Spice of Life

Of the many possible uses for a motion picture camera, the least frequent is the making of interesting movies. Not that there aren't plenty of good movies, but almost none of them incorporate the peculiarities of cameras into their efforts, spice of Life, however, derives much charm and many angles from imaginative trick photography.

A collection of trick shorts becomes boring just as soon as the novelty of seeing people jump out of the water onto a diving board or running backwards at full throttle wears off-and that's pretty soon. But the film at the Brattle uses visual foolery in the same intelligent way that a good farce uses its rudimentary pot: as a string for its gems of humor. Spice of Life is a series of sketches examining a variety of pests and bores. Logically unconnected, except by the fact that the poorest of them are quite amusing, these little episodes are narrated and acted in by Noel-Noel. Since he also wrote the film, it seems that the gentle man has both names, and talent enough for two men.

Between the sketches, the camera plays a huge assortment of visual games to help the narrator introduce the next sketch. But no matter how clever the camera gets it's no match for the author, who never gives trick photography the impossible task of seeming hilarious all by itself. Instead, photography is always in support of some well though-out gag, reinforcing its humor to give the dividend of trickery. For instance, the narrator lists the subjects of his study on a blackboard, by pointing his finger the writing appearing by itself. But the blackboard gets uppish and keeps listing lecturers along with the other categories of ores and pests. The author's gag and trick photography combine for a laugh, though neither is particularly amusing alone.

Such high humor lurks behind Noel-Noel's serious delivery all through the film that jokes or situations are great fun when, if handled less adroitly, they might be merely embarrassing or in poor taste. The secret is in the author's imagination even more than in his camera. Since any brilliant humorist could do as well, it is important to see this picture before the usual humorists take over again.