Battling Butler

Battling Butler is a 1926 American comedy silent film directed by and starring Buster Keaton. It is based on the 1923 musical Battling Buttler.

This article is about the film. For the musical, see Battling Buttler.
Battling Butler
Lobby card
Directed byBuster Keaton
Produced byBuster Keaton
Joseph M. Schenck
Written byAl Boasberg
Lex Neal
Charles Smith
Paul Gerard Smith
Based onBattling Butler
1922 musical play
by Stanley Brightman
Austin Melford
StarringBuster Keaton
Sally O'Neil
Walter James
CinematographyBert Haines
Devereaux Jennings
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • September 18, 1926 (1926-09-18)
Running time
71 minutes
CountryUSA
LanguageSilent film
English intertitles

Plot

Alfred Butler is the scion of a wealthy family, a slight, gentle young man, accustomed to ease and luxury. On a hunting and fishing trip, he falls in love at first sight with a low-class mountain girl who lives with her family in a shack. In order to impress her working-class family, he pretends to be Alfred "Battling" Butler, the championship fighter who has the same name. From there, the masquerade must be maintained. Alfred expects that he will have to actually fight one of "Battling Butler's" opponents, and trains as best he can in a comedic training scene. He expects to be badly beaten, and is greatly relieved when the actual boxer "Battling Butler" shows up, fights, and wins. But the Battler keenly resents having been impersonated by a feeble milquetoast like Alfred, and he demonstrates his displeasure in the locker room, by beating the jello out of Alfred with a humiliating sequence of punishing blows to the head and body, until......

Origins

Like Keaton's earlier Seven Chances, the film is an adaption of a stage work. The musical was called Battling Buttler, by Walter L. Rosemont and Ballard MacDonald, and starred Charlie Ruggles on Broadway. It ran from October 8, 1923 to July 5, 1924.[1] The New York Times noted the difference in the spelling of the name of the central character between the stage and film versions.[2]

Cast
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References
  1. Battling Buttler, the Broadway play of 1923-24; Selwyn Theatre and Times Square Theatre; IBDb.com database
  2. The New York Times, August 23, 1926, p. 9


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