The Girl With the Hat Box

Director: Boris Barnet
Year Released: 1927
Rating: 0.0

Russia/the Soviet Union may be known for many things - filmmaking innovations, political problems, gifted novelists and poets, my Friday Night elixir (Stolichnaya) - but it certainly has never made much of a name for itself with comedy. This early silent doesn't do much to change that much - it's lighthearted, sure, but the physical humor is lacking and the timing is off (plus, any substantial drama doesn't surface until the very end, when the lottery ticket plot gets introduced). Barnet may have been trying for Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd, etc. but this is a second-rate imitation.