A Cure for Pokeritis (1912) User Reviews

Way Before Video Games Poker Was An Addiction

[DKosty123 · 6/10 · 28 November 2010]

For it's time, 1912, this silent does a better job story telling than many films. John Bunny, a large comedian who would die in 1915 is the star of this film.

The story involves his addiction to poker & the fact he is on a major losing streak. After his latest loss his wife, Flora Finch, is extremely upset with him as he comes home broke except for a little money he borrows from another player after his loss. He swears to her he is giving up poker.

The next time he wants to play, he gets one of his friends to write a note that he is going to a meeting of a group to help him quit. He goes to his "meeting" & continues his losing streak. His wife then gets wise to what he is up to. She calls a cousin who involves a church group to go to the address where the poker game is.

In a real prelude to Mack Sennett's Keystone Cops, the mens group goes to a costume store & dress up as Cops before they go to break up the poker game. At the game, John Bunny has finally broken his losing streak & is way ahead until the phony cops come in & break up the game. The wives of all the players come in behind the cops & this is where it all ends as John's winnings wind up on the floor when the table is over turned.

This one is a more complicated story for an early comedy film & makes a bit of a social statement about the evil of poker.

A Cure for Pokeritis review

[JoeytheBrit · 5/10 · 23 June 2020]

This one is worth catching simply because it is one of the few surviving examples of the series of 'Bunnygraph' comedies rotund comedian John Bunny made with the bird-like Flora Finch. Sadly, it's not particularly funny - although the number of times this basic plot has been copied in the 100+ years since it was made suggests it was far more original at the time of its release than it seems today. Bunny was just 49 when he made this movie, but he looks at least 15 years older, so his death in 1915 was perhaps to be expected.

A Bit of Dated Humor

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 24 January 2016]

Wife (Finch) plots to cure her husband (Bunny) of his inveterate poker playing.

"A Cure for Pokeritis" was one of many Vitagraph Studios one-reel or shorter comedies starring Bunny and Finch in a domestic setting, known popularly as Bunnygraphs or Bunnyfinches. The number of these shorts originally produced is unknown because Vitagraph's films were generally not archived. Estimates vary considerably; totals in excess of 150, 200, or 260 have been proposed. Most are now lost.

While I appreciate this early attempt at husband-wife humor, and apparently it also was an early attempt to escape "theater framing"... it is rather dated. What was funny in 1912 is not always funny 100 years later. This is not the fault of the film, but turns it into more of a historical document than a comedy.

Amusing Story Plus a Good Leading Performance

[Snow Leopard · 25 March 2004]

An amusing story and John Bunny's lead performance make "A Cure For Pokeritis" very entertaining, and put it among the better short comedies of the early 1910's. The story is set up efficiently and is told well, with the cast also getting the most out of the situation.

Bunny plays a compulsive poker player who taxes his wife's patience once too often, provoking her to try to come up with an involved 'cure' for his obsession. The story builds up nicely to a frantic finale. Along the way, Bunny shows a knack for expressing quite a bit with basic means such as a simple facial expression. Uncomplicated though the role may be, he does quite a good job, and it's too bad that not many of his films have survived. Flora Finch also makes a good partner for him. Overall, this is quite good, and worth seeking out.

A Cure for Pokeritis was the first time I watched the teaming of John Bunny and Flora Finch

[tavm · 2/10 · 29 July 2009]

This is the second short I watched on YouTube that starred John Bunny and the first with Flora Finch as his wife. In this one, Bunny has lost another card game and he's promised Flora he's giving up. But his wife has found out that his rehab meetings are a cover so she gets her cousin to catch him in the act. I suppose the fact this was the first time this particular plot was presented in a filmed comedy gives this some points but personally, I didn't find anything here that was funny and the conversion wasn't too convincing to me. And since there were no real chases or slapstick of any kind, I guess there's not much I can recommend about this short except if you want to see something starring this forgotten duo, A Cure for Pokeritis is worth a look since there's so few of their movies still in existence.

13 minutes of boredom

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 12 March 2016]

"A Cure for Pokeritis" is an American 13-minute silent film, in black-and-white obviously and this one is already way beyond its 100th anniversary. Director Trimble, lead actor Bunny and lead actress Finch all have their star on the Hollywood Boulevard, so they could look back at successful careers in the industry. Sadly, their collaboration here did not result in a particularly funny movie. The female protagonist tries to cure her husband from poker addiction, but this becomes a much more difficult endeavor than one could imagine. I must say I am fairly glad this was a short film really as it did not deliver for me in terms of dramatic or comedic content. Overall, not a failure, but also not good enough to let me recommend it. Thumbs down.

