Customer Reviews

The Cook and Other Treasures [VHS]

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So, there's not much more I can say about the restoration of "The Cook", so let me simply speak to the quality of the dvd.

The three films here are well presented. They have been carefully transferred and encoded, so that as much detail as possible comes through.

The Cook is amazing to see. IT's obvious that the materials used were not of high-quality, but the restorers have brought as much quality into the print as possible, and the results are very watchable, certainly more watchable than most low-budget dvd releases.

The music is good, it accompanies the film without taking over.

There is a bonus function where you can view the two unrestored copies of "The Cook". You can also put the dvd into your computer and try to edit together your own version. "Look mom, I'm a silent film restorer!!" An amazing idea whose time has come....P>Kudos to the producers!

I saw THE COOK in a rough print of the restoration. The crowd loved it. Picture a theater filled with continuous roaring laughter during Arbuckle and Keaton's riotous rendition of Salome's dance, which somehow manages to incorporate the death of Cleopatra. We laughed until it hurt, and didn't stop.

I have seen the VHS version of this which is exactly the same as the DVD. It is worth it alone for THE COOK which I feel to be Arbuckle's masterpiece. All of his best comic bits including his incredible acrobatic ability with objects (throwing knives, flipping pancakes behind his back) are on full display as well as a merciless parody of Theda Bara in CLEOPATRA which is wickedly funny even if you don't know the source. Buster Keaton as the "pest/waiter" has some great moments including nearly being beheaded with a meat cleaver by Fatty. Al St. John is the "toughest guy in the world" and even Fatty's dog Luke gets to play a prominent part in the proceedings. This short must be seen to be believed.

A RECKLESS ROMEO is typical silent comedy fare with Fatty taking his wife and mother-in-law to the local cinema only to see his earlier flirting in the park shown on the screen with the obvious results. Both of these long lost films were discovered in archives in Norway. They are 95% complete with both prints in very good but not great shape. The Harold Lloyd short NUMBER PLEASE? included to fill out the disc is not top notch Lloyd but is funny nevertheless. It too is in very good condition but has some rough spots thus 4 stars instead of 5. THE COOK however is the real find here. Milestone Films has done their usual fine job by providing tinted prints with an appropriate piano score. If you're a big fan of Arbuckle then you'll want to get this DVD even if you have the earlier Kino or Image releases. If you don't have those then this is the ideal introduction to the "Prince Of Whales", Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

This collection marks the release of two films long thought lost by film historians: "The Cook" starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, and "A Reckless Romeo", thought by some to be another lost Arbuckle/Keaton film, but in fact featuring only Arbuckle. The prints were discovered in 1998 in unmarked canisters in the Norwegian Film Institute. "Reckless" seems to be complete, but "The Cook" is missing footage at the end, which is a little disappointing to the viewer; still, fans of Keaton are grateful of the discovery of the film.

"The Cook" takes place in a cafe, with Arbuckle in the kitchen and Keaton as a waiter. The gags fly at a furious pace, combining Arbuckle's deft and droll knife-wielding; a "magic urn" that seems to produce just about anything wished for, including coffee, milk, gravy, something that looks like stew, and eventually, Arbuckle's jacket; and a game of catch with food orders between Fatty and Buster. We're not talking subtlety here, but the humor emerging from the sheer turmoil is infectious -- I would love to see it in a crowded movie house. Both Fatty and Buster add their own version of grace to their physical humor, but Buster especially is, as always, a joy to behold: no one ever has taken a fall with such precision, and Buster takes numerous high-precision falls in this movie. One also appreciates the effort of Al St. John in "The Cook" (as "the toughest guy in the world") and "Reckless Romeo"; he blends well into Fatty and Buster's world of chaos as a sort of hybrid between "dumb country rube" and "half-crazed urban punk".

The most famous scene in "The Cook", parts of which have been repeated over the years by either Fatty or Buster alone, is a middle-eastern veil dance, first performed by Buster, then taken over by Fatty. Buster's version is all grace and athleticism; its humor is the result of being an almost spot-on perfect imitation of a perfectly executed female veil dance. Fatty's version, by contrast, is way over-the-top, with kitchen props, a cabbage head representing that of John the Baptist (Fatty imitating Salome here), and a transition into a death-of-Cleopatra scene, with a link of sausages delivering the fatal snake bite.

