Ethelyn Gibson

In The Villain, Billy attempted something a little different. He's still imitating Chaplin, but this time he's playing the wicked, top-hatted Charlie found in some of his earliest Keystone appearances (e.g. Mabel at the Wheel), the ones where Charlie himself seemed to be imitating the studio's recently departed Ford Sterling. Throughout this short there is much spoofing of old-time melodramas, a frequent motif of Sterling's comedies.

Ethelyn Gibson has run away from daddy Ted Lorch because he wants to sell her to Leo White, King of Little Italy, for his music hall. So she dresses as a man and runs into Billy West in this scattershot burlesque.

A Chaplin-like tramp is mistaken for a Bolshevik

Charlie stays at a seaside lodging house frequented by sailors. He gets involved with a gang of crooks when a sea captain attempts to kidnap his landlady's daughter.

A bumbling janitor in a fleabag hotel drives the residents crazy, and a poor artist believes that his girlfriend is having an affair with a wealthy artist living across the hall, and takes unorthodox measures to find out what's going on.

Winnie Winkle's wee brother Perry captains a rag tag sandlot team.

A clumsy fiddler plays at an audition with a grouchy teathrical impresario, played by Oliver Hardy.

The Pest (aka The Freeloader) is a 1917 silent comedy film featuring Oliver Hardy and starring Billy West in one of his "Charlie Chaplin" rip-off roles.

The film opens in the lobby of a small hotel, where the desk clerk/owner (Budd Ross) is addressing three members of staff: the cook, the waiter and the bellboy. It is obvious from their reactions, particularly the cook (Leo White) that whatever was said did not go down too well. His animated arms knock down the man standing behind him repeatedly until all three servants simultaneously quit. They storm off into the adjoining kitchen where a slavery maid (Blanche White) is on the floor scrubbing the floor. The men all trip over her, moan briefly and then leave.

FIDDLIN AROUND' (1925) (Starring Babe Hardy).

A Fake Chaplin movie with Billy West as the tramp.

A tramp enters a cabaret and orders a drink, but then is thrown out when he cannot pay for it. After trying again, he is told by the manager that if he wants to avoid being charged and sent to jail, he will have to work.

A recent college graduate (Billy West) inherits a large sum of money, as well as a dive on the rough side of town. The will states that, in the event of Billy's death, two thugs get the money and the 'Cafe', and the thugs try, through various means, to see that Billy meets his demise. But Billy manages to thwart their efforts, with the help of a pretty young girl.

A 1925 silent comedy.

Billy West comedy produced by Cumberland and distributed by Arrow.