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In an unforgettable game of duelling clowns, Arbuckle and Charles Chaplin go head-to-head as a couple of playful drunks in the 1914 Keystone film The Rounders, each trying to steal the scene as they generate mayhem in a posh restaurant. Arbuckle proves he was more than a funny face in Fatty And Mabel Adrift (1916), a technically polished comedy that epitomizes the Mack Sennett style while revealing Arbuckle's genuine talent as a director.
In two of his early works -- before his adoption of the "stone face" demeanor -- a surprisingly expressive Keaton shares the screen with Arbuckle and demonstrates some of the visual gags that would later establish him as a master of the slapstick form.
A lesser known but important figure who appears in four of the six films on this videocassette is Al St. John, who frequently supported some of the brightest stars of the slapstick era. Though often relegated to the sidelines, St. John steps into the forefront in The Iron Mule (1925), a film directed by Arbuckle, fashioned around the quirky train built for Keaton's Our Hospitality and featuring a cameo appearance by Keaton himself. various directors. U.S. 1914-25. Total time: 135 mins. B&W. Music by Eric Beheim, Brian Benison, Robert Israel, Mont Alto Theatre Orchestra.
Contents:
The Rounders (1914, w/Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Charles Chaplin, Al St. John)
Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916, w/Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Al St. John)
Oh, Doctor! (1917, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John)
The Garage (1920, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton)
The Boat (1921, Buster Keaton)
The Iron Mule (1925, Al St. John)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Early Efforts of Three Great Filmmaking Friends,
By A Customer
This review is from: Slapstick Encyclopedia, Vol. 4 - Keaton, Arbuckle, and St. John [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This charming video program, made up of six short films featuring three popular performers of the late 1910's and early 20's, shows a level of quality that easily outclasses most of the broad, sprawling physical comedy common in contemporary efforts by other producers. Buster Keaton and Roscoe Arbuckle (aka Fatty), and often in the company of their mutual close friend Al St. John, produced some of the funniest and most original silent comedy of the period.On balance, Roscoe Arbuckle is probably the least well-appreciated comedy talent of the silent era, owing in no small part to the famous scandal that unjustly overtook him in 1921 and totally drowned his career. In this collection, his talent is well represented by four short films. In "The Rounders" he is teamed with Charlie Chaplin as half of a drunken duo, and while the comedy is not up to the best that either can do, it is revealing how easily Roscoe can match the mythical Chaplin gag-for-gag in portraying a comic inebriate. In "Fatty and Mabel Adrift" he shows his talent for not only comic acting but also directing, combining hysterical comedy with touching romance. Starring with his popular leading lady Mabel Normand, a great comic in her own right, he lends a three dimensional quality to a role that, played by almost anyone else, would be little more than a flat caricature. Mabel is as good, his buddy Al St. John is laughably reckless as his foe, and even his dog Luke gets a workout as the noblest example of man's best friend. When Arbuckle teamed up with Buster Keaton, the results were always joyful and occasionally breathtaking, bringing life to the madcap world of dream and shamelessly mocking all that was moral or pretentious. All manners of profession - doctors, police officers, firefighters - were fair game for this team. In "Oh, Doctor," a short film only recently found intact, Arbuckle plays a lascivious doctor at a horse race who cruelly uses his son (Buster) to gain the attention of another man's wife, only to find that she is interested in Doctor Arbuckle's wife's jewels. It is hilarious to see Buster, aka The Great Stone Face, liberally mugging as a mistreated mama's little boy. With frenetic Al St. John as the other man, there is action aplenty, and the novelty of seeing a long lost film is ample reward in itself. A much stronger film is "The Garage," jam packed with laughs and comic action that became more subtle and quirky as Keaton became more involved with the writing and production. Arbuckle and Keaton are a bonafide comedy team, as both the local mechanics and volunteer fire department in the sleepy little town they inhabit. There is one delicious sight gag after another as this duo exploits the business of fixing, washing and