Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, October 1921 · page 16 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #25 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a mock film review satirizing contemporary movies and Hollywood excess. The piece parodies "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," a famous 1921 film, by reimagining it as a low-budget Western melodrama set in Reno (famous for quick divorces). The satire targets several things: the absurdity of amateur filmmaking (directed by "formerly a bartender"), overwrought morality tales about gambling and romantic ruin, and B-movie clichés (the virtuous girl, the dissolute gambler, death by suicide). The reference to "Mack Sennet" earlier suggests mockery of slapstick comedians getting away with questionable content. The reviewer's breathless, contradictory praise ("greatest non-star picture ever produced" while highlighting its ridiculous plot) is the joke—*Whiz Bang* is ridiculing both the film industry's pretensions and audiences' gullibility. The absurd ending (death from taking a writing tablet) amplifies the parody.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
14 Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang is only an old shirt, for, quote they, if Mack Sennet can get away with it, “we” can. * * * “The Four Cow Boys of the Poker Chips” From “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” By James Starr. This is a great, massive feature directed by Dex Bygum, formerly a bartender in Cuba. This picture is the greatest society drama that has ever been produced about the cow country. The story is of a man that goes to Reno to get a divorce. Reno being a great cow town, he soon turns to be a cowboy. While he is chas- ing he “steaks” around the country, a beauti- ful girl comes to Reno to get a divorce or to get married, we don’t know which. The two fall in love with each other and he rides her around the town in a side car on a bicycle. They have great times together for a while until he starts to playing marbles for money. This gambling scene would make Monte Carlo turn green with envy. The girl tells the man that if he doesn’t stop gambling, she’ll leave him forever. He goes from bad to worse and starts to play lawn dice. She is heart-broken and leaves the town. That night he and four cowboys start to play poker. The four cowboys leave the dive with all of the poker chips. The man is broke and discouraged, so he takes a writing “Tablet” and dies in a few minutes. This is the only drama we’ve seen with a true-to-life end- ing. It is without a doubt the greatest non- star picture ever produced. We don’t see how they did it.