Billy B. Van

Farmer Sweatman Perkins

Sally Perkins, his daughter

Blacksmith

Cicil Damriche and his wife

Their son

Their daughter

In this rural slapstick comedy, Billy plays a well-meaning but disastrously inept farmhand employed by the perpetually exasperated Farmer Sweatman Perkins. When we first meet him, Billy is already behind on hoeing forty acres at the crack of dawn, prompting the farmer to brand him a “hoodoo” — a human jinx good for nothing but trouble.

Trouble promptly proves him right. After being reassigned to chop wood, Billy accidentally launches a log into the air that knocks the farmer into a well. His repeated attempts to rescue his employer are foiled by distraction — chiefly the farmer’s daughter Sally, whose mere wave causes Billy to release the rope and drop the farmer back into the water. Even once the farmer is safely hauled out, gratitude is replaced by blows.

Assigned next to plowing, Billy dislodges a boulder that rolls downhill and flattens the farmer again. Sent to the blacksmith with the damaged plow, Billy demonstrates surprising physical strength, bending a horseshoe with ease. At the smithy, he clashes with the snobbish son of wealthy mortgage-holder Cicil Damriche, branding the young man’s hand after being insulted.

When Damriche’s automobile breaks down, Billy transports the family by oxcart to the Perkins farm — unaware that Damriche intends to foreclose on the mortgage. Meanwhile, at the lake, the blacksmith attempts to court Damriche’s daughter and accidentally dumps her into the water. He rescues her — but Billy, opportunistic as ever, carries her unconscious body back to the farm and receives credit for the heroics.

Grateful, Damriche rewards Billy with the very mortgage on the Perkins farm, elevating the once-scorned farmhand into landlord and savior. Billy enjoys a hero’s banquet — until the blacksmith exposes the truth and reclaims his romantic reward.

Yet Billy’s redemption is not finished. Discovering Damriche’s son attempting to coerce Sally into marriage to secure the farm, Billy ingeniously hooks the bully to a horse and hoists him skyward. Producing the mortgage deed, Billy reveals he has already saved the property. With villain thwarted and fortune reversed, Farmer Perkins finally relents, granting Billy Sally’s hand in marriage.

The “hoodoo” proves plucky indeed.

Run time:
Status: survives
Surviving materials: Poor-quality VHS to DVD transfer of unknown origin.