Oscar Oops: Billy B. Van

Gang Leader

Gang Members

Hiram Gotrox

Helen Gotrox

David Mountain

Gotrox’s Butler

Olga Petroleum

Butler at Bricklayer’s Country Club

Oscar Oops (Billy B. Van), “an innocent young workingman with no union to guide him,” rises from a pile of hay to greet the dawn and whatever adventures the day may bring. The adventures begin immediately when Jake the bull chases Oscar from the barnyard—though Oscar bears the beast no ill will and bids him a fond farewell before wandering off in search of his fortune.

Meanwhile, in a “charming little murder factory in the suburbs,” a tall, dark, bearded stranger and his assistants prepare a bomb amid piles of TNT, dynamite, nitroglycerine, and other high explosives. Nearby, Oscar stumbles upon an apparently abandoned shack and, finding a bathtub tucked behind a curtain, settles in for a morning nap.

As Oscar sleeps, the film introduces wealthy industrialist Hiram Gotrox, “hated because he is rich and has side whiskers,” hard at work in his stately home. While sorting papers at his desk, Hiram discovers a threatening note warning: “Death to the idle rich — give up or you will go up.” The message concludes ominously with the word “Beware” beneath the drawing of a horned skull.

Elsewhere in the mansion, Hiram’s daughter Helen—“the sweetest pebble in the Gotrox family”—encourages her timid suitor David Mountain to ask her father for permission to marry. Hiram dismisses the nervous young man, but after showing him the anarchists’ warning note, offers a bargain: “Get those outlaws and you get my daughter.”

The gang of bombers soon returns to the shack where Oscar is still sleeping peacefully in the bathtub. Discovering the unwitting intruder, the conspirators first consider killing him before deciding he may prove useful instead. Dragged to the gang’s hideout and hauled before their sinister leader, Oscar is given a grim choice: “Die now, or join us and die later.” Faced with a roomful of murderous anarchists—and persuaded at knife-point—Oscar reluctantly joins the gang.

While signing his pledge beneath the dangling skeleton of a former double-crosser, Oscar becomes instantly smitten with Olga Petroleum, “a wayward gal from the kerosene circuit,” blurting out in admiration: “Oh, those eyes! Those nose!”

The gang sends Oscar to the Brick-layers Country Club carrying a satchel that contains either a bomb or a blackmail demand for Hiram Gotrox. Distrusting their dim-witted new recruit, the tall, dark stranger secretly follows behind.

Meanwhile, Helen urges David to save both her father and his fortune. David solemnly vows to rescue the money—and perhaps Hiram as well.

Oscar’s mission quickly unravels. On the way to the club he repeatedly encounters gang members shadowing his every move, and even crosses paths with David Mountain, who asks if he has seen “any guys with dynamite around here.” Oscar innocently points out two suspicious-looking men lurking nearby. David, suddenly alarmed, announces, “Good! I shall pursue them as soon as I return,” before hastily retreating to safety.

At the country club, a butler mistakes Oscar for a bootleg liquor delivery he has been expecting, but soon grows suspicious and throws Oscar—and the satchel—into a fountain. The now thoroughly waterlogged bomb is ruined.

When Oscar returns empty-handed, the gang beats him soundly before giving him one final chance: fetch a keg of blasting powder and complete the job.

At the same time, David reveals his true intentions by eloping with Helen rather than confronting the bombers. Furious, Hiram leaps into his automobile and races after the fleeing newlyweds.

Sent off with a leaking keg of powder tucked under his arm, Oscar unknowingly leaves a trail of explosive dust stretching all the way back to the gang’s hideout. A passerby casually tosses aside a cigar, igniting the trail and sending a fiery fuse snaking back toward the anarchists’ lair, which erupts in a spectacular explosion.

With their headquarters destroyed, the surviving gang members race after Oscar while Hiram simultaneously pursues Helen and David in a frantic automobile chase.

In the film’s climactic sequence, Oscar devises an improbable high-wire escape that leaves the entire gang captured in the back seat of Helen and David’s car just as Hiram arrives on the scene. Presenting the captured anarchists to her father, Helen declares: “Here are those REDS, Pop — sired by Anarchy and damned by everybody.”

Perched high above the chaos below, Oscar Oops surveys a world restored to order and rejoices in the triumph of good over evil.

“Van-ar-chy” (c.1919; Kodascope release 1926)
Status: survives
Surviving materials: private collection print, recently rediscovered in Japan
A 1926 16mm reduction print made from 1919 35mm original. Likely edited for length to be made available for rent in the Kodascope Library.