party Guest
Charlie Hall Photo
Charlie Hall as Asylum Inmate
Oliver Hardy Photo
Oliver Hardy as Asylum Inmate

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by jboothmillard 5 / 10

Call of the Cuckoo

Reviewed by JoeytheBrit 5 / 10

Not Very Funny Comedy from a Forgotten Comedian

Laurel and Hardy appear in supporting roles in this short Max Davidson comedy, playing two of a quartet of loons living next door to the hapless hero. I've never seen a Davidson film before – or heard of him to be honest – and judging by this effort, it's no surprise that he's now largely forgotten. He strokes his beard a lot and holds the side of his face but rarely does anything remotely funny. In the film he's so desperate to get away from his mentally challenged neighbours that he agrees to swap houses with a stranger. He takes his long-suffering wife and heavily freckled (and rather gormless-looking) son with him and soon finds out that the new family home is about to fall down around his ears. Everything that can collapse does so, flames come from a tap while the cooker sprays fountains of water, and the pattern on the kitchen floor disappears when Mrs Max wipes it with a mop. Despite none of these escalating series of mishaps being particularly funny, they are nearly all repeated two or three times.
Reviewed by Boba_Fett1138 6 / 10

Some at times good slapstick moments in an outdated, not entirely great movie.

This is a fairly decent, typical Hal Roach slapstick comedy, which guest star's Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and James Finlayson as Asylum inmates.Real main characters of the movie though are played by Max Davidson and Lillian Elliott and with Spec O'Donnell as their stupid looking son. Especially Spec O'Donnell is great in his role who carriers the brilliant name 'Love's Greatest Mistake' in the movie. Basically all he does in the movie is look stupid but he does this extremely good and because of that he is really fun to watch.The movie has some typical slapstick moments that are most of the time fun to watch but never truly hilarious. The way it is brought to the screen is simply too outdated for todays standards, also compared to other slapstick comedies made from the same time period. Especially the editing is lacking. There lies the main problem of the movie; it's too lacking in it's humor and style.It certainly does have its moments but it is no essential viewing for the fans of slapstick comedy from the '20's. Perhaps still only for some, for the fairly small Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and James Finlayson roles in the movie.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
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