Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle Movies

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was about to enter his final year as a two-reel comedian when he made this short; after The Garage, released in January, 1920, he would make features exclusively. He plays a sheriff in a Western cowtown who finds swashbuckling inspiration by watching a Douglas Fairbanks picture. A bandit, played by Arbuckle's nephew and frequent sideman Al St. John, comes to town and terrorizes the sheriff's lady love, a schoolteacher. The sheriff saves the day by heroic acts made comic, including, of course, the inevitable pie throwing (an Arbuckle specialty). Arbuckle's dog, Luke, who frequently appeared in his films, is practically the co-star of this one. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Filmed in late December of 1917 and early January of 1918, the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle two-reeler The Bellboy was shipped to theaters in late March. A typically uproarious Arbuckle romp, the film cast him as the bellhop of a rundown rural hotel, with Buster Keaton as his assistant and Al St. John as the surly desk clerk. After the usual baggage-smashing slapstick shenanigans, the film focuses on its "main gag," as Arbuckle takes over a barber shop and shaves an unusually hirsute customer. In the course of the next few minutes, our hero's tonsorial skills transform the customer into the spitting image of (a) Abe Lincoln, (b) General Grant, and (c) Kaiser Wilhelm! There was an obligatory romantic subplot involving Arbuckle's perennial leading lady Alice Lake -- but who noticed? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Oh, Doctor! was the fifth of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's two-reelers for his own Comique Film Corporation (the unlettered Arbuckle always referred to the name of his studio as "Comeeky"). Fatty plays a doctor who falls in love with beautiful horse fancier Alice Lake. For her sake he bets on a 500-to-one shot, which amazingly comes across the finish line first. When Fatty learns of his good fortune, he is dressed in a policeman's uniform for reasons that are too complicated to go into here. Celebrating his windfall, the hero rushes into a poolroom, where the patrons take one look at his uniform and head for the hills. Once the "phony cop" gag has been milked for all it's worth, the story goes off on a different tangent when Fatty is led to believe that he's lost his fortune. Arbuckle's close pal Buster Keaton was here cast as Fatty's son (!), while the star's nephew, Al St. John, enacted the principal "heavy" role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This was one of the last comedies Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle made for Keystone before going independent. It's his usual family affair, featuring his then-wife, Minta Durfee, and nephew, Al St. John, in prominent roles. The short opens up with Arbuckle beginning his new job as janitor at New York's Shortacre Building. While performing his duties in the offices of broker I. Steele, he encounters Mrs. Steele (Durfee), who mistakes him for one of her husband's clients -- a certain R. U. Stout of Showme, Missouri. Since Steele is nowhere to be found, she obligingly asks the stranger to lunch. When Steele (William Jefferson shows up, his office boy (St. John) tells him that his wife has gone to lunch with the new janitor. Steele has a fit of jealousy and rushes to the restaurant with a gun. As soon as he's gone, the real Stout (Arthur Earl) appears and, along with the office boy, chases after him. They all meet up at the restaurant and amidst much mayhem everything gets cleared up. Stout signs the necessary papers at the last possible moment before his option expires. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This Keystone two-reeler was the first made on the East Coast by comic luminaries Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. After dining on way too many lobsters, Fatty, a physician, retires for the evening. He dreams that he called out late at night. Meanwhile, his dinner companion (William Jefferson) dreams that there is a burglar (Al St. John) in the house. As Fatty's dream continues, he discovers his friend and his wife (Normand) in an embrace together. A lot of slapstick mayhem ensues before both men wake up and realize it was just the effects of the lobster dinner. Arbuckle and Normand, a winning team for Keystone, would make only one more film together. Although their careers took them in different directions, they remained firm friends. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

One of the best of the Keystone comedies, the three-reel Fatty and Mabel Adrift is an excellent film by any standards, as well as incarnate proof that Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was among the most talented comedy directors in the business. The film opens with a series of amusing tableux, as hero Arbuckle and heroine Mabel Normand, their faces framed by cut-out heart silhouettes, are romantically spliced by a capricious Cupid -- much to the dismay of Mabel's erstwhile suitor Al St. John, whose own heart silhouette symbolically crumbles to dust. After their marriage, Fatty and Mabel purchase a prefabricated house, situated near the California seaside. Though the bride's first meal is a disaster (her biscuits are as hard as granite), she and her new hubby are blissfully happy in their cottage by the sea. But St. John intends to scuttle their union, and to do this he hires a bunch of hooligans to detach the house from its foundations and send the structure drifting off to sea. Upon awakening, Fatty and Mabel discover that their dream house has become a nightmare: the living room is flooded, and the entire domicile threatens to sink beneath the waves at any moment. Desperately, the newlyweds dispatch their faithful dog Teddy to summon help from the shore patrol, leading to a typical but uproarious Keystone chase finish. For all its slapstick, Fatty and Mabel Adrift contains moments of genuine charm, notably the famous vignette wherein Arbuckle's shadow seems to gently caress the cheek of the sleeping Mabel. The film was presented virtually in its entirety in Robert Youngson's 1960 compilation feature When Comedy Was King. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The most famous comic team of the mid-1910s was Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. They made many dozens of pictures for the Keystone studios, and this one -- shot in part at the Republic Theater in Los Angeles -- relied more on farce and less on their usual slapstick. Fatty and Mabel play a married couple and they attend the opera with Mabel's mother in tow. In the opposite box, Fatty spies his old pal Gassy Gotrox (Ford Sterling) with Maud Brightlights (Ethel Madison) and another young lovely. Fatty is taken with Maud and forgets all about his pretty wife (and her mother). He wanders over to Gotrox's box and steals Maud away to a lobster house. The angry Gotrox tattles to Mabel, who heads over to the lobster house and catches her wayward husband. Next up is a trip to the divorce court. But Mabel can't stay mad at Fatty forever, and eventually they head for the altar a second time. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Mabel Normand is the daughter of a farmer; Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle is a farmhand. They play innocently together amidst the cows and other animals in an idyllic pastoral scene (which was shot, incidentally, in the picturesque and unpopulated hills due east of a small town called Hollywood. Today those hills are completely covered by the lower-middle-class homes of Echo Park and Silverlake). Mabel's father owes a squire a lot of money, but the squire will forgive the debt if Mabel marries his son (Al St. John). Mabel wants to marry funster Fatty. As generally happens in Keystone comedies, a chase ensues -- this one includes an unmanned car which has a mind of its own. Love, however, prevails in the face of adversity...and in the face of runaway cars, cops and a very inconveniently placed well. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide