The Busher (1919)

As might be guessed by the title, The Busher is a baseball film. Charles Ray plays Ben Harding, a country greenhorn who is the hired hand of Deacon Nasby (Otto Hoffman) and pitcher for the local team. A group of major league players and their manager get stuck in town when railroad trouble causes a layover, and they discover Ben's talents. They send him a telegram, asking him to join the team, and his girl, Mazie Palmer (Colleen Moore) bids him a tearful farewell. But success goes to Ben's head and when the hometown folk ... Read More

As might be guessed by the title, The Busher is a baseball film. Charles Ray plays Ben Harding, a country greenhorn who is the hired hand of Deacon Nasby (Otto Hoffman) and pitcher for the local team. A group of major league players and their manager get stuck in town when railroad trouble causes a layover, and they discover Ben's talents. They send him a telegram, asking him to join the team, and his girl, Mazie Palmer (Colleen Moore) bids him a tearful farewell. But success goes to Ben's head and when the hometown folk come to see him play, he screws up the game and loses. The manager fires him and he goes back to work for Deacon and learns to be humble. But all is not lost for Ben -- his successor disappears and he is called into play once again. This time he pitches a great game and ends up victorious. Ray had great support in this film -- not only did he have future star Colleen Moore as his leading lady, John Gilbert, who was also headed for stardom, had a featured role too. Janiss Garza, Rovi Read Less