Perhaps it's fascinating as a historical document, but as a movie it's plain awful. The silent/talkie combo is aggravating. The plot is not very interesting. I can understand that people at the time saw this as a gizmo.

This is a very poorly made film. I also think it's responsible for causing the shift to sound before the technology was really ready, certainly most early talkies are quite clumsy, especially compared to the cinematically rich silents. In any case, the hybrid sound/silent thing here was arbitrary and the casual use of black face isn't doing this any favors.

I think I'm 85 years too late to appreciate this film. Then again, maybe it was dull in the first place.