renting cars, changing tires, messing with oil, and finally racing away from the garage as firemen to a false alarm, only to return to discover that their own garage has been ignited by a reckless lustful fool. A true masterpiece of early slapstick. Keaton's "The Boat" is one of his best short masterpieces and so well known that little more need be said about it, except that in this video the print is exquisite (as are all the prints in this series) and that makes the watching a breathtaking study in what Keaton was capable of. There is a slight video glitch in one short scene near the end, probably a digital transfer problem, but it does not disturb the film when the rest is so perfectly transferred. Finally, there is a later example of one old friend doing something for another. In "The Iron Mule" Al St. John throttles a small 1828-style steam locomotive through a rural period landscape, complete with inadequate trackwork, low tunnels, a makeshift barge and a raid by angry Indians. The locomotive is Keaton's model of Stephenson's engine "The Rocket" from "Our Hospitality," one of his feature films, and Keaton himself does a brief bit as an Indian. The humor in this comedy is more understated and subtle than the raucous rabble St. John usually inserts, and is a testament to his maturity as a comic actor, as well as to his long friendship with Keaton. In any case, it is a delight of charming sight gags from start to finish. If it were not for the glitch in "The Boat" and the relative weakness and one-dimensionality of "The Rounders" I would give this video five stars. At any rate, it is an excellent value for the really superb films that it does present, and a look at Roscoe Arbuckle, a grossly underappreciated talent and, sadly, a scapegoat for an industry and society that was eager to find fault with the burgeoning 1920's Hollywood. Bruce Jensen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fatty, Buster and Al,
By
This review is from: Slapstick Encyclopedia, Vol. 4 - Keaton, Arbuckle, and St. John [VHS] (VHS Tape)
(Roscoe) FATTY ARBUCKLE and nephew AL ST. JOHN were early Mack Sennett stock players. Both were Keystone Kops. Charismatic Fatty had his own comedy series with Mabel Normand. The less-talented Al did a lot of gawping and jumping in the air.
(Joseph) BUSTER KEATON (Jr.) debuted on-screen in Fatty's first independent short, "The Butcher Boy." Keaton soon surpassed his mentor in comedic inventiveness, and was given artistic control of the studio when Arbuckle left to make features. Fatty's failure at these and the accidental death of an actress during a 1921 Labor Day party held at his hotel suite effectively ended Arbuckle's career. The six shorts on SLAPSTICK ENCYCLOPEDIA VOL. 4 include an early Keystone co-starring Chaplin, a "Mabel & Fatty," one that stars all three actors, a Comique Arbuckle & Keaton, a Keaton solo film and a St. John comedy directed by Uncle Roscoe. SYNOPSES-- THE ROUNDERS-- Chaplin and Arbuckle are two tipplers who live in adjacent apartments. The intoxicated men go home to exasperated wives and when the women meet and feud in the hall, Fatty and Charley sneak off to Smith's Cafe, where they cause a scene. The wives follow them there. The drunks flee to a nearby park, hop in a rowboat and fall asleep. An angry crowd on shore yells as the boat slowly fills with water and sinks. FATTY AND MABEL ADRIFT-- Dubbed from an original print that employs imaginative tinting. Pink, orange, green, yellow, lavender, light blue, blue, blue gray, brown and red are all used. In one yellow-tinted scene, Mabel blows out an oil lamp and the color instantly shifts to orange. PLOT: The seaside home of newlyweds is washed into the ocean (with the help of a hateful rival (St. John). OH DOCTOR-- While Dr. Arbuckle calls on a crook's "sick" wife, the villain (St. John) visit's the doc's home and snatches Mrs. Fatty's necklace without her knowledge. Junior (Keaton) calls the cops as Fatty chases St. John over rooftops. THE GARAGE-- Superb short is divided in three sections: (1.) Inept mechanics (Fatty and Buster) get grease all over themselves, the boss's daughter and her boyfriend Jim who's nattily dressed in tweed jacket and white trousers. (2.) Keaton loses his pants and dons a paper kilt and tam cut out of a billboard. (3.) Fatty and Buster are also failures as volunteer firemen. They rush (in a fashion) to the garage that Jim accidentally sets ablaze to rescue him and girlfriend. THE BOAT-- While removing his newly built yacht (the DAMFINO) from the garage, Buster's home collapses. When it's launched with a coke bottle christening, the boat sinks. Eventually, Buster, wife and two small kids go for a cruise. A violent storm at sea founders the yacht and they escape to an impossbly tiny life boat. Short includes such sightgags as a rubbery spyglass, a pancake used to patch a hull leak and an anchor that floats! Intertitles have original artwork. First half dubbed from scratchy film with faded sections. THE IRON MULE-- Al St. John comedy directed by the exiled Arbuckle. Set in 1830, Al is conductor on a train of two stagecoaches hitched to a primitive steam engine. After floating across a river by lashing logs to the train, they're set upon by Indians (led by Keaton in cameo). Passengers and crew escape, clinging to the engine after abandoning the other cars. VOLUME 5 of KINO's SLAPSTICK ENCYCLOPEDIA series features Charlie Chaplin and other ex-English music hall performers. Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website. (7.3) The Boat (1921) - Buster Keaton/Sybil Seely/Edward F. Cline (7.4) Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916) - Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle/Mabel Normand/Al St. John/Joe Bordeaux/Jimmy Bryant (7.2) The Garage (1920) - Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle/Buster Keaton/Molly Malone/Harry McCoy/Dan Crimmins (6.1) The Iron Mule (1925) - Al St. John/George Davis/Glen Cavender/Doris Deane (uncredited: Buster Keaton) (6.2) Oh Doctor! (1917) - Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle/Buster Keaton/Al St. John/Alice Mann/Alice Lake (6.3) The Rounders (1914) - Charles Chaplin/Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle/Phyllis Allen/Minta Durfee/Al St. John/Jess Dandy/Wallace MacDonald/Charley Chase (uncredited: Edgar Kennedy/Billy Gilbert/Edward F. Cline)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fatty, Al and Buster in a nice package,
By
This review is from: Slapstick Encyclopedia, Vol. 4 - Keaton, Arbuckle, and St. John [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This collection focuses on the artistry and influence of Fatty Arbuckle, especially on Buster Keaton. There was clearly a lot of thought that went into the selection of the films to include in this set, and the payoff, as in pairing food and wine, is in bringing out a better appreciation of each piece. For example, The Iron Mule, a rarely seen, and not very funny, starring vehicle for Al St. John, is nonetheless more entertaining when you see the influence of both Keaton and Arbuckle (who wrote and directed it after his scandal left him unemployable as an actor) on the content.
The earliest film of the collection is Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916), perhaps the best of the sweet, romantic comedies Arbuckle made with Mabel Normand for Mack Sennett. Their onstage chemistry is simply amazing; they move and flow naturally together into visual humor or romantic encounters, making mundane tasks like milking a cow or having dinner together both funny and touching. Al St. John, the perennial nemesis, is a sort of cross between redneck rube and urban punk. He is often over-the-top in gesture and response, but at other times he is both funny and convincing in his role as crazed heavy. Arbuckle can be appreciated for bringing refinement and better story-telling into the Keystone studio; his films for Keystone are typically the most fascinating to watch. This movie is an under-appreciated masterpiece; its humor is as satisfying to the modern viewer as to the viewer in 1916. The collection also has two Keaton-Arbuckle pairings during Buster's early career. The contrast between the earlier one, Oh Doctor (1917), and the last one they made together, The Garage (1919) shows how far along Keaton's character developed under Arbuckle -- the Garage is as much a Keaton-style film as Arbuckle's. The other masterpiece in the collection is The Boat (1921), made after Keaton and Arbuckle split ways. On one level, it is the story of a family ruined by nature, machine, and questionable decision-making by the father (Buster). Virtually all of the humor is based on futile attempts by "the little man" to control uncontrollable forces, including gravity and a furious storm. Extremely funny little moments abound in this movie, as when the life preserver sinks in the water, while, later on in the movie the anchor is seen to float! The entire film, like many of Keaton's short films of the period, have a dark undercurrent; it's possible to feel moments of sympathy for the poor family while you are laughing at the demise of their property. Like all of Keaton's best films, the theme, visual humor, and moods of this one are completely unique and original. The producers of this collection should be commended for their thoughtfulness and dedication. The background music accompanying the films is also good, and the quality of the prints is as good as you can get.
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