The Golf Bug

In the kinetic landscape of 1924 slapstick, Monty Banks emerges as a protagonist possessed by a singular, manic obsession in 'The Golf Bug.' The narrative functions as a rhythmic exploration of the burgeoning middle-class fascination with leisure, specifically the titular sport, which here acts as a transformative—and often destructive—psychological catalyst. Banks portrays a domestic figure whose every waking moment is consumed by the geometry of the fairway and the physics of the swing, leading to a sequence of escalating architectural and social disasters. As his domestic tranquility dissolves into a series of choreographed mishaps, the film navigates the fine line between hobbyist passion and clinical delusion. Ena Gregory and Merta Sterling provide the necessary grounded friction, serving as the societal anchors against which Banks’s rubber-limbed antics collide. This is not merely a sports comedy; it is a frantic, celluloid examination of the 'bug' of modern obsession, where the golf club becomes an extension of the self, often to the detriment of everyone in the immediate vicinity.