Tag: Fatty Arbuckle

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

Out West (1918)

Out West is another 20 minutes of silent comedy directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle, with able support from Buster Keaton. This one sees Fatty Arbuckle indulging in all the staples of the Western – vagrancy, theft, murder, train top chases, gunfights, bar brawls, extreme racism that’s incredibly unpleasant to watch, casual participation in genocide, and everything else that was the style at the time.

Yeah, this one takes a turn for the unpleasantly racist halfway through, and no amount of horses getting drunk can save it after that, to be honest.

__________

Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again, which was in plain normal black and white.

2. But I captured the screenshots from this tinted version on youtube.

3. This one also stars Buster Keaton’s dad near the start.

4. But beyond that I don’t have too much to say.

__________

Film Information

Title: Out West
Director: Fatty Arbuckle
Year: 1918
Duration: 20 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

Coney Island (1917)

In Coney Island, Fatty Arbuckle and his usual gang of friends go to Coney Island for the day. Hijinks ensue.

This one is a lot of fun and there’s a lot to enjoy in it, not least simply looking at Coney Island a hundreds year ago, which looks magnificent. The downhill dodgems on an undulating Mario Kart style track looks especially amazing.

I also liked this sullen looking baby eating an ice cream quite a bit. The true essence of all summer holidays there in one wonderful picture.

Beyond the wondrous nature of Coney Island itself, this short has a lot more in it that I liked than the last few I watched. I liked, in no particular order, Fatty Arbuckle’s incredible swimming technique; the occasional well-placed piece of fourth-wall breaking; Fatty Arbuckle eating an entire scoop of ice cream in one go; Buster Keaton doing a back flip just because he can; and Buster Keaton’s sheer unbridled delight at accidentally smacking Fatty Arbuckle in the face with a hammer.

Even Luke the Dog turns up for a bit. And at the end Buster Keaton kisses a girl.

I would quite like to Coney Island, a hundred years ago.

__________

Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again. The screenshots are captured from this copy on youtube.

2. The music on the Blu-Ray version was pretty rubbish, unfortunately.

3. I should probably try syncing it up with this Godspeed You Black Emperor track at some point.

4. But I’d probably get my youtube account blocked for copyright violations

5. So maybe some other time, who knows.

__________

Film Information

Title: Coney Island
Director: Fatty Arbuckle
Year: 1917
Duration: 25 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

Oh, Doctor! (1917)

Oh, Doctor! is another Fatty Arbuckle/Buster Keaton collaboration. This time Fatty Arbuckle plays a reckless, feckless doctor caught up in a complex (or at least convoluted) plot involving gambling, hustling, theft, and seduction, while Buster Keaton plays his dandyish son.

I can’t really think of much to say about this, I’m afraid. It was amiable enough, and at least it tried something different, rather than relying on Fatty Arbuckle’s usual staple of filling up any spare five minutes with everlasting food fights.

Also I liked this joke quite a lot, though I’m not sure exactly why.

___________

Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again. I captured the stills from this slightly grubby version on youtube.

2. This was a marked improvement on yesterday’s viewing, though it still lacked any stand-out scenes

3. I’m missing Luke the Dog quite a lot right now.

4. Hopefully he turns up again soon.

___________

Film Information

Title: Oh, Doctor!
Director: Fatty Arbuckle
Year: 1917
Duration: 24 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

His Wedding Night (1917)

His Wedding Night is the third Fatty Arbuckle/Buster Keaton collaboration of 1917, and by far the worst so far. This one involves Fatty Arbuckle making an egg cream, indulging in mild racism and homophobia, date raping a woman, and sticking his head up a horse’s arse.

I did not like this one at all, although Buster Keaton looks quite fetching in a wedding dress.

___________

Notes

1. I watched this on Blu-Ray again. I grabbed the screenshot from this youtube version.

2. Which appears to be the same as the version in the boxset, actually, with the same soundtrack.

3. I was going to be as charitable as I could and say this was “of its time”.

4. But it’s not really.

5. It’s just a bit shit.

__________

Film Information

Title: His Wedding Night
Directors: Fatty Arbuckle, Buster Keaton
Year: 1917
Duration: 20 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

The Rough House (1917)

The Rough House is another Fatty Arbuckle silent comedy, co-diected this time with Buster Keaton, and starring pretty much the same cast as The Butcher Boy.

The first half of this is very similar to the first half of The Butcher Boy, being as it is a near ten minute ever-escalating food fight with the exact same cast of actors, but this time in a nice posh house rather than a butcher’s shop.

In the second half, Fatty Arbuckle has to make dinner for some new guests who turn out to be crooks. This section is surprisingly tedious, although there’s a nice bit where he slices up the potatoes using an electric fan (see above).

Later on there’s a chase, and a gunfight, and Buster Keaton executing an amazing overhead kick to a man’s face that Jackie Chan would have been proud of (see below). And yet it’s still all a bit boring for some reason.

(The reason is there’s no Luke the Dog at all)

__________

Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again, but took the screenshots from this version on youtube.

2. The restored version on the blu-rays looks much nicer than that. You can actually see their faces, for one thing.

3. So I apologise for the poor quality images above.

4. Maybe one day I will learn how to take screenshots from blu-rays, but I doubt it’ll be anytime soon.

5. I’ve said this before, but I love the way old silent films shot on static cameras like this have the feel of some strange 80s/90s adventure games, each room in the house a separate screen.

6. I don’t know if anyone’s ever made a silent comedy adventure game but someone definitely should at some point.

__________

Film Information

Title: The Rough House
Directors: Fatty Arbuckle, Buster Keaton
Year: 1917
Duration: 20 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

The Butcher Boy (1917)

The Butcher Boy is a silent comedy from 1917, written, and directed by Fatty Arbuckle, and starring Fatty Arbuckle, too, as well as Alice Lake, Buster Keaton, and Fatty Arbuckle’s amazing dog, Luke.

I love Luke.

Anyway the film’s in two parts. The first part is set in the butcher’s shop where Fatty Arbuckle works, while the second part involves Fatty Arbuckle dressing up as a girl so he can break into a boarding school for girls and marry a girl.

The second part has more Luke but less jokes. The first part has less Luke but more jokes. I could not tell you which I prefer.

___________

Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray, in this excellent collection of Buster Keaton films.

2. But there’s plenty of version available on youtube or wherever. I captured the above screenshots from this slightly shoddy version.

3. This was Buster Keaton’s film debut, which explains why it’s in the Buster Keaton boxset and not a Fatty Arbuckle boxset, I suppose.

4. Anyway, I’m going to watch one of these every day during December.

5. I hope that’s okay.

___________

Film Information

Title: The Butcher Boy
Director: Fatty Arbuckle
Year: 1917
Duration: 24 minutes
Watch: youtube (various versions)