Customer Reviews

The Best Arbuckle/Keaton Collection

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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This is a very nicely done collection of the Buster Keaton - Fatty Arbuckle Comique comedies made between 1917-1919. The collection contains almost all of their existing comedies, with the exception of "The Cook" which was recently discovered.

The presentation is very well done, although there appears to be no "View All" option, so you must go to each comedy seperately. A minor problem, to be sure.

The films often come from different copies than the 2 disc Kino collection of most of these films. "The Butcher Boy" looks about the same, as does "The Rough House". "His Wedding Night" and "Oh Doctor!" are both new to this collection, and look pretty good, although they don't have a lot of Keaton in them. "Coney Island" is slightly improved, and "Out West" is from a MUCH better copy that ever seen before, more complete, much better condition - but with some splices that could have been fixed by editing in footage from the other version. Why wasn't this done?

"The Bell Boy" is exactly the same as on Kino, but "Moonshine" is very different. There are two existing copies of this film - one is a complete copy on 16mm with very poor contrast and lots of missing detail, the other a very fragmentary but high-quality version on 35mm. This set features the 35mm version, the Kino set the 16mm. Once again, why weren't these two edited together? The 16mm could use the quality improvement, and the 35mm just doesn't make sense and is really missing most of the good parts, not to mention the poorly done titles.

On Disc 2, "Good Night, Nurse", "Back Stage", "The Hayseed", and "The Garage" are all in fine condition.

Picture wise, this set is very well encoded, without much artifacting at all.

Musically, the accompaniment is very nicely done. The Kino set suffered from some very bizarre accompaniment by the "Alloy Orchestra", which really detracted from the material and tends to annoy people who are trying to do other things in the room.

The best part of this set, really, is the price, much less expensive than the Kino discs, and with more material. But really, if you are a fan, you need both, don't you? :)

Enjoy!

I have been awaiting this set ever since Image Entertainment announced it's release in order to make a comparison with the earlier one from Kino. Although the two volume ARBUCKLE & KEATON set is very fine (see my other reviews), this set features a new comedy not included in the other one (HIS WEDDING NIGHT) plus mostly original nitrate prints of the other shorts gathered from foriegn archives. There are more complete versions of OUT WEST and THE ROUGH HOUSE here as well as a much better print of MOONSHINE although it's only a fragment. However some of the Image prints (THE BUTCHER BOY, THE BELLHOP, and especially BACK STAGE) are not as pristine as those offered by Kino. They also lack the color tinting of the other set and feature a more traditional music accompaniment (piano and synthesizer) compared to the raucous although endearingly colorful scores by The Alloy Orchestra. The title cards are also different.

While not as funny, they are probably closer to the originals. In fact the major difference in these two sets is authenticity in presentation (although in CONEY ISLAND Luna Park is misspelled as Luma). The Image shorts are even arranged chronologically so that we can see Arbuckle and Keaton progress together although the shorts are unevenly distributed among the two discs (8 on Disc 1, 4 on Disc 2). So where does that leave us? For the general public the Kino edition is probably a better introduction to Arbuckle's work although it's on two seperate discs and therefore more expensive. This set is more complete and offers more for the silent film enthusiast who will be more forgiving of its few shortcomings. While I heartily recommend the Kino edition, my nod goes to this set.The important thing is that now there are two quality sets of the Arbuckle comedies available and the choice will be up to you. It's a win/win situation.

Without the support of comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, the cinematic art of Buster Keaton may never have blossomed. The 12 existing shorts in "The Best Arbuckle/Keaton Collection" display Arbuckle's comedic skill while revealing the astonishing speed in which co-star Keaton mastered the medium. After 15 two-reelers from 1917 to 1920, Buster was ready to fly solo with a remarkable string of masterpieces. Sadly, Arbuckle's subsequent career in features was unjustly destroyed by the 1921 scandal, yet he persevered and made a brief comeback before his death in 1933. Admittedly, not all the Arbuckle-Keaton shorts are gems, but "The Butcher Boy" (1917), "Back Stage" (1919) and "The Garage" (1920) remain memorable comedies that showcase Fatty and Buster's effortless rapport. Despite some unfortunate racial humor, "Out West" (1918) is a wild, fast-paced romp that satirizes the Westerns of William S. Hart. Though the prints vary in quality, one must be grateful that they exist at all. "The Best Arbuckle/Keaton Collection" represents a valuable chapter in the history of film comedy.

