Bud's Recruit (1918)

Director: King Vidor

This WWI home-front comedy is the earliest surviving film of King Vidor, who would later go on to make such classics as The Big Parade and The Crowd. A two-reeler, it's a propaganda comedy involving a little boy who can't wait to go fight against the Kaiser, and who sets an unrelentingly patriotic (and militaristic) example for his draft-age, feminized brother and peace-lovin' mother.

Cast

Wallace Brennan

Bud Gilbert (as Wallis Brennan)

Robert Gordon

Reggie Gilbert

Ruth Hampton

Edith

Thomas Bellamy

Black Boy

Ernest Butterworth Jr.

White Boy

Mildred Davis

Edith's Sister

Judge Willis Brown

Himself / Commentator