{"id":562,"date":"2021-12-06T21:18:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T21:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/?p=562"},"modified":"2021-12-06T21:18:45","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T21:18:45","slug":"the-bell-boy-1918","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/2021\/12\/06\/the-bell-boy-1918\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bell Boy (1918)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bell Boy<\/em> is the seventh Fatty Arbuckle\/Buster Keaton collaboration (or at least the seventh surviving one), and probably the best yet, in which the pair of them play Bell Boys at a dysfunctional hotel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The plot of this is basically that Fatty Arbuckle is utterly bored at work and decides to piss around. It’s a pretty good plot, to be honest, and beats the usual Fatty Arbuckle storyline, where he’s just relentlessly unpleasant for 20 minutes for reasons I find difficult to discern.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s also an almost non-stop cavalcade of jokes (including an incredible window cleaning gag from Buster Keaton), with a nice line in slightly surreal humour, and some good use of pulleys and contraptions too, which I always like (though nothing on the scale of the stuff Buster Keaton contrives in The Scarecrow<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Towards the end, they run out of hotel jokes and stage a bank robbery instead, presumably so Buster Keaton can show off his incredible range of acrobatic skills. There’s a five minute fight, followed by a motorbike chase, and a runaway tram. It’s pretty exciting.<\/p>\n

THE END<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> I watched this on blu-ray yet again. The stills are captured from this youtube version<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> I liked this one a lot, although it’s still probably only the third best hotel based silent film I’ve watched this year, after these two wondrous marvels<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> This one also has a (very short) stop-motion sequence (I think), so keeps up the hotel\/animation theme of The Electric Hotel and Hotel Electrique, even if only for about a second.<\/em><\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Also there’s a shaving scene, but rather than being pretty delightful, like the one in Hotel Electrique, this one is just utterly interminable.<\/em><\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> And probably the only part of this I actually disliked.<\/em><\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> This might also be the first Fatty Arbuckle film I’ve watched where he’s not just an absolute arsehole.<\/em><\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> Which makes a nice change of pace.<\/em><\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> And also the scene where he and his girlfriend drive around in a car for a bit reminded me of this bit from the new Twin Peaks<\/a> for some reason.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> Which was nice.<\/em><\/p>\n

10.<\/strong> (This one also had a brief shot of a dog in it but it wasn’t Luke the Dog at all unfortunately it was some other dog entirely)<\/em><\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Film Information<\/p>\n

Title:<\/strong> The Bell Boy<\/em>
\nDirector:<\/strong> Fatty Arbuckle<\/em>
\nYear:<\/strong> 1918<\/em>
\nDuration:<\/strong> 25 minutes<\/em>
\nWatch: <\/strong>youtube<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bell Boy is the seventh Fatty Arbuckle\/Buster Keaton collaboration (or at least the seventh surviving one), and probably the best yet, in which the pair of them play Bell Boys at a dysfunctional hotel. The plot of this is basically that Fatty Arbuckle is utterly bored at work and decides to piss around. It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[205,308,108,20,307,291,319],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-film-is-more-than-100-years-old","tag-205","tag-alice-lake","tag-buster-keaton","tag-comedy","tag-fatty-arbuckle","tag-hotels","tag-the-bell-boy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}