This collection also contains "Number Please", an entertaining short starring Harold Lloyd. Lloyd's character and comic techniques offer an interesting contrast to the Arbuckle/Keaton pairing. "Number Please" (1920) lacks the pure Keystone-influenced chaos of the other films in this set, and engages in simple and effective story-telling, with more clear character definition. Like other Lloyd films, it also has a freshness and natural feel to it -- one gets a deep sense of the cultural world of 1920 around which Lloyd's "glasses character" lives. Lloyd also has a physical grace and athleticism that offers an interesting contrast to Keaton and Arbuckle. The only disappointment is that this short is also in "The Slapstick Symposium" collection starring Lloyd, which I also recommend, but I didn't appreciate having to purchase two copies of the same film.

Wish they were still around making more movies! Buy all their dvds and you'll have the best comedies ever made and a lifetime of entertainment you can watch over and over again! Never loses it's freshness!

Milestone always puts so much love and care into their silent DVDs, and this one is no exception. 'The Cook,' the one missing entry in the Keaton-Arbuckle series, was considered lost for decades, along with the other Arbuckle short presented here, 'A Reckless Romeo.' It's such a miracle they were found and restored; while it's always exciting when a lost silent resurfaces decades later, sometimes it seems that more attention is paid to long-lost features instead of shorts like these. Unfortunately, as is the case with many silents that were lost and found, this version of 'The Cook' is incomplete. There are some sections which are still missing, most regrettably the ending sequence. The viewer has three versions from which to choose--the restored as-complete-as-possible version with music, the Dutch version, and the Norwegian version, the latter two of which this restoration was primarily cobbled together from. These films, though, don't have any music (which is always a detriment when watching a silent, which relies so much on the right type of music to evoke the mood), and the Dutch version doesn't have any intertitles.

Along with the two (wonderfully funny) Arbuckle shorts, there's also a Harold Lloyd short, 'Number, Please?' It seems kind of wasteful for the disc to only have three shorts on it, and for the Lloyd short to have been previously released on 'The Harold Lloyd Slapstick Symposium' (and by now the Lloyd boxed set as well). Why do so many of these DVDs of silent shorts have this overlap, making the consumer get duplicate copies of shorts s/he already owns? Rounding out the disc is a 23-page press kit, which has a lot of great information on the comedians featured, the discovery of the Arbuckle shorts, the restoration process, the institutions which we have to thank for bringing us these long-lost treasures, and a fascinating essay entitled "A Guide to Amusement and Incubation in The Cook and A Reckless Romeo." I only wish there had been more shorts included.

`The Cook' (1918) Is one of the best Fatty Arbuckle/Buster Keaton collaborations, with
some very funny juggling and dancing routines as they work together in a café.

`Reckless Romeo' (1917) Is Arbuckle without Keaton. Not as strong as the other
two films. The majority of it is Fatty hitting on various girls in the park, but there
is a cool, surreal, self reflective moment at the end, when Fatty sees newsreel
footage of his amorous attempts projected at the local movie house, as his
wife sits next to him.

`Number, Please?' (1920) is Harold Lloyd directed by Fred Newmeyer and Hal Roach.
It has a number of very funny and inventive set pieces as Lloyd attempts to win back
his girl. This film feels more sophisticated and less dated than the Arbuckle films.

It is important to remember that until recently, these 2 Keaton-Arbuckles have been considered lost. For decades, some argued that "The Cook" did not really exist, but was really a confused title for "The Rough House", a short in which Roscoe Arbuckle does a brief stint cooking breakfast for the family. To my knowledge, this is the only product that offers these two shorts, which I had resigned myself to likely never getting to see at all. Without regard to story or print quality (although of enormous importance), the discovery and restoration of these films is oh-so-very welcome.

I love The Cook for two reasons really, one is of course that it was found after all those lost years to complete the set of Arbuckle/Keaton movies, it would have been so sad to have never found it and always have this one movie that was un-obtainable for all Arbuckle/Keaton fans. The second reason is that Buster dances, and that is worth the price of the DVD alone. The Cook tells the story of a restuarant and the people that work in it, you see them waiting on tables, cooking and basically running a restuarant as only they could. Al St John chips in as the meaness man in the world trying to take Alice Lake from Keaton. Luke the dog comes to the rescue and then we follow the gang to the seaside for a bit of R&R.
Two other movies complete this set, Number Please with Harold Lloyd, which is amusing at times, although I am concerned with the little dog at times. The Reckless Romeo with Arbuckle alone completes this set (filmed I believe when Keaton was overseas in France serving during WW1) this is very funny, I enjoy watching this.

Great Set, if you are a Arbuckle or Keaton fan you have to own this,