It’s on 8 mm film, stretches 100 feet long, and has a run-time of a mere 3 minutes and 55 seconds. The film was played on a Dejur Corporation home movie projector more than 40 times in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s at our family gatherings. Operating the projector was my dad, legendary home movie film producer Chuck Varcie and he had people roaring with laughter.

The film in question is Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid. It was an uproarious silent, color, 8 mm movie comedy made in a basement with yellow shag carpeting in Garden City, MI, on a cold, sunny Sunday in February 1976.

The creators were my dad, Chuck Varcie, his cousin Carl Varcie, and Carl’s son Carl Jr. It was a home movie inspired by the 1969 hit film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which starred Hollywood legends Paul Newman and Robert Redford about two train robbers who were on the run from the law in the old West.

Our version starred my brother, John, as Frito Bandito, me as his sidekick Dorito, my mom, Judy, as the damsel Lotta Gotta, my cousin Carla as the younger damsel Dumb Brondoffski, my cousin Carl Jr. as the film writer, producer, and director. His dad Carl played Botch Casually and my dad played the Somedunce Kid.

Many of our dads in the 1960s and 1970s had a hand-held camera that shot 8 mm film. When viewed on a projector screen the film would be grainy, it could be color or black and white, the movies had no sound unless you were really rich and had a film projector that had sound and a camera that recorded sound. Most 8 mm film recorded during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s resembled the infamous “Zapruder” film from November 1963 that showed President John F. Kennedy being assassinated in Dallas, TX, by Lee Harvey Oswald.

My dad always had his camera and was recording. He recorded every Christmas through the 1970s. He recorded a 3-straight-minute 8 mm film of my brother John swinging in a baby swing in 1965. On the yellow, 3-inch by 3-inch Kodak cardboard box that contains the film, my dad wrote “Our first movie.”

It should have won an Emmy.

He filmed birthday parties, family get-togethers, picnics, vacations to Florida, trips to Kings Island amusement park in Ohio, vacations in Houghton Lake, MI.

Then there were the tender moments, like when my dad got my mom a blue fox coat in 1975 and made a film of her smiling and strutting proudly around our family room wearing it. My dad’s 40th birthday party was recorded as were all of the theme parties that my mom and dad hosted for their friends, neighbors, and family. He recorded hockey games that I played in and hockey tournaments when my teams traveled to Canada.

That camera was a time capsule that captured some of my family’s greatest memories growing up. I now have all 70 movies that he recorded on 8 mm film. In length, it measures an astonishing 5,600 feet of film — more than a mile long! I know, because when I looked for companies to digitize all the films, they asked me to measure and estimate the approximate film length to convert to digital.

The lowest bidder’s cost was close to $1,000 to digitize all the films. But I’m a smart and technical guy. I figured that I could buy a film-to-digital media converter and do it myself. I spent $250 on a device and digitized the first of my dad’s movies that I could think of: Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid.

After all these years in storage, the dusty film was about to debut to an audience of one in my home office in Chesterfield Township, MI. I was going to need a glass of wine and box of tissues to clear my tears to watch this. I threaded the film through the digital converter projector with my fumbling sausage fingers and waited in anticipation for this should’ve-been-Emmy-award-winning film to start playing. The film starting clicking and clicking and clicking and I watched the first frame with eyes wide open….

But first — before I get to the movie, remember what I wrote at the beginning? The movie played over 40 times at family gatherings by my dad over close to 20 years and people would watch and roar with laughter. There was a reason they would roar with laughter.

My dad would play music from the movie The Sting on his black Panasonic brand cassette-player radio that had one lousy speaker that sounded like it was muffled by a pillow by today’s technology standard. It had hideous large buttons to press “play,” ”stop,” fast forward,” or rewind” the music. He would play the music along with the movie. He’d speed up the projector to make the movie run faster, which had everyone howling. He’d stop the projector on one of us in the movie making a funny face. Everyone would laugh, some slapping their knees to stop themselves from peeing their pants. He’d play the movie in slow-motion and everyone would roar with laughter. It was the highlight of the evening.

