Writer/director Cliff Cronan seems to have a close relationship with the silent films of yesteryear, as “The Lucky Penny II” mirrors them almost perfectly. Its look, feel and characters are all plucked from
Hollywood’s infancy.
The plot of Cronan’s movie is as basic as the films he’s emulating.
Luckless (Cronan) loses track of the girl of his dreams (Cheryl
Watkins) and goes through many a mishap to find her. Of course, he’s pursued by two bumbling bandits (Ryan Johnson and Michael Centeno), which leads to more misadventures. All of this is scored in that familiar hectic style.
As I watched this, I kept waiting for the joke. Maybe some blood shedding or rampant nudity. Anything that would’ve said, “Okay, you bought the premise. Here’s the rub.” It never came, though. Cronan played this straight, and it actually works. There’s a few oddities here and there, but this could’ve been produced in the early 1900s.
Films like this just aren’t made anymore. They have surpassed nostalgia and have entered into the realm of quaint. Seeing this short flick reminds me of how far we’ve advanced as a movie going audience, and what we’ve lost because of it.
