Wrong Way Butch

The Department of Labor was behind this amusing short wherein actor/writer DAVE O'BRIEN plays a bumbling steel plant worker who makes one careless mistake after another while handling dangerous tools.

Played strictly for laughs, it also served as a public safety announcement and was rightfully Oscar nominated in the best short film category. Like all of these Pete Smith specialties, it's well scripted and fun to watch.

A hammering distraction has him hurting his nail when a pretty blonde walks by; his tie gets caught in machinery at the machine shop while wearing loose clothing; he hits the pedal on several machines, activating them before he can get out of the way; gets struck by flying pieces of hot metal at the welding shop; and takes a short cut through a plating room with disastrous results.

Through it all, O'Brien does physical comedy as well as anyone in the business and is delightful as "wrong way Butch."

This short, another Pete Smith Specialty, was nominated for an Oscar and probably should have won. Dave O'Brien, who also wrote and directed, stars as Butch, the poster boy for carelessness. Butch is lucky to survive as he blunders his way from one accident to another. Pete Smith's narration is perfect for this short. Turner Classic Movies runs this periodically as filler between films and it invariably runs in March for the"31 Days of Oscar" they run each year. Recommended.

Wrong Way Butch (1950)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated Pete Smith short was made with the U.S. Department of Labor and shows how not paying attention at work can lead to various injuries. This film is played for laughs and there are plenty of them as Butch is constantly injuring himself in various ways. The highlight is a scene where Butch is trying to hammer down some steal but doesn't realize his hand is too close to the hammer.

This short is often shown on Turner Classic Movies during their Oscar month.

A Smith called Pete, in cooperation with the US Department of Labor, offers the audience a cinematic essay on how to perform a job safely, by showing us Dave O'Brien not doing so. In an industrial plant, yet!

Dave O'Brien co-writes, directs and stars in this short, which shows you what can go wrong if you don't pay attention to the safety rules around heavy machinery, with Pete Smith narrating right along, in his snarky, contemptuous style in this Oscar-nominated short.

Smith narrated and produced a couple of hundred short subjects for MGM, and O'Brien had a hand as writer, director and performer in about 80 of them. Most of them are quite funny. This is among the funniest.

This MGM 1950 short is similar to the series of Joe McDoakes Behind the Eight Ball. Peter Smith is the same narrator as in most of those, and Dave O'Brien is the familiar character who has acted in these comical docudramas. 'Wrong Way Butch" has a somewhere more serious subject - avoiding injury by mishandling of tools and equipment in the workplace. And, it easily translates to the home and do-it-yourself shops that use some of the same tools.

I note that the few reviewers before me have enjoyed the humor of this short. While I can enjoy such portrayals of goof-ups and accidents when portrayed by Laurel and Hardy or the Three Stooges, it just isn't as funny in instances like this that are supposed to be portrayals of every man. Oh, sure, I can smile at some silliness, but watching Dave using the jigsaw with his fingers so near the blade and his thumb about to be cutoff may cause some others, as well, to cringe. That's at least akin to sitting on the edge of one's seat in some harrowing movie scenes.

While this was done for comedic effect to accompany movie features in the past, for its effectiveness as a safety piece it would have been much more effective if the studio had put a nice warning about safety in handling tools at the end.