This 2-disc set compilation contains 12 ( including Buster's debut in " The butcher boy " ) of the 15 two-reels comedies that both comics interpreted together ( only one, " A country hero " ( 1917 ), is lost ), all of them directed between 1917 and 1919 by Roscoe " Fatty " Arbuckle himself ( there are only doubts with " Coney Island " that some specialists authorize entirely to Walter Lang ). Fatty's conception of comedy was pretty superfluous and mechanical ( just inversely that his friend Buster ), based on easy misunderstandings and jokes and the humorous explotation of his enormous body . However, the three last comedies of the couple Arbuckle-Keaton ( that not accidentally coincide with a progressive higher protagonism of Buster so much as actor as gagman and who one year later would direct his own comedy shorts for producer Joseph M. Schenck too ), specially "Back Stage" and "The garage ", are fine constructed slapsticks with a good comedy timing and clever comic situations. The twelve shorts in this compilation are in chronological order: "The butcher boy" ( 1917 ); "The rough house" ( 1917 ); "His wedding night" ( 1917 ); "Oh, doctor" ( 1917 ); "Coney Island" ( 1917 ); "Out west" ( 1918 ); "The bellboy" ( 1918 ); "Moonshine" ( 1918 ); "Good night, nurse" ( 1918 ); "Back stage" ( 1919 ); "The hayseed" ( 1919 ) and "The garage" ( 1919 ).The copies of all them are fine, as well as the piano accompaniment by Neil Brand. The DVD includes a brochure by Jeffrey Vance, co-author with Eleanor Keaton ( the third and last Buster's wife) of "Buster Keaton remembered".

A very nice compilation with a pretty lower price and two more comedies than Kino's edition.

It has been claimed more than once that Fatty Arbuckle taught Buster Keaton the mechanics of making movies, and Buster taught Fatty the artistry of making film comedies. Although things are invariably more complicated, this survey of the Arbuckle/Keaton partnership essentially supports this idea. What's great about the collection from an historical perspective is that it covers their entire period together, from the Butcher Boy (April 1917) to The Garage (late 1919). What a difference in artistry between these films! The Butcher Boy is not far removed from the Keystone style, except for Buster's contribution (compare Chaplin's stealing the scene as a supporting player in The Knock Out of 1914). By contrast, The Garage, the last chronologically in the series, lays almost completely new ground for comedy: it is pure comic ballet, combined with Keaton's creative use of nature and machine as props, and a much more controlled concept of mayhem. No one, not even Chaplin, was creating and executing such fresh concepts in 1919.

Between these two milestones, there's a lot of fun to be had. However, a noticeable difference in quality can be seen between the first 9 movies in the set, and the last 3, made after Keaton returned from World War 1. In the first set, Keaton is primarily a supporting player for Arbuckle, often stealing the scene by his physical grace, but not on the whole dominating the story. For modern viewers, these Keystonesque films are less satisfying -- Arbuckle was simply not the creative visionary that Keaton was. The best in this earlier set might be Coney Island, for its creative use of the amusement park. Of interest to Keaton fans is his early experimentation with different characterizations before converging on the "stone face" -- there's a surprising variety in Keaton's facial expressions here, from laughter to uncontrollable Stan Laurel-like tears.

By the time of Back Stage, the first of the last three films in this series, Buster had essentially evolved his character into the one he was to portray throughout the rest of his career, down to the pork pie hat and vest. He also emerges as the primary creative force of these films, with Arbuckle serving as a willing partner of the Keaton vision. The gags and plot in the last films anticipate Keaton's future work far more than Arbuckle's formulae. For example, Keaton starts to experiment with camera tricks, as in The Hayseed, when he reverses the camera in order to "return the nag to the stable". By the time of the Garage, Keaton's acknowledged favorite in the series, we have witnessed the emergence of a singular creative force. These films also teach us to appreciate the contribution of Fatty Arbuckle to Keaton's development, as Keaton himself did until the end of his life.

Okay, ignore everything you’ve heard about Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: he did not rape anybody. Some flimsy evidence was put together saying that he did, and in the process his career was absolutely destroyed. In the years since, even silent movie fans have trouble acknowledging him as one of the greats of that era. I think he’s a great comedian in his own right, and arguably the most graceful acrobatic comedian of the silent era.
This is a collection of the films he made with rising star Buster Keaton. While the films aren’t as polished and hilarious as most of Charlie Chaplin’s movies, they’re entertaining and loaded with gags.
On this two-disc set, the films look scratchy, however they’re in good condition considering the age. New music has been added and even the original colour tints have been restored. The DVD includes some liner notes by Jeffrey Vance, author of “Buster Keaton Remembered.”

