Battling Bunyan
{{short description|1924 film}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Battling Bunyan
| image = Battling Bunyan (1924).jpg
| caption = Lobby card with Malone and Barry
| director = Paul Hurst
| producer =
| writer = Jefferson Moffitt
Ford Beebe
| narrator =
| starring =Wesley Barry
Frank Campeau
Molly Malone
| music =
| editing = Fred Burnworth
| cinematography = Frank Cotner
| studio = Encore Pictures
| distributor = Pathé Exchange
| released = {{Film date|1924|12|28}}
| runtime = 53 minutes
| country = United States
| language = Silent (English intertitles)
| budget =
| gross =
}}
Battling Bunyan is a 1924 American silent sports comedy film directed by Paul Hurst and starring Wesley Barry, Frank Campeau, and Molly Malone.Lussier p. 97 It was based on a short story in the Saturday Evening Post by Raymond Leslie Goldman. In order to raise cash in a hurry, a young man takes up professional boxing despite the fact he is totally unsuited to it.
Plot
File:Battling Bunyan (1924) - 2.jpg]]
As described in a review in a film magazine,{{cite journal |last=Sewell |first=Charles S. |author-link= |title=Battling Bunyan; Associated Exhibitors Offers Wesley Barry In Human Interest Picture That Should be a Winner |journal=The Moving Picture World |volume=71 |issue=8 |pages=829 |publisher=Chalmers Publishing Co. |location=New York City |date=27 December 1924 |url=https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor71novd/page/829/mode/1up}} Bunyan (Barry), a young chap who has gained a lot of experience in the school of hard knocks, has a small position in a garage. The light-weight champion fighter (Ralesco) comes in and flirts with Bunyan’s girl Molly (Malone) and Bunyan tries to fight him. Jim Canby (Campeau), the local fight promoter, gets the idea of signing Bunyan up for fights to give his patrons a laugh, billing him as Red Aiken Bunyan, and it works. Bunyan knows he is a clown but the money helps to buy a partnership in the garage. Finally, the champion returns and again starts after Molly. The prize fight is to be a frame-up and Bunyan agrees at $200 a round. He takes a terrific beating and tries to stay out five rounds but only lasts four. Mollie, thoroughly won over by his gameness, tries to see Bunyan, but the champion intercepts her and tries to attack her when she repulses him. Bunyan jumps on him and finally beats him. Canby gives Bunyan the full thousand dollars prize and he buys into the garage partnership and then marries Molly.
Cast
{{Cast listing|
- Wesley Barry as Battling Bunyan
- Frank Campeau as Jim Canby
- Molly Malone as Molly Costigan
- Landers Stevens as Pierson
- Al Kaufman as Referee
- John Ralesco as Johnny Prentiss
- Jackie Fields as Sailor Levinsky
- Chester Conklin as A Stranger
- Pat Kemp as Rudy
- Harry Mann as Prizefighter Manager
}}
Reception
While Battling Bunyan was acceptable in the United States, the British Board of Film Censors banned the film when it was submitted for review in 1926.[https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/battling-butler-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yndy2mti British Board of Film Classification record for Battling Bunyan][https://thebioscope.net/2012/03/22/the-rejected/ "The rejected" (list of films rejected by British Board of Film Censors), The Bioscope]
Preservation
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- Tim Lussier. "Bare Knees" Flapper: The Life and Films of Virginia Lee Corbin. McFarland, 2018.
External links
{{commons category|Battling Bunyan}}
- {{IMDb title|0015606}}
- [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/771207 Movie exhibit card with Barry], Metropolitan Museum of Art
Category:1920s English-language films
Category:1920s sports comedy films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:American boxing films
Category:American silent feature films
Category:English-language sports comedy films
Category:Films directed by Paul Hurst
Category:Silent American sports comedy films
{{1920s-silent-comedy-film-stub}}