Le balourd

THE BOOB (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1926), directed by William A. Wellman, a long forgotten silent comedy, made its television premiere on Turner Classic Movies April 3, 2003, as part of its "Directors Under 30" spotlight, along with a piano score by a young composer named Arthur Barrow. Although feature billing goes to Gertrude Olmstead, the story relatively belongs to George K. Arthur playing in the title role.

The opening title card start off with "The same old story," in which a young country girl named Amy (Gertrude Olmstead) is seen sitting on a velvet swing smooching with Harry Benson (Antonio D'Arcy), a city slicker, by Peter B. Good (George K. Arthur), a rustic farm hand who happens to be in love with her. Suspicious of this man who not only wants to marry Amy, but wanting to meet at the Booklovers Club, Peter learns that Harry might be a bootlegger involved in illegal doings in the Wyoming town near his farm. To prove to Amy and to himself that he is not a weakling, or in other words, a "Boob" (the then slang term for today's description of a "jerk") as he is made up to be, Peter, after failing to make an impression by wearing some outlandish cowboy clothes, decides to become a prohibition agent and obtain proof that this city slicker is not on the level with her. After getting into the Booklovers Club, Peter not only notices the club members there drinking from the books (where the liquor is kept), but encounters a woman named Jane (Joan Crawford) who might either be one of the "club members" or a secret agent.

THE BOOB has the distinction of being a film that combines the elements of the works of directors D.W. Griffith (the country boy trying to make good) and Mack Sennett (comic characters and a car chasing scene), but fails on both levels. What makes this particular one hour length comedy of sole interest today is an early screen appearance of future screen legend, Joan Crawford, whose character doesn't make her first screen appearance until thirty minutes from the start of the film. Almost unrecognizable, she does obtain a screen presence that stands apart from the other actors. George K. Arthur, a young comic relief-type of MGM silents during the 1920s, who somewhat resembles future film actor, Jack Haley, performs his task well, but had this same character been played by the likes of the more popular comic, Buster Keaton (two years away from becoming an MGM contract player), chances are he would have developed his yokel boy into something special. Arthur appeared in other MGM films, usually teamed opposite the tall Karl Dane, but because their films haven't been seen since their initial releases, Arthur and Dane, separately or together, have become obscure names from Hollywood's past. They both faded by the advent of talkies.

Also seen in the supporting cast are Charles Murray as Cactus Jim, sporting a droopy mustache that makes him resemble another silent screen comic of the time, Snub Pollard; Hank Mann as the Village Soda Jerk; and Babe London briefly seen as the Fat Girl. Interestingly, there is another character in the story who is given enough screen time to warrant his name in the casting credits, but doesn't. He's a little black boy characterized as Ham Bunn who accompanies George K. Arthur, along with a little dog, throughout the film.

THE BOOB, which has fortunately survived after all these years, while many other silent movies from this era have vanished to dust, for all it's worth, is still a worthy offering and a real curio at best. And Arthur Barrow should also be commended for supplying this forgotten little item with a satisfactory piano score to help this movie along. THE BOOB will never be regarded as a sort-after comedy masterpiece, but a place in cinema history as a surviving silent film featuring Joan Crawford, or one of the early works of director William A. Wellman, and nothing else. (**)

Boob, The (1926)

** (out of 4)

William A. Wellman directed this comedy about a farm boy (George K. Arthur) who has his dreams dumped on when the girl he loves (Gertrude Olmstread) falls for a bootlegger. This film is heavily influenced by Keaton, Lloyd and Chaplin but it never reaches those heights because it's just not that funny. The funny joke is that the film takes place in the 1920s and an old cowboy makes the farm boy dress up as if it were the 1820s. There are a few funny moments but for the most part all the jokes fall flat on their face. Arthur makes for a rather poor leading man but Joan Crawford is good in her small role. Olmstread is decent in her role but it's another role where our hero falls for a woman who is a bitch throughout the movie. The one thing that sets this film apart is that Arthur's best friend in the movie is a small black boy and the film never plays down to racial jokes or racial stereotypes, which is certainly rare for this era.

Country boy George K. Arthur (as Peter Good) is in love with Gertrude Olmstead (as Amy), but she has taken up smooching with city-slicker Tony D'Algy (as Harry Benson). Mr. Arthur dons western Tom Mix-type clothing to appear more manly, but Ms. Olmstead is unimpressed. Arthur suspicions that Mr. D'Algy is really a criminal bootlegger are proved to be correct. Then, Arthur must rescue Olmstead from D'Algy's clutches...

Though he is a likable character, this is a dated-to-the-point-of-unfunny comedy feature for Arthur. Most unfunny is Charles Murray (as Cactus Jim)'s running gag about hiding his endless supply of booze - helped, no doubt, by bootleggers. Joan Crawford (as Jane) lifts spirits considerably, with her turn as a crack revenue agent. D'Algy is a good kisser. "The Boob" is more of a curiosity than a comedy, but it's a chance to see some silent performers in well-preserved celluloid.

**** The Boob (5/17/26) William A. Wellman ~ George K. Arthur, Gertrude Olmstead, Joan Crawford, Tony D'Algy

Country bumpkin Peter Good is heartbroken to see his crush Amy fall for city guy Harry Benson. Hard-drinking Cactus Jim gives him a cowboy makeover, but it doesn't work on the girl. He suspects that Benson is a bootlegger and intends to take down the criminal.

I'm not here to sing high praises for this movie. My best complement goes to the dog. It's not great cinema, but the story is functional. There are fine elements. Peter and Cactus Jim are fine. I wouldn't give two seconds to Amy. She's meaningless. I don't really understand the premise of the old lady. It should be more compelling for the three characters and the dog to go off on an adventure together. Whatever. I like the dog.

There's a minor subgenre of silents in which a small town full of country folks somehow supports a lavish speakeasy filled with hundreds of folks in tuxedos, until the country folks toss them out. This has some connection to 1920s reality, as little towns comfortably in the sticks suddenly found themselves a short drive from a big city by car, and easily corrupted by big city money; places like Cicero and Calumet City, Illinois became wholly owned subsidiaries of the Chicago mob, and even Southern Wisconsin, for instance, is dotted with roadhouses and "inns" boasting "Al Capone slept and gambled here." You rarely if ever see the big city in movies like The Country Flapper, Delicious Little Devil, The Strong Man or The Boob; the tuxedo-wearing swells seem to generate spontaneously at night, like mushrooms.

The Boob is one of these tales and it suggests that by 1926, the subgenre was familiar enough that it could be kidded and caricatured along the way; the movie is full of broad, humor as well as a special effects dream sequence that seems to have walked straight in out of Winsor McCay's Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend. George K. Arthur is The Boob, Peter Good, whose girl May has fallen for the big city swell who runs the speakeasy (which, speaking of lavish, was apparently a redressed Ben-Hur set!).

After an old-timer teaches him the rudiments of being a rootin-tootin' gunslinger, he sets out after the speakeasy and its owner like Bill Hart in Hell's Hinges, and in a farcical manner reminiscent of The Strong Man, he does bring it down, if not exactly as he planned. If you doubt that The Strong Man was the model, note that Joan Crawford turns up in the decidedly thankless, if at least impressively feminist, role of a big city law enforcement agent whose bestowal of approval on Arthur helps him eventually win May over.