I rented this from the local library and liked it so much and found it so great and funny that I knew I would have to buy myself my own copy later. A lot of people who aren't familiar with the genre at all constantly assert that silent comedy was little more than pie fights and police chases, but the shorts on these two discs reveal that that's not true at all and is little more than an urban legend spread by people who have no serious experience with this forgotten world of comedy in the late Teens. Some comedies (or just films in general) from this long ago do look unsophisticated and crude by modern sensibilities, but the stuff that Roscoe, Buster, Al St. John, and their other co-stars were doing in the late Teens stands head and shoulders over a lot of the lesser-evolved comedy shorts from the Teens. The plot might not always make sense, and some shorts may jump around in terms of plot and setting, but that's part of what makes early film comedy so fun. Besides giving a wonderful view of Buster's earliest films and seeing what natural comedic presence and talent he had even in his earliest work, it's also a wonderful view into a bygone world, one with long-gone makes of cars, horse-drawn wagons, fashions, trains, old-fashioned fire engines, elevators, hotels, and, most priceless of all, the authentic footage of Coney Island, particularly in Luna Park, which was destroyed by fire in the 1940s. Even though there are efforts to restore Coney Island today, there's no substitute for seeing how it really looked during its glory days, before it became as run-down and has-been as it is today. Luke the dog is also really good, as much a screen presence, in his own canine way, as his human co-stars.

The much-discussed scene in 'Out West,' when an African-American man goes into the bar where Buster just gave Roscoe a job as a bartender and a bunch of mean cowboys, even Roscoe himself, start shooting at his feet to make him dance till the woman from the Salvation Army comes to the rescue, is very disturbing and hideously-aged, although as difficult as this is to watch in the modern era, it really only lasts for maybe a minute and isn't the main focus of this short. Although it's one thing to make allowances for an old film only having African-Americans in serving positions or having them act in overly cartoonish ways, this section could not be excused in the same way; things like this and much worse really were happening back then, and comes across as racist and horribly dated more than other films which might show their African-American characters in servile positions or caricaturish mannerisms; those kinds of depictions aren't necessarily racist.

Some people don't find Roscoe's films funny or that well-aged because he doesn't really have an established screen persona and because some of his shorts jump around in terms of setting and plot without seeming rhyme or reason, and while I don't agree with them, that is a valid criticism. We can predict how other comedic actors of the era, like Charlie Chaplin or Laurel and Hardy, would react to any given situation and what they'd do to get out of trouble, save the day, get the girl, but, while funny and brilliant, Roscoe's reactions don't really follow that same kind of established character pattern. The characters he plays are usually shy, sneaky, inventive, nice guys, but his appeal is more of an everyman, someone you can relate to even if you wouldn't do some of the crazy things he does, and a comedian doesn't need to have a developed screen character, like never smiling or talking, going around in oversized clothes, or being a childlike man who overreacts to everything to establish rapport with the audience and make people root for him and feel sympathy towards him.

Wow, Roscoe Arbuckle is my new hero of comedy... Some of his stuntwork almost matches Keaton's in fearlessness if not flight.

For the first two films in this collection, Neil Brand's piano work is virtuosic and highly entertaining, with a satisfying bass (unusual in recorded piano). It rarely fits the action. The films with his scores are very watchable because he is generally an interesting pianist, but at this point he adds little emphasis to the comedy and the musical styling often changes without motivation. So far he comes across as a C+ level accompanist, which would be fine if you were in a little silent-film museum with a lively audience. Or if there were lots of sound effects. Alone or with just a few friends, these films with his music are not as funny as they might be.

Then suddenly, for "His Wedding Night", Brand gives us a brilliant score. Same thing in "The Bellboy" (one of the most spectacular stunt films you will ever see). So what happened with the first two films? Were they just not spot-on in sync? Someone at IMAGE needs to look over these movies and make sure the sync is correct. If not, a little adjusting could make a good film collection perfect; if the sync is accurate, then I don't know what to say--Brand must have taken some of that perfume Arbuckle was spraying around, and then it wore off...

