Volume II: Filmography

BILL BUNKS THE BANDITS

(Falstaff)

December 16, 1915 (Thursday)

Length: 1 reel (1,022 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Claude Cooper (the foreman), Arthur Cunningham (his rival, the cook), Barnett Parker (Bill), Barbara Gilroy (the girl)

Note: The title of this film appeared in print in several variations, including Billy Bunks, the Bandit (The New York Dramatic Mirror) and Billy Bunk's the Bandit. Bill Bunks the Bandit, with the last word in the title singular, was used in Thanhouser's advertisements of the time, including in The Moving Picture World, December 11, 1915. However, a reading of the synopsis clearly indicates that more than one bandit was involved. The seemingly correct Bill Bunks the Bandits appeared in only a few places.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, December 11, 1915:

"The foreman and cook both are frantically in love with Belle, the ranch owner's daughter. She, heartily sick of their attentions, answers the advertisement of 'a rugged young gentleman' in the East, who 'yearns for a life in the open' and wants a wife. The two rivals join forces to 'fix' the newcomer. They hire a pair of fierce bandits, at large in the hills, to kill 'the rugged young gentleman' in return for a bag of gold dust. When, however, the cook and the foreman see Belle's prospective husband alight from the train, they decide to save their gold dust and do the job themselves. 'The Insect,' alias 'Bill, the rugged young gentleman,' obediently mounts the horse which Belle leads up, and about thirty seconds later, is clinging desperately to the saddle horn while the flying animal bears him over the plains. At last the girl succeeds in stopping the runaway.

"'We modern ranchmen use automobiles,' explains the young man from the East. And the girl smiles at him in admiration. Meanwhile, the bandits have discovered that they have been done out of their job. They are driving the cook and the foreman before them, bound and helpless, when - Snap! The ropes about the wrists of the rivals are severed in twain. The bandits turn to fight their unseen foe. Wiff! Off goes the hat of the sheriff, on the trail of the bandits. Angry, he wheels about and runs right into his quarry. The hero of the wobbly gun and closed eyes rides up with the ranch owner's daughter. 'I shot off your hat, sheriff,' he announced cheerfully, 'to attract your attention to my prisoners.' And he gets away with it! Belle marries her hero."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 18, 1915:

"A comedy number of the burlesque type, in which a young dry goods salesman dresses up as a cowboy and goes out to save a young girl from two unwelcome lovers. He accidentally brings two bandits to justice and becomes a hero in her eyes. This is quite entertaining."

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