User Reviews

"Hearts and Diamonds" (1914) is a mildly amusing baseball short of 33 minutes with John Bunny and Flora Finch. The humor is rough, not quite slapstickish, but rough like the early, early Chaplins and much of the early teen one- and two-reel shorts before a quieter and subtler comedic sophistication worked its way into the sometimes violent humor of the late aughts and early teens. Bunny's a widower and Finch a widow. Finch likes baseball stars. Now, Bunny, not particularly tall, but rotund enough to get stuck in a cannon if it fired with heavy powder, and certainly no youngster, plays the owner/manager of a local baseball club, probably something like sandlot of the late nineteenth, early twentieth century up to the teens and twenties. To win the favor - perhaps the hand of - Finch, Bunny also will play to show Finch he's a - player... Some of the stuff is very cute, some of it quite humorous, and some of it just seems to fall flat. A lot of the rough stuff - especially what goes on between Bunny and his two daughters in the beginning of the film - is a lot rougher than what we'd accept as humor now. One amusing thing I found: the team against which Bunny's team must play to show off Bunny's baseball prowess has a pitcher named Matty Christhewson, obviously a play on the best pitcher in baseball in 1914, Christy Mathewson. Similarly, other names are funny in the cast: Tupper, Whipple, Toper Staggs, etc. Nice film to see Bunny and Finch. They were the cat's meow in the movies for comedy in 1914. Bunny died the very next year of Bright's Disease at age 51. Today he's nearly forgotten, as is Finch. He made 200 films in his short career, and she over 250 in a career that lasted another 26 years. She died in 1940 at the age of 72. This is a charming way to spend 33 minutes, light and airy, but with some rough and tumble just to keep the lids open and the mind from wandering.

In his day, John Bunny was among the most famous film comedians in the world--though today practically no one would recognize his name. This rotund comic made a huge string of short films in the days before Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton and the only contemporary comic of similar stature was the Frenchman, Max Linder. Few of Bunny's (or Linder's) films remain--having disintegrated over time due to their being made of unstable nitrate stock. I have seen three of his films--and unfortunately this is probably as many as any living person has seen. By the standards of the later comedians, these films aren't great--but how can you judge a comic's entire body of work with only three films?!

As for HEARTS AND DIAMONDS, it's a mildly funny film about a rather mercenary Bunny trying to court a rich lady. To impress her, he pretends to love baseball since it's her greatest passion. But, unable to impress her by showing up to games, he creates his own team and competes against the traveling professional team. It's got a few good moments but it's not super-funny. Interestingly enough, the film is not "slapstick" in style but is a nice and watchable narrative.

John Bunny (as Tupper) is intrigued by a newspaper item announcing the arrival of heiress Flora Finch (as Rachel Whipple). The rotund Mr. Bunny would like to win wealthy Ms. Finch's hand in marriage. Believing that Finch would prefer a bachelor to a widower, he packs up his two daughters, and sends them away. To further impress the lady, he starts a baseball team. When Finch exclaims, "I simply adore base ball players!" Bunny wonders if she might like players more than owners…

Bunny was the prototype overweight comedian. Compared to the other actors, his complexion looks very bad in "Hearts and Diamonds". Though I am judging more from touched-up movie stills than movies, I was surprised at his unhealthy appearance. Perhaps, the illness that would soon claim him had some effect. Finch doesn't have as much to this time around; though, she and Bunny always make a striking couple.

*** Hearts and Diamonds (9/26/14) George D. Baker ~ John Bunny, Flora Finch, Charles Eldridge, William Shea

Though John Bunny and Flora Finch were a popular comedy team of the early silent era, apparently very few of the over 200 hundred shorts that they made for Vitagraph survive. I had never seen either of them and was lucky enough to catch Hearts and Diamonds.

Bunny on screen was a combination of W.C. Fields and S.Z. Sakall. He was a roly poly fellow, only about 5 feet 4 inches and tipping the scales at 300 pounds. Flora Finch was a tall thin lady, a whole lot like Margaret Hamilton.

Bunny is a widower with two grown daughters and a pair of suitors that he's not crazy about. He is crazy about the widow Finch who apparently loves baseball. In a reverse of Damn Yankees where the husband is the baseball fan to the neglect of his wife, Finch ain't interested in any man who's not a lover of baseball.

So what does Bunny do, he recruits a baseball team of his own with some reluctant help from his prospective sons-in-law. They challenge another team that popular baseball pitcher Matty Christhiesen puts together. Christhiesen may have the talent, but Bunny is fighting for his lady love.

I think you can figure the rest of the story out. In a bow to popular baseball as it was in 1914, Matty Christhiesen is a play on the name of the most popular baseball pitcher of his time Christy Mathewson whose career was heading into the twilight at this point. Mathewson was one of the most popular men in America at the time, he was an idol and spokesman for clean living and sportsmanship. He perfected the fadeaway pitch as the screwball was called back in the day and still remains the only man whoever specialized in that pitch who didn't ruin his arm with it.

This was one of the last films Bunny made, he died the following year. It's a funny and yet tender kind of comedy. Baseball fans especially should love it.

Hearts and Diamonds Part 1 (1914)

** (out of 4)

Hearts and Diamonds Part 2 (1914)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

John Bunny is a forgotten name in silent comedy and was the first real star of the genre. He also served as a major influence on W.C. Fields. Most of his films are now lost but this one here is available on the Kino set "Reel Baseball". I'm splitting these up into two films since that's how they were originally released. In the first film Bunny notices that a rich woman will be attending a ballgame so he goes there to try and win her heart. He learns that she's only interested in ballplayers so in the second film Bunny puts a team together for an exhibition against a real team including Matty Christheson. The second part of the film is certainly the best as we get to see some action on the ball field but this is somewhat ruined by a subplot dealing with a psychotic baseball player who escapes from a hospital. The total film runs 35-minutes and the first half drags in quite a few spots but it was nice finally being able to see Bunny.

Special feature picture play in two parts by Eugene Mullin and produced by George D. Baker. John Bunny and Flora Finch are the leading fun makers. Bunny gets in wrong by representing himself to be a bachelor, when he is a widower, trying to make a favorable impression on Flora. He is blessed with two daughters, who have two suitors whom Bunny dislikes, and they get him into all sorts of trouble and keep him busy trying to extricate himself. It is funny to see Bunny play baseball, but he drives out a homer and wins the game. It creates great laughter. - The Moving Picture World, October 10, 1914

John Bunny seems to have been the first popular American screen comedian. By 1915, Bunny would be dead and Charlie Chaplin was becoming the top clown. Most of these short comedies from the early 1910s and before don't seem funny today, so their main appeal now is mostly historical. Bunny preceded Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle to the screen the good-natured fat man type. Working for the Vitagraph Company, Bunny's comedy wasn't the knockabout slapstick that Keystone and others made, which is where Arbuckle and Chaplin began, although Bunny still occasionally hits a few people. His films were more situational and plot oriented; at two reels, "Hearts and Diamonds" is longer than most early comedies and allows more time for narrative.

In this two-reeler, Bunny courts the wealthy Miss Whipple (played by his usual leading lady, who's contrastingly tall and thin, Flora Finch). He hides his daughters with their uncle because he believes Miss Whipple will favor a bachelor over a widower. He plays in a rigged baseball exhibition game because of her stated adoration of ballplayers. Some of it's tiresome, but, overall, not a bad comedy for 1914. The gags involving the near-deafness of the uncle work the best.