Cheap Arbuckle & Keaton Vol. 1 (DVD) (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Buster Keaton) (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle) Price

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Customer Reviews of Arbuckle & Keaton Vol. 1

The Fat Man Is Back
At last the genius of Roscoe Arbuckle can finally be seen in this 2 volume series thanks to Kino International and the Douris Corporation. Volume 1 contains 5 shorts with 2 of them being all time comedy classics. THE BELLBOY features Arbuckle's famous shaving routine plus some incredible acrobatics from Buster Keaton and the unjustly neglected Al St John. It concludes with a spectacular free for all that has a trolley crashing through a hotel. THE BUTCHER BOY was Arbuckle's first solo effort away from Mack Sennett and also marks the debut of Buster Keaton. Watch Fatty roll a cigarette one handed and see the famous mollases routine. Fatty's Mary Pickford impersonation is also a scream. The remaining 3 shorts OUT WEST, MOONSHINE, and THE HAYSEED all contain several memorable bits but aren't as consistently funny as the first two. The transfers with the exception of MOONSHINE are superior to anything previously issued. The newly commissioned scores from the Alloy Orchestra are quite appropiate and make great background for the action. The only drawback as mentioned earlier is MOONSHINE. If this is the best available print then they should have used OH DOCTOR which was in Kino's earlier SLAPSTICK series. All in all an excellent introduction to Fatty for those who don't know him and a true delight for those of us who do.

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Arbuckle and Keaton Live Again!
Kino Video has done us a great favor by releasing Volumes One and Two of the Arbuckle-Keaton two-reel comedies made from 1917 to 1920 for Paramount. These are digital transfers made from 35-mm stock, and the best exhibit an amazing high fidelity image for such early film. Titles are so clear and sharp they appear to be faithful recreations of the orginals. The sound track is an excellent stereo orchestral score recorded in 2001 by the Alloy Orchestra. Unobtrusive sound effects add to the pleasure of an excellent overall presentation.

Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle was at the height of his fame when he left Mack Sennett in late 1916 to join Joseph Schenck at Paramount and gain artistic control of his comedies. He was second only to Chaplin in world wide appeal. His talent and humanity are apparent in every scene. But I suspect most folks will want these films as the earliest motion images of Buster Keaton, starting at age 21. The ten films in Volumes One and Two represent the best of the surviving two-reelers of the approximate fifteen that Arbuckle and Keaton made together.

The very first film, Butcher Boy, 1917, begins Volume One and the last film, Keaton's favorite of the series, The Garage, 1920, ends Volume Two. Each of the films is a gem, such as Back Stage, 1919, in which Keaton, returned from a year in Europe in WW I, shows many of his vaudeville routines.

Arbuckle and Keaton had high regard for each other, and while Arbuckle's fame faded while Keaton's rose, they stayed in close touch with each other until Arbuckle's death in 1933.

I suppose watching silent film is an acquired taste. Silent drama, for example, is usually pretty theatrical and agonizing. But as James Agee so eloquently argued in 1949 in "Comedy's Greatest Era," silent comedies are unsurpassed for genuine belly laughs. These are MOVIES, after all. The comedy comes from pantomime and MOTION. In my view, it's what movies are supposed to do!

These early films have a fairly static camera. The actors cavort in front of it with stage scenery in the backdrop. Nonetheless, the gags are wonderful to behold. For film history buffs, this is about the most watchable early stuff there is. And you can see the genesis of many of the routines that graced the best of silent comedy only a few years later. (I was unaware, for example, that Keaton's most famous stunt, the falling house facade stunt in Steamboat Bill, Jr, 1928, was preceded by a similar scene with Fatty Arbuckle in Back Stage, 1919!)

Hats off to Kino for, as usual, bringing such excellent transfers to market. Both Volumes are highly recommended.

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K&A Mixed Bag
Most silent comedies, aside from Keaton's classics, Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, and some of Chaplin do not hold up very well, and these are no exception.

Buster and Fatty make a good team in the "Butcher Boy" and "The Bellboy." Both of these films being with some rather amusing gags, but go haywire with wild plot twists near the end.

And then there's OUT WEST. For the most part, mighty funny stuff, especially when Fatty and Buster team up to stop the bad guy from molesting the salvation army lady. However, there is a horrible scene where a Black Man (Ernie Morrison Sr, father of Sunshine Sammy of the Our Gang silents) is made to dance as some cruel cowboys (and Fatty Himself!) shoot as his feet until the Salvation army lady comes to his rescue and shames Fatty and the cowboys. The fact that this was a common practice in the days when Black men were lynched kills any humor whatsoever in this scene. Fortuntely, Ernie Morrison Sr. (and Jr.) were to play less degrading roles at the Hal Roach studios.
That aside, worth viewing for historical purposes.