sadly and i find that this film seriously outstay it interest while it start off well with an intriguing concept and that of the lone survivor in a mysteriously abandon city and and develop this into a socio comic commentary on the worthlessness of money and valuable in unlimited supply and compare to the real necessity of life . the handful of survivor who find each other become bore of their effortless scrounger existence and start quarrel among themselves save only by the arrival of the long awaited signal from the outside world . thus far and thus john wyndham ( there be strong parallel here with the novel the day of the triffids ) . this silent film be somewhat heavy on it use of intertitles ( which do inevitably suffer in translation ) and be not especially distinguish in it acting and a a comedy not particularly funny . but and have explain away precede event by invoke a mad professor and then wind up his story by an and then they all go back to their previous life scene and the film maker then commit the cardinal error of press the reset button or in this case and throw the freeze ray switch yet again . and again . we get a whole new segment of story drive by the financial travail of only two of the previous five character and who can not face be poor after have have the whole city to glean from and decide to freeze everybody again so that they can rob them . only the professor notice and so he reverse the switch yet again . demonstrate to his disbelieve colleague and jerk everybody on and off . the world compensate by be crank extra fast and keystone fashion . and the whole thing descend into slapdash tedium of a fairly primitive kind and which have cease some time earlier to be entertain . more or less the entirety of the second half of the film could have be cut ( from the young couple part outside the eiffel tower straight to the finding of the ring ) and and only to it improvement . this film be show in a double bill with buster keaton three age and a film shot in the same year and similarly use camera trickery ( what must be one of the early animated cartoon sequence feature a live actor ) . the comparison be not at all to the favour of paris qui dort and ala and which drag terribly and come across a much more wordy and primitive while it not entirely fair to judge it against an action comedy and but it be in the frenetic action sequence that this film be the weak . one get the impression that the director have just run out of idea . by the end of the film i be seriously bore while the keaton and despite a poor print and wake up the audience ( in at least one case and literally ) like a shot .