The Iron Nag

Although he's pretty much forgotten today, Billy Bevan was a popular film comic in the 1920s. If you check YouTube, you'll find one of his films, "The Iron Nag"...and it's worth seeing.

The film begins with the spirited race horse Cyclone being brought to the track. For some reason that is NEVER explained, the unseen baddie, Legree, orders the police to hold the horse so it cannot race. Along with that, they police toss the jockey, Billy, into jail. But when the race starts, the horse breaks free with Billy and it's a race to the finish line with Cyclone.

The film made me laugh a few times. Overall, it's NOT a film with deep humor...just turn off your brain and enjoy. It's filled with action and silliness and is enjoyable...and is on YouTube.

By the way, the film made a mistake. The cop was hit by the car and you see an imprint of the license plate on his butt...but the numbers are all the wrong direction.

Bevan Bevan is set to ride the horse in the big steeplechase, but he and the horse wind up in jail. When the horse breaks out, Billy goes along to the race.

The copy I looked at was a cut-down version. Like most Mack Sennett movies of this period, it was a two-reel affair, crammed with unlikely gags. The version I saw was just over ten minutes in length, and I don't imagine they left out any of the funny bits.

Like many of Sennett's company, Bevan was not simply an expert farceur, he was a good straight actor. With the coming of sound, he appeared in many a feature as a Cockney, like Ford's THE LOST PATROL. Although, like many a silent comic, he was reduced to crowd extra, he continued to appear in movies through 1952. He died in 1957, aged 70.

U gave, alas, no biographical information on the horse.