Product Details

• Actors: Charles Ray, Colleen Moore, Babe Ruth
• Format: Closed-captioned, DVD, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kino Video
• DVD Release Date: April 3, 2007
• Run Time: 253 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000N2HDGE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,764 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Reel Baseball (The Busher/Heading Home + Shorts)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Reel Baseball is an outstanding collection from Kino of baseball-themed films from the silent era of American cinema. The two-disc set is anchored by an unexpected and enjoyable 1920 feature, "Headin' Home," starring a boyish and slender Babe Ruth in a silly but vibrant piece of fiction about the roots of the legendary player. Portrayed as a hayseed essentially waiting to be discovered, Ruth never looked or performed (as an actor) better than in this expertly paced farce. He re-tools his own legend, playing some version of himself as a rough diamond recruited into playing against his own hometown team and doing well enough to be nearly lynched. The other long production here is the ambitious "The Busher," from 1919, starring Charles Ray as another rural talent fetched up by a visiting team and spat out when he can’t get his head in a big league game. Roaming anonymously in the aftermath of his failure, Ray’s character comes home ragged and beaten, but baseball has a way of extending opportunities for redemption.

Elsewhere in the collection are a number of short pieces, some of them fragments or excerpts, others complete. Among the highlights is a wonderful Felix the Cat cartoon, "Felix Saves the Day," a funny, mixed-media work in which the darkly mischievous Felix proves an adept pitcher and hitter in street games, then loses a valuable teammate when the latter is thrown in jail. For all its relative simplicity, there are some surprising and delightful moments, including a hilarious chase scene in which animated characters are running amok over real-world buildings somehow excerpted from a photograph. "Kinogram" is a one-minute, undated strip of footage of Ruth in his Yankees uniform. "His Last Game" is an amusing if somewhat tawdry comedy from 1909, about an Indian pitcher trying to resist the temptations of demon alcohol, bribes, and gambling prior to a big game. "The Ball Player and the Bandit," from 1912, is directed by Francis Ford and is a slightly convoluted tale about a ball player who refuses to carry a gun while working as a paymaster out west. The oldest film segment here, the 1899 "Casey at the Bat or The Fate of a ‘Rotten’ Umpire," is a fascinating few seconds of a home plate brawl from a larger project. Another "Casey at the Bat," from 1922, is simply a showcase for actor De Wolf Hopper to recite—as he did for years—the famous, eponymous poem. Finally, "Butter Fingers" is an irresistible, Mack Sennett comedy starring Billy Bevan as a loutish pitcher with some magic hands but bad judgement when it comes to wooing the ladies. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

REEL BASEBALL - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Old Ball Game., April 7, 2007

By 

Chip Kaufmann (Asheville, N.C. United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Reel Baseball (The Busher/Heading Home + Shorts) (DVD)

Being a film historian, a silent film enthusiast, and an avid baseball fan, this set was tailor made for me and I eagerly awaited its release since Kino first announced it. Perhaps it was the keen anticipation or maybe I've become spoiled by recent silent film releases but I was somewhat disappointed by this set at first but it quickly grew on me. Part of the reason had to do with the fact that I watched the shorter material first saving the two features for last.

I found the visual quality of HIS LAST GAME, THE BALL PLAYER AND THE BANDIT, BUTTER FINGERS, and CASEY AT THE BAT to be below the standards usually set by Kino. Most are from 16mm transfers which cut the tops off the pictures and have serious contrast issues while the source prints on a couple are really beat up. A number of these prints come from the Library of Congress which means that they are probably all that's available but a little restoration work would have been nice. FELIX SAVES THE DAY is battered in places but this is the best looking version I've ever come across.

Moving on to the longer works the quality gets a lot better. It was especially nice to see HEARTS AND DIAMONDS from 1914 which would be one of the last efforts of the Falstaffian sized John Bunny (he died in 1915) once the most popular film comedian in the world. When he enters the ball park it's clear the fans are cheering him for who he is. This and the two features make the entire 2 DVD set more than worthwhile. The completely fictionalized HEADIN' HOME shows Babe Ruth in 1920 when he was still very athletic although there is not as much baseball action here as you would expect. Ruth has a natural ability before the camera which was later used to good advantage in other movies such as PRIDE OF THE YANKEES.

