Butch Minds the Baby

If you’re familiar with the Pete Smith “specialities” from the late 1940s then you’ll appreciate that most of the value here comes from the narration. From the perspective of it’s author Damon Runyon, that guides us through half an hour of daft antics as “Harry the Horse” tries to get his pal, former safecracker “Butch” to come out of retirement and help him steal a small fortune from an office. “Butch” has become fed up with his stays at Leavenworth and is also now the proud possessor of an infant son “John Ignatius Jnr” and so isn’t so keen, but eventually agrees to team up with his pal and a few others to do the job. Now silence is quite important if they are to succeed and this hungry, curious and noisy infant isn’t up for playing ball so they have to juggle entry to a much more sophisticated strong room whilst doing some baby-minding. Can they get away with it, though? It eventually hits a purple patch after about fifteen minutes once the narration picks up speed and the action (these Brits are not professional actors and have no lines of their own) gathers pace and all look like they are having some fun, but the establishment of the plot takes far too long to get going and the joke does start to wear a little thin. It does seem odd to want to shorten something only half an hour long, but it could lose much of those first ten minutes and get the ball rolling earlier to better condense what is really quite a fun story. Still, there’s something of the gentle giant to it that’s amiable and worth a watch.