The Battle Royal
About The Battle Royal
In the Kentucky hills the Plumps and the Runts are neighbors and bootleggers. Peter Plump (Oliver Hardy, billed as Babe Hardy) is in love with one of the Runt girls, and her brother (Billy Ruge) is in love with one of the Plumps. The two men hook the same fish and fight over it. The families start shooting at each other. Government revenue agents arrive, and both clans join to drive them off.
Cast & crew
More about The Battle Royal
Will Louis directed this entry in the Plump and Runt series and also plays a revenue officer. Louis Burstein produced. Elsie MacLeod plays Runt's sister and Billy Bletcher plays Grandpa Runt.
Themes
Background
Released on 13 April 1916, before national Prohibition. The joke depends on mountain families who are already running liquor and who hate revenuers more than they hate each other.
Making
Vim Comedy Company made the Plump and Runt shorts in Jacksonville, Florida, with Hardy already working under the name Babe Hardy.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Surviving prints include Castle Films 16mm and 8mm copies from 1951, a 2007 Looser Than Loose DVD, and Alpha Video's 2018 Early Silent Basics disc. A copy is also on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- It is a one-reeler. Wikipedia gives the length as about 13 minutes; Wikidata lists 11 minutes.
- Hardy and Ruge were teamed as Plump and Runt at Vim's Jacksonville operation.
- Castle Films sold 16mm and standard 8mm prints in 1951.
- Looser Than Loose Publishing put it on DVD in 2007.
- Alpha Video included it on the Early Silent Basics DVD in 2018.
- A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Scenes
- Peter Plump and the Runt brother hook the same fish and the families open fire.
- The shooting stops only when the revenue agents appear, and both clans turn on them.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Battle Royal 1916)
- Looser Than Loose Publishing DVD (2007)
- Alpha Video Early Silent Basics DVD (2018)