Things continue to get better. "Oh, Doctor", gets a score by Brian Benison (with many winks at the classics), and is practically a model of how to select music with the proper tempo and mood for each change of action. It includes a few sound effects; if it had a few more it would close to perfect. This is also the first really good print. As with many of these movies, the action and title cards contain some really creepy sexual innuendos. Keaton plays a completely different character than usual, and is exceptional. Neil Brand now continues to give exemplary musical accompaniment. Then, in "The Hayseed", the music is bizarre. There are many sudden glissandos and fortissimos that match nothing; the music suddenly becomes romantic when the villain is frantically chased off by the dog. But the music SEEMS to end at the right moment, so the soundtrack does not seem to be accidentally out-of-sync. Or is it??? I have absolutely NO idea what Brand was thinking with this one. All the music is delightful, but nothing fits any action. Again, it may be a desperately poor sync-job and IMAGE needs to look into it.

Now let's face it: the quality of these prints is around 1-star at best. Something is wrong with the reproduction of some of framing--heads are cut off in some films, like the last half of "The Butcher Boy." I do wish that menu music would just stop, instead of loop; I wish that there were fewer reconstructed title cards, and that they would not last so long on the screen, interfering with the rhythm of the film; and as another reviewer observed, "Moonshine" could be virtually complete, but... no. Nevertheless, these are quibbles for giving us probably the best-salvaged prints available of comedies most of us have never seen before, with, at long last, some truly decent musical accompaniment, and finally giving Arbuckle a chance to prove for himself that he was a worthy match for practically any comedian of the day. I would give it 4 stars, but there is just something too crazy about the music on some of the movies. Buy it, and then, if any of you CAN figure out what the hell is wrong with music on the first 2 films and "The Hayseed", write to IMAGE and tell them what to do. Companies DO respond to these things...

This is released as two discs for the price of
one, covering four hours of very good slapstick
comedies made by Arbuckle and Keaton between
1917 and 1919. These are works that do not seem
identical or formulaic upon repeated viewings,
and the later ones are actually so good that to
find personal favorite gags in them is not at
all difficult.

The video quality varies between quite acceptable
(especially in the earliest ones) to excellent.
The music consists largely of excellent piano
accompaniment but other types as well, so there
is enough variety across the program.

In conclusion, these are a great bargain for those
who are interested in silent comedies yet have not
own this material on video yet. An addition to
any classic movie collection that one is unlikely
to regret about.

This is a great set that shows how Buster Keaton learned the art of making comedy films under the tutorage of Roscoe Arbuckle from 1917-1919 and gradually advanced from apprentice to partner. There are twelve of their two-reelers included. The only one known to be in existence that is not in this set is 1918's "The Cook", which was the last short that Keaton and Arbuckle did before Keaton left for the army during World War I. It was said by Keaton himself that the only disagreement the pair ever had that they could not settle was that Arbuckle believed that you had to assume that the audience for comedy was at the mental level of a twelve year old. Keaton believed that you had to give the audience more credit than that in their capacity to grasp more subtle humor. The two may have never formally settled this friendly disagreement, but it is easy to see that - consciously or not - Arbuckle is being shifted into some of Keaton's theories of comic filmmaking over the three year period of their partnership. In their first film together, "The Butcher Boy", the humor is based on the usual mayhem of slapstick comedy of the 1910's - people throwing pies and sacks of flour at one another. By the time the two make their final film together - "The Garage" - there is definitely the Keaton trademark of humor clearly showing. For example, when Buster has his trousers shredded by Luke the dog he avoids arrest for exposing himself to "a virgin of 35" by cutting the kilts and hat off of the figure on a nearby billboard and pretending to be a Scotsman - typical Keaton resourcefulness in a crisis.

Neither Keaton nor Arbuckle have any fixed persona in these films. One of the treats of this set is to see Buster playing all kinds of characters with all kinds of reactions. In "Oh, Doctor" he plays Arbuckle's son who is often in a fit of tears, in "Coney Island" he plays a lifeguard and nemesis to Arbuckle's character, laughing and smiling at different points throughout the film. In "Good Night Nurse" Keaton plays a quack doctor who smiles and flirts with Arbuckle - a patient disguised as a nurse who is trying to escape Keaton's clinic.

"The Cook", which is on the set "The Cook and Other Treasures", to me is the best of the Keaton and Arbuckle shorts for specifically showing off Arbuckle's talents, from his great juggling talent to his version of the dance of Salome. It' definitely worth a look after you finish this set.