Bud's Recruit (1918)
** (out of 4)
Historically interesting WW1 short is the earliest surviving film from legendary director King Video. Also worth noting is that this film was made through Judge Willie Brown, a former justice of the Utah juvenile court and later founder of Boys Cities, which would house troubled kids. That was long before the more famous Boys Town but Boys Cities would eventually run out of money and be closed and Brown would eventually be murdered by a mistress in 1931. This short tells the story of a young kid too young to enlist and his coward older brother who will stop at nothing to dodge the draft. The younger brother sets up his own recruits and does his own training hoping that somehow he can join the war. This comedy has one big downfall and it's the fact that it's just not very funny. On the technical side of things this is an extremely well made film and you can see the talent of young Video seven years before his biggest film, The Big Parade. The cast includes kids from Boys Cities, which was interesting to see. The story has its heart in the right place but it just never really works and I feel this probably would have been better handled as a drama.
