Le champion

How is it possible that there are still people who believe that full-length features were still rare as late as 1919? Thomas Ince alone produced fifteen of them in the year of which this is one.

Here's a brief list (only chosen from extant and available films) from around the world for 1919 (most are longer than The Busher which is quite a short feature) - Madam DuBarry (classic Lubitsch), Herr Arnes pengar (Stiller), Nerven, El Automibil gris, Die Pest in Florenz, Sangen om den eldroda blomman, Um Krone und Peitsche,His Majesty, the American (Fairbanks), The False Faces, Synnöve Solbakken (excellent Swedish film), Blind Husbands (Von Stroheim), The World and Its Woman, South (magnificent documentary), When the Clouds Roll By (Fairbanks), Eyes of Youth, El Golfo, The Greatest Question, Heart o' the Hills,A Romance of Happy Valley,Through the Toils, Wagon Tracks, Back to God's Country, The Twin Pawns, Bolshevism on Trial, La Belgique martyre, Le Bercail, The End of the Road, The Kinsman, Should a Woman Tell?, The Sentimental Bloke, The Man Beneath, A rosa do adro, Victory (Tourneur), Az aranyember, Die Austernprinzessin (Lubitsch), Ett farligt frieri, The Wicked Darling, Burglar by Proxy, Out Yonder, The Swindler, Young Romance,The Roaring Road, Broken Blossoms (Griffith), J'Accuse, Opium, Daddy Long-Legs (Pickford), The Hoodlum, Praesidenten (Dreyer), Male and Female (DeMille), Mod Lyset, Hara Kiri (Fritz Lang), Dunungen, Die Teufelskirche, For Better, For Worse, Don't Change Your Husband, The ABC of Love, Delicious Little Devil (Valentino), When Bearcat Went Dry (Chaney), True Heart Susie (Grfifith), Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Yankee Doodle in Berlin, The Glorious Lady, Getting Mary Married, The Lads of the Village..........

My own pick of the year - Top Ten: Synnöve Solbakken, Herr Arnes pengar , Praesidenten, Dunungen, Mod Lyset, The Sentimental Bloke, When the Clouds Roll By, Blind Husbands, Die Austernprinzessin and South.

Runners-up: Die Teufelskirche, Nerven, Hara Kiri, Back to God's Country, Daddy Long-Legs, Madam DuBarry, Ett farligt frieri, Broken Blossoms, Die Pest in Florenz and Male and Female

Also Ran: The Busher is a pleasant enough film but a little tough-going for anyone not from the US who has difficulty is appreciating the charms either of Charles Ray (the 1921 Ol' Swimmin' Hole is a rather better film) or of US small-town culture or of the game of baseball.

Sentimental and charming silent film starring Charles Ray as Ben, a bashful small town farm boy who loves baseball and is the pride of the town based on his great curve ball. He lives in the kind of pleasant country town of yesteryear where the doings include box socials, square dances, and old-timers gossiping in the general store sitting around the pickle barrel. When the St. Paul Pink Sox get stranded in town for a day, Ben asks these new fellows to choose sides and play some ball - not realizing they are professional ballplayers. He manages to strike out a top player and is soon invited to join the team. The other players think he's a rube and decide to "break him in", and soon our fellow has acquired city ways, city clothes, and a city vamp chasing after him - - and he forgets his small town friends.

This is a very enjoyable film - a real treat to see. Colleen Moore is very young and lovely here - but it is Charles Ray who plays the innocent country boy with so much charm, vulnerability, and emotion, he completely steals this film. There is a very entertaining scene showing a bid for lunches at the "box social" in which the men can only see the ladies via shadow play - Charles Ray elicits much emotion in this scene, as well as another scene where he receives a telegram and is worried that someone has died - everything he's thinking registering on his handsome, open face. By the way, watch for a very young and slim John Gilbert in this, as the banker's son, a rival for the affections of Colleen Moore. The Kino DVD of this features a nice-looking print and fast-paced, snappy ragtime piano score that suits the film to a tea.

This is the first Charles Ray film that I've seen. He was the embodiment of clean-cut American goodness and was enormously popular in the silent era.

And it's easy to see why. Not only does he have devastatingly good looks, he is also very charming and is able to convey a shy humility that is very touching. There is a deep emotional undercurrent to all his work - and he openly cries in this film. This is a type of acting not often seen with male actors - he is vulnerable and soft and utterly beguiling.

The story's not bad either - a simple baseball yarn as a naive country boy is selected for a big city team and is temporarily corrupted by the decadence of city life.

In support are two future stars - the 19 year old John Gilbert and the 18 year old Colleen Moore. Gilbert is very funny as the arrogant son of the local banker trying to woo Colleen away from Ray. And she's great too as the little country girl who is devoted to Ray.

Highly recommended. It is available on Grapevine Video. It's a good print too - and catch those animated title cards - very cool!

Apparently Charles Ray (who stars in this movie as Ben Harding) was quite a famous actor in the silent movie scene of the 1910's, playing essentially variations on the same character - the small town boy who gets dazzled by the bright lights of the big city. In this movie, the character gets set in the context of baseball. Harding is a pitcher for the local team in Brownsville. Brownsville is a small, rural place where people care about each other, and where Harding has a crush (I call it that because it seems so appropriate for the overall innocence of the town!) on Mazie (Colleen Moore.) But Harding's talent brings him to the attention of the big league "St. Paul Pink Sox" where, once introduced to big league life in the big city, Harding forgets his roots and becomes so full of himself that he ends up being let go by the Sox. His baseball career quickly over, Harding returns to Brownville and reconnects with those he had forgotten, finally leading the local team to a big win over rival Centerville.

The story's nothing special. The basic idea of the wayward, prodigal son returning home and re-connecting has been around, after all, at least since the days of Jesus! Still, this is a pleasant movie, and I liked Ray in the lead. Like the movie, he was simple and straightforward, an almost underplayed performance (especially by silent movie standards) that I really liked. The movie blends together drama and comedy and romance into a workable story, and some of the "onfield" action gave an interesting enough look at baseball of that era.

There's certainly nothing wrong with this; there's also nothing especially spectacular about it. It's just a nicely made film revolving around a familiar theme and starring a very likable lead. (6/10)

Busher, The (1919)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Pretty good drama about a bush league baseball player (Charles Ray) who is a hero in his small town when he gets a shot at the majors. He goes there and is a major bust so he returns home as a loser but soon a second chance comes up and this might help him get the girl of his dreams (Colleen Moore). This 55-minute feature is pretty short on actual story but it's still pretty entertaining thanks to some of the baseball scenes. It's funny to see the sports dramas from 1919 had the same formula that sports movies today still have. Ray, a major star at this point in time, manages to give a good performance as the good ol' boy, which is apparently a role he would play quite often. I thought he fit the role quite nicely and he really made you believe that he just walked off the farm. Moore is also pretty good as the love interest but John Gilbert doesn't get too much to do as the rival. I think the main reason people should check this out is for the old-time baseball outfits, gloves and fields. Being a major baseball fan I found this stuff to be the most interesting and it was scenes like these that really made the film keep working even when the story itself starts to drag.