Roscoe Arbuckle's comedic persona has none of the sweetness or vulnerability of the giants who would dominate the decade following his own heyday - Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd. I mean, he sticks a tie pin into his son's leg to make him scream in pain and divert his wife's attention so he can sit next to a woman who's flirting with him, for god's sake, and that's not the only abuse he doles out. He gambles at the racetrack, using beer bottles for binoculars and gripping the legs of both his wife and another woman in his excitement. He dispenses potent alcoholic beverages while making a house call as a doctor more readily than medicine. There is an impish malevolence in his mischievous grin as he tries to cheat on his wife, walking into a trap set up by a couple of thieves to rob his wife of her necklace while he's doing so. There is also darkness in a funeral home asking a doctor for a list of his critically ill patients, and the doctor turning his unmanned car loose upon a crowd of pedestrians to scatter them and then distribute his business card.
Arbuckle is probably harder to like over a century later or maybe he's just an acquired taste, but I started to see his appeal in this, his 4th film with young protégé Buster Keaton. He's like a dark libidinous force, unafraid of what you may think of him. When his wife kicks him out of frustration at the end, he kicks her back - there is no syrupy redemptive arc at work here, which I actually appreciated. Plus, you get Buster at 22 playing a child, crying and expressing frustration before trying to track the bad guys down. The names are amusing too, Dr. I. O. Dine, M. Balm Moribund & Co. Funerals and Interments, and Digger O. Graves. This two-reeler won't be for everyone, but I thought it was a decent way to spend 24 minutes.
Arbuckle is probably harder to like over a century later or maybe he's just an acquired taste, but I started to see his appeal in this, his 4th film with young protégé Buster Keaton. He's like a dark libidinous force, unafraid of what you may think of him. When his wife kicks him out of frustration at the end, he kicks her back - there is no syrupy redemptive arc at work here, which I actually appreciated. Plus, you get Buster at 22 playing a child, crying and expressing frustration before trying to track the bad guys down. The names are amusing too, Dr. I. O. Dine, M. Balm Moribund & Co. Funerals and Interments, and Digger O. Graves. This two-reeler won't be for everyone, but I thought it was a decent way to spend 24 minutes.