The Doughboy

Wow, it's confusing when you look up this title on IMDb! In 1926, there was this film as well as THE DOUGH BOY (by animator Paul Terry). There also were several other DOUGHBOY or DOUGHBOYS films (including one by Buster Keaton), so finding this Snub Pollard comedy took some research on my part! The film is a likable little comedy, though I will also admit that it's not among Pollard's best. He made it during the period in the mid-late 1920s when he went to works for the Weiss Brothers Studio.

The film begins with Snub going off to war in WWI. He manages to get lost behind enemy lines and spends most of the movie hiding or just barely escaping encounter after encounter with German soldiers. Many of them (especially when he's in no-man's land) are pretty funny but I also found that after a while the concept wore a bit thin. Additionally, the ending seemed amazingly abrupt and didn't leave the viewer with a lot. Still, it was often funny and clever, so it's worth seeking. By the way, it is available for viewing or download from www.archive.org, as it's in the public domain.