The Phoney Cannibal (1915) User Reviews

Isn't a Comedy Supposed to be funny?

[boblipton · 1/10 · 4 November 2002]

Lloyd Hamilton and Bud Duncan made up a comedy team in the teens as 'Ham and Bud.' Ham was the big fat one, looking a little like a seedy Oliver Hardy with a bad walrus mustache, and Bud looking a lot like a seedy adult Micky Rooney. They played a couple of vicious tramps who wandered into random situations involving lots of violence. This was supposed to be funny. It usually wasn't.

This one is not only unfunny, it's downright offensive. Here Bud gets covered in blackface and dressed up in what is supposed to be Maori gear, so that Ham can pretend to be an explorer and collect money from giving lectures. Awful.

Classic Ham and Bud fun.

[westernone · 8/10 · 26 December 2013]

This is one of Ham & Bud's classic situations: They see a scam and steal it for themselves. After Ham thinks he's killed his landlady by shooting a gun through a door, he and Bud take flight. He's also not paid his rent, so she goes looking for him. Out on the street, the disheveled duo encounter a sidewalk preacher and a (none too convincing) Hottentot, dressed in grass skirt, and holding a shield and spear. The preacher tells the assembled crowd a tale of woe and how he needs money for his soul-saving mission amongst these heathen cannibals, then- he passes the hat, and the crowd is eager to fill it with bucks. Ham sees this and hatches a plan. He dresses as a preacher, and Bud as a cannibal, to start their own missionary bunco, which finds another gullible, generous crowd. The landlady and a bunch of gun-happy cops eventually catch up to them. All in all, a very funny, fast moving entry, a great example of slapstick comedy from an era when one didn't have to whittle down everything to the tastes of those most anxious to be offended.

An original conceit

[deickemeyer · 26 December 2019]

Another "Ham" comedy with an original conceit to start the laughs. Bud Duncan is very funny as the counterfeit cannibal, and Ham keeps pace with him as the phoney missionary. One reel. - The Moving Picture World, May 15, 1915