The Old Bull Review - Todd and Pitts vs. a very tired lion

If you have ten minutes and want to watch two classic comediennes scream at a very tired-looking big cat, yes, The Old Bull is absolutely worth your time. But if old-school slapstick makes you roll your eyes, skip it. 🦁

It is basically just Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. Which, funny enough, feels a bit like the setup of Stranded, but with way more running around.

The whole plot is just an excuse to get them near a runaway lion. And let me tell you, that lion looks like it wants a warm glass of milk and a nap more than a meal.

Zasu Pitts does that thing with her hands where she looks like she's trying to catch invisible butterflies. It always makes me laugh, even when the joke itself is kind of flat.

There is this one bit where they try to hide and the camera just... stays on them too long. You can see Thelma almost breaking character and smiling at how ridiculous the prop setup is.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Old Bull (1932) through its definitive frames.

Otto Fries shows up too, looking as confused as the audience probably was back then. He has that classic big-guy energy that works so well against the girls.

Honestly, the writing by H.M. Walker is pretty thin here. It feels like they had the lion for one afternoon and just wrote the script on the back of a napkin while driving to the set.

If you have seen other comedy shorts of the era like The Rent Collector, you already know the drill. Lots of running, falling, and people making funny faces directly at the camera.

The lion itself is the real star, mostly because it looks so incredibly unimpressed by everything around it. At one point, it just stares at a bush like it is contemplating its life choices.

I love these little films because they do not try to be masterpieces. They just want to make you giggle for ten minutes before you move on with your day.

So yeah, give it a watch. It is short, it is dumb, and the physical comedy is top-tier. 🎬