Buster Brown and the Dude (1904) User Reviews

Wow...Buster and Tige are real jerks in this one.

[planktonrules · 15 May 2014]

The popular character Buster Brown is featured in this one along with his dog Tige. The pair are stuck outside a hat shop while mom yacks with some other woman. Bored, Buster sicks his obnoxious dog on a guy's dog and Tige yanks at the other dog's ribbon. In the confusion, the man's hat falls off and Tige then destroys it.

Supposedly this was a comedy, but it just didn't seem very funny. Buster seems uncharacteristically bratty and the film lacked not just humor but charm. Not one of the better efforts from the series.

Like so many of the early shorts, this one is just too short to merit giving the film a numerical score. Even for lovers of early cinema, like myself, there isn't a lot to this particular film to make it memorable or worth going out of your way to see.

Edison's Buster Brown Series

[Michael_Elliott · 12 September 2009]

Buster and the Dude (1904)

** (out of 4)

Edison's Buster Brown series was a group of films made to quickly cash in on the success of Richard Felton Outcault's comic strip. The films were quickly produced but Edison did send their best director to do them.

In BUSTER'S DOG TO THE RESCUE, the cook puts some cookies high up in a closet when Buster gets caught with the ladder trying to get them. He gets a spanking but thankfully his dog is able to climb up the ladder and bring the cookies down. BUSTER AND TIGE PUT A Balloon VENDOR OUT OF BUSINESS has Buster wanting a balloon but the dog Tige jumps on the seller, which causes all the balloons to fly off. BUSTER AND THE DUDE has the young Buster out with his mom and her friend. A man, with a dog, starts paying the women a lot of attention, which doesn't sit well with Buster who has Tige attack the man's dog. BUSTER MAKES ROOM FOR MAMA AT THE BARGAIN COUNTER has the boy shopping with mommy but there are too many women in their way. Tige is then made to do tricks so that the women will look at him and mommy can look at clothes. BUSTER'S REVENGE ON THE TRAMP finds the young boy wanting a snack but he can't reach it so he invites a tramp in to get it for him. The boy then tells his mom so that the tramp will get a beating.

I'm sure the comic strip was very popular back in the day and I'm sure these films made a lot of money for the Edison company but quality wasn't the final result. BUSTER'S DOG TO THE RESCUE is the best of the bunch due in large part to the dog who does a rather impressive trick of climbing up the ladder. The other four films pretty much show the kid Buster getting into one bad situation after another but none of them overly funny. Porter shot all five films during one take so that might make the film's interesting to some but for the most part there's nothing too special here.