THE BUSHER is one of the few surviving features of ill-fated movie pioneer Thomas H. Ince and stars Charles Ray, Colleen Moore and a young John Gilbert. The print quality on both is very good and THE BUSHER even has its original florid intertitles. The newly recorded organ and piano music by three different performers makes for a proper accompaniment to the various offerings. Overall I'm glad to have this set and recommend it not only to lovers of silent film but to social historians and to baseball fans as well. It's absolutely fascinating to see how they did things differently so long ago and invariably a little sad when you see a simpler time that has gone for good.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgic small town baseball from a long ago era, May 3, 2007

By 

Stephen H. Wood "Film scholar and vintage mov... (South San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reel Baseball (The Busher/Heading Home + Shorts) (DVD)

Baseball fans of all ages will probably greatly enjoy the labor of love, REEL BASEBALL, 1899-1926, which runs over four hours on two disks. But devotees of small town America before World War One and later during the Jazz Age, may love it even more. It's a valentine to the America that was, when baseball was played on vacant lots in small towns and whole towns went to a game at the local stadium.

Disk One starts with a shockingly thin Babe Ruth in HEADIN' HOME (1920), which is a 73 minute feature about Babe leaving his town for the big city and success, then returning home at the end. It is followed by a 1 minute Kinogram with The Babe, the 12 minute HIS LAST GAME (1909), and the 12 minute THE BALL PLAYER AND THE BANDIT (1912), starring someone named Harold Lockwood. I should note that this entire set is all silent, with a variety of music scores that range from gramophone to piano to Wurlitzer organ. Print sources include Film Preservation Associates, Lobster Films in Paris, and the Library of Congress. The films have been magnificently preserved.

Disk Two is long and may play better in two sittings. It starts with a 55 minute baseball and romance feature called THE BUSHER (1919), starring Charles Ray, Colleen Moore, and John Gilbert. There are two versions of CASEY AT THE BAT--a 1 minute short from 1899 and a 6 minute experimental sound recitation by DeWolf Hopper from 1922. HOW THE OFFICE BOY SAW THE BALL GAME (1906) runs 5 minutes as an excerpt. ONE TOUCH OF NATURE (1917) is an 18 minute excerpt that seems complete. Those who remember rotund comic John Bunny will love the 33 minute HEARTS AND DIAMONDS (1914). FELIX SAVES THE DAY (1922) is a 7 minute animation and live action cartoon that is great fun. BUTTER FINGERS (1925) stars Billy Bevan (who had a long screen career into the 1940s) and runs 16 minutes. And we finish off with HAPPY DAYS (1926) at 14 minutes.

Notice that a lot of these silent shorts do not have big name stars. Baseball in its many forms is the star in these nostalgic films from a lovely, long ago era when the sport was still great fun, something a whole town turned out to see, and gambling was not yet part of the game. I highly recommend this Kino blockbuster, especially to an older audience that may remember some of these players and remember small town baseball fondly.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Home Run for Silent Film Lovers Who Are Also Baseball Fans, May 1, 2007

By 

Cinestuff (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reel Baseball (The Busher/Heading Home + Shorts) (DVD)

A delightful collection of 2 features and 11 shorts, all but one silent with appropriate and effective musical scores, from the fine folks at Kino, who help keep silent film lovers happy with regular release of pre-talkie goodies! (The lone talkie item here is an early experiment in sound presenting the stage actor DeWolf Hopper presenting a recitation of "Casey at the Bat." This was one of the highlights for me - I really enjoyed the actor's totally over the top performance (he was clearly aware of what he was up to, and having a good time doing it!) The other titles on the two disc set provide straight dramas, comedies, westerns(!), and more.

Babe Ruth's feature is pretty incredible in plot, but entertaining none-the-less, and the Babe doesn't strike out with his acting, which is appealing if a bit lacking in theatrical polish. Charles Ray, Colleen Moore and John (here Jack) Gilbert offer a good introduction to a type of silent film that was very popular - it might be called a "small town boy makes good, before he goes bad, before he learns what's best for him" movie.

Another reviewer complained that the films had too little baseball content - perhaps he should just buy a box set of some historic World Series and forget about dramatic and comedic presentations. While the baseball content of many of the films is lower than THE NATURAL or PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, baseball is at the thematic core of all these films, although more prominent in some than others. I love old movies and baseball and didn't feel a bit cheated.

Sign me up for REEL BASEBALL II!