Butter Fingers

Butter Fingers (1925)

*** (out of 4)

Billy Bevan plays a baseball pitcher who adds a little something to the pitches so that they are unhitable. He then gets caught up in a scheme to throw the game but he has other ideas. If you're a fan of baseball then you'll really get a kick out of this short, which features all sorts of nice gags on the ball field. The pitches are wonderfully funny but so is a nice segment with Bevan playing in the field. There's a couple chase scenes but another highlight is a scene where a dog jumps on the back of a horse and takes off for a ride.

From Kino's Reel Baseball set.

This short film was part of a DVD set called "Reel Baseball" and it consists of many silent baseball films. This review is based on Disc 2--a rather enjoyable collection of surprisingly good films with excellent musical scores from Kino.

The plot involves Billy being the star pitcher for the Bees and with his amazing pitching, there is no way the evil New York team can win. This New York team is not identified as the Giants, but the uniforms appear identical. The coach of New York realizes the only way to win is to cheat and he uses his evil wife to try to trap Billy into throwing the game.

This is about the tenth Billy Bevan film I have seen. While most normal people out there have never seen a Bevan film, they are generally quite funny but also several steps lower in laughs and quality than the bigger name silent comedians of his day. However, this is not so with BUTTER FINGERS--a film that would stack up very well against a Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd short. My only complaint, and it's very minor, is that the film makers were sloppy by inter-cutting shots of a real major league stadium with a large crowd with the stadium built on the studio lot--they are obviously NOT EVEN CLOSE in how they are integrated. But, aside from this sloppy item, the rest of the film is comedy gold--with so many wonderful sight gags that I found myself laughing again and again.

Also, of note is that the film was directed by Del Lord--a man most often associated with the Three Stooges, as he and Jules White directed most of their classic shorts. However, the film doesn't really play like a Stooges film and is wonderful in its own wacky and unique way.