Terrifically underplayed for 1912

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 23 August 2009]

I could easily see someone today watching this short comedy and not being super-impressed. After all, if you have no idea what other comedies were like in 1912, then you'd have no idea how clever and innovative it is by comparison. 1912 was an era where most comedies consisted of people being bonked on the head. In addition, most films in the genre had no scripts. Instead, as the cameraman cranked the camera, the director yelled suggestions while the actors improvised. And, when they had no idea what to do next, the actors would shoot each other in the butt with blanks or simply bonk the other guy on the head. They weren't exactly sophisticated nor were they character or plot driven.

In light of this, the few remaining films of John Bunny that exist today are a sharp contrast. His films are NOT based on bonking and show great care to the plot--a real honest to goodness plot, mind you! It's not surprising then that he became the first big film comedian in America, as his films had more depth to them. They also seemed to very often star Flora Finch--a very thin and tall woman who was a huge contrast to the very rotund and gnome-like John Bunny.

This film begins with John coming home late after staying out with the guys playing poker. When his wife confronts him, John swears off poker forever. However, a week later, he gets a letter from a club that welcomes him into membership and they meet every Wednesday night. Of course this is just a meeting with his pals to play poker and after a while his wife begins to suspect. So, she asks her cousin to investigate. However, when they discover the truth, instead of confronting him, they decide to play a trick on John and his friends. The cousin and his friends from the Bible study group all dress up like cops and raid the place--scaring the wits out of the men and hopefully convincing them to mend their ways. Surprisingly, this scene could have consisted of lots of bonking but instead is relatively underplayed--a good way to end the film.

In many ways, you can see the future in this film. This plot, or at least a variation of it, has been done a bazillion times on television--ranging from "The Honeymooners" to "The Flintstones". So, obviously, Bunny hit on something that resonated as much then as it did decades later. Overall, a very good comedy short. It's just too bad there aren't many more Bunny films out there, as I've seen about a half dozen of his over 200 films and there just may not be any more available.

Early American Funny Man is worth a look.

[greatwar · 26 May 2001]

I saw a nice Blackhawk print of this film not too long ago. It is a good representation of John Bunny's comic persona. He was a very heavy set man and was frequently paired with very slender ( and a good bit taller) actress Flora Finch as his wife. The films they made together were often referred too as Bunnygraphs( A play on the title of DW Griffith's Biographs). A Cure for Pokeritis runs about 11 minutes or so when projected at silent 18 frames per second speed. It is a cute little film and some of John's facial expressions are quite funny. This is worth seeing if you are interested in early American cinema comedy and would like to see something from a star that PRE-DATES Charlie Chaplin.

" BunnyFinches Are Rare "

[PamelaShort · 8/10 · 22 December 2013]

This early Vitagraph Company silent short starred the popular rotund comedian John Bunny along with Flora Finch. This subtle comedy begins with husband John Bunny returning home from an evening spent losing a game of poker. His wife Flora Finch is clearly exasperated with her poker addicted husband and he swears of gambling forever. A friend easily convinces him to tell his wife he has been admitted to the Sons of the Morning, a fraternal lodge so he can now continue attending the weekly poker games with a good excuse. One evening Flora catches John talking and dealing imaginary cards in his sleep, and the suspicious wife calls her cousin Freddie ( Harry T. Morey ) to investigate. He follows John and reports to Flora the truth. Flora contacts the wives of the other poker players and along with Freddie's Bible study friends who dress up as police officers, they raid the poker game. The wives give their husbands a good scolding and John and Flora reconcile. Like so many early silent films, A Cure for Pokeritis must be viewed through the eyes and mind of a 1912 audience. For example Flora uses a telephone to contact cousin Freddie, for most of the population watching someone talking on a telephone was amusing in itself. The improvements in cinematography techniques are very noticeable in this film, especially during the police raid. Depth was achieved by having action take place up-close in the foreground and the background, and allowing the actors to move between them, thus effecting realism and a good pacing of the scene. This film was very well-received by American audiences and was also very successful outside the United States. Silent films starring John Bunny and Flora Finch or Bunnygraphs and Bunnyfinches as they were called by the public, most are sadly now lost, making this film extremely important to understanding the cultural, and historical period of early silent film genre. It is also interesting to note that out of John Bunny's one-hundred-and-fifty-odd films ( none of them longer than three reels) only a handful survives- and the most celebrated at that. Yet for much of his four years in films, this man was the most famous comedian of the American screen, and Charlie Chaplin's finest work was just beginning at the Essanay Film Company at the time when Bunny died.