Every family gathering and party, someone would say “Chuck, play Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid.” He’d lug out the film projector, his box of movies, and for the rest of the night, we’d be engrossed in the family films. No matter how many times we watched them, they were funnier each time.

This was simple technology. It wasn’t video from an iPhone 14. It wasn’t a Reel on Facebook or Instagram. It wasn’t a high-tech-looking movie that some creative college-aged students made and posted on Youtube. This was movie-making technology from the 1960s that barely updated over the next 15 years. It was home movie-making in its infancy. The quality was really bad and as silent films, they were so boring and awful that it could be like watching paint dry on a wall.

So just humor me at this moment. Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid was the show “Seinfeld” on 8 mm film made in February 1976.

Are we caught up now?

Back to the movie. I called my cousin Carl recently and asked him how this all started. After all, I was only 8 years old when I starred in the film. I don’t remember a lot. I was only interested in baseball cards, comic books, riding my bike, playing ice hockey, and scoping out girls – ok, maybe not at 8.

Here’s Carl: “I remember every time we went over your house, your dad always had that camera out. He was recording everything. At the time, I subscribed to Mad Magazine and there was an issue that had a spoof (from 1970) on the movie Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid that was called Botch Casually and Somedunce Kid.”

Carl continued: “My dad used to bring my sister and I over to your house every Sunday and I said to your dad and my dad, ” Let’s make a movie called Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid.” I wrote a script, picked out who would play each part in it, and they said, “Ok, let’s do it.”

So we did it. I was 8, Carla was 9, my brother John was 11, Carl was 16 and my dad, mom and Carl Sr. were just old.

To our credit, not one of us was a professional actor or actress. There were no cue cards or boom mics — then again, it was a silent movie. Kids these days won’t understand that.

“We really did it in one take. We had a script, we got all the costumes together and filmed the scenes,” Carl said.

Ok – now, back to the movie. I digitized the movie with my new Amazon-purchased 8mm film digital converter and added music as closely as possible to what my dad would play along on his Panasonic radio and tape player more than 40 years ago.

Simply put, it’s a movie about two wanted outlaws fighting against 2 other outlaws, a hilarious poker game gone wrong, and a funny set of circumstances unfold — hey, I can’t give away the ending!

After editing in music and a couple other effects, I started the projector, which today is my MacBook Pro. The film started playing. It was clicking and clicking and clicking. I watched the first frame and the second of the film that I edited to resemble almost exactly what my dad played on his old Dejur projector that first time in 1976. This is what debuted 47 years ago.

Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid in its entirety: Enjoy!

Credits:

The Actors:

Carl Varcie Sr. as Botch Casually

Chuck Varcie as the Somedunce Kid.

John Varcie as Frito Bandito.

Tom Varcie as Dorito.

Judy Varcie as Lotta Gotta.

Carla Varcie at Dumb Brondoffski

Music:

Music used in creating my personal video: Easy Winners (The Sting/Soundtrack Version) · Marvin Hamlisch The Sting ℗ 1974 Geffen Records Released on: 1974-01-01 Producer: Marvin Hamlisch Studio Personnel, Recording Engineer: Ami Hadami Associated Performer, Recording Arranger: Gunther Schuller Composer Lyricist: Gunther Schuller Composer Lyricist: Scott Joplin;

Pineapple Rag (The Sting/Soundtrack Version) · Marvin Hamlisch The Sting ℗ 1974 Geffen Records Released on: 1974-01-01 Producer: Marvin Hamlisch Studio Personnel, Recording Engineer: Ami Hadami Composer Lyricist: Scott Joplin

Solace (The Sting/Soundtrack Version (Orchestra Version)) · Marvin Hamlisch The Sting ℗ 1974 Geffen Records Released on: 1974-01-01 Producer: Marvin Hamlisch Studio Personnel, Recording Engineer: Ami Hadami Composer Lyricist: Scott Joplin

Carl Varcie Jr. as the writer, producer, and director.