The Boob (1926)

Absolutely Brilliant!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

When this film was introduced by Robert Osbourne on Turner Classic Movies, he talked mostly about Joan Crawford in the film. However, she is not a huge part of the film and her part doesn't give her much to do. So, if you are seeing it only for Joan you'll probably be disappointed. However, this is not to say that it's a bad film--I enjoyed it very much.George K. Arthur is the boob--a dumb but determined man who wants to win the heart of a local girl. So, and this shows what a boob he is, he dresses up like a cowboy and goes in search of bootleggers. He figures if he plays the action hero, she's bound to fall for him. In the process he, of course, makes a mess of things again and again--though being a romantic-comedy, he manages to somehow prove himself.While this is not a silent that will change your life, it is entertaining and fun--with a few laughs. Why Arthur completely faded as an actor is something I'd like to know--as he was pretty popular as a silent star. However, director William Wellman went on to many fantastic projects. Just a year later, he'd direct the first film to receive the Best Picture Academy Award ("Wings").

The Boob features the talents of George K. Arthur as a naive country boy who is trying very hard to impress a young lady Gertrude Olmstead, but she can't see him for beans, much preferring the slick talking city guy Antonio D'Algy. He even puts on a big cowboy outfit, but Olmstead laughs at him, saying he's just a Tom Mix wannabe.This was my first exposure to the comic talents of George K. Arthur whose career sputtered to a halt with the coming of sound. The role he plays here would be the kind that Joe E. Brown would do in the Thirties, Red Skelton might try in the Forties and after his split from Dino, Jerry Lewis might have a go in the Fifties at. There's rumor of bootlegging being done in the area and guess what, D'Algy's at the bottom of it. I think just about anyone else can figure out where the rest of this film is going.Former Mack Sennett employees Hank Mann as the soda jerk and Charles Murray as the grizzled old time western sidekick to Arthur are featured. Murray has a very nice turn as a man who just because Prohibition is in the land is not going to let that stand in the way of that old western tradition of the saloon. In fact I've often wondered what happened to the saloon in Prohibition times and The Boob does provide something of an answer.The film might have been forgotten today, but for the presence of Joan Crawford in a secondary role as a Treasury agent. In fact that's a feminist concept many years ahead of its time. What must Eliot Ness have thought of this film? Crawford could have been given a lot more to do in this film. In her next film she would also be in support of a silent screen comic, Harry Langdon in Tramp Tramp Tramp.The Boob was pleasantly amusing enough and it was interesting to see Joan Crawford in her silent days, something I hadn't done until now.

A naive country boy desperately tries to rescue his silly sweetheart from the affections of a shyster lawyer.Unseen for decades, THE BOOB is a wonderful surprise, a delightful silent comedy Western, full of the right mixture of good humor & pathos. At barely an hour in length and with the support of an excellent new piano score by Arthur Barrow, it will inevitably invite favorable comparison with Harold Lloyd's masterpiece, THE KID BROTHER (1927).Scots actor George K. Arthur, a popular MGM comic star at the end of the silent era, wins immediate sympathy with his sad face and diminutive stature. All decked out in cowboy duds he looks ridiculous, and the audience instinctively knows he'll have to endure much humiliation before the final fade-out.Character actor Charles Murray is hilarious as the boozy bowlegged old buckaroo who grubstakes Arthur - just watching his droll facial expressions is a joy. Special mention should be made of the uncredited African American lad playing the part of Ham Bunn, who, with his trusty mutt Benzine, faithfully shadows Arthur to keep him out of trouble.Pretty Gertrude Olmstead plays Arthur's fickle girlfriend; Antonio D'Algy is all hair oil and suavity as the sinister lawyer. A very young Joan Crawford is rather incongruously cast as the undercover leader of a team of agents tracking dangerous bootleggers. Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Edythe Chapman as the impoverished old lady befriended by Arthur.In a very funny sequence that has little connection with the rest of the film, soda jerk Hank Mann receives tips on etiquette from his enormous sweetheart, an unbilled Babe London, while dining at a swanky speakeasy.The film enjoys all the customary MGM spit & polish.

This movie just aired the other night for the first time on Turner Classic Movies. Although I missed the first few minutes, it is a lousy slapstick comedy with George K. Arthur in the lead as a dumb farm boy trying to help the law capture some bootleggers. Joan Crawford is the high point here, in one of her first films. She has a small supporting role as Jane, and Crawford herself also hated this movie. She thought she was being punished by MGM for getting this part. Earns *1/2 stars out of four.