Arbuckle and Keaton, Vol. 1

Buy This Item Arbuckle and Keaton, Vol. 1  List Price: $29.95  Available from Amazon  $26.99  on 11-27-2008     Features Actors: Buster Keaton, Joe Keaton, Alice Lake, Ernie Morrison Sr., Al St. John Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC Language: English Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Number of discs: 1 Rating: Studio: Kino Video DVD Release Date: April 10, 2001 Run Time: 125 minutes Average Customer Review:   10 Reviews 5 star:  (6) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:  (3) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0) See all 10 customer reviews...   (10 customer reviews) Reader Reviews These shorts, made between 1917 and 1919, reveal optimism on the faces of Buster and Fatty before the future troubles of scandal, alcoholism, and domestic problems altered their brilliant careers. Lucky for us, Kino has released these 80+ year-old films on DVD, which enhances the clarity over what has previously been released on VHS. In addition, we get to hear an excellent soundtrack that accompanies the 2-reelers. Previously released versions of these films were accompanied by borrowed circus music that sounded like it was recorded in the 1950s. The Alloy Orchestra does a great job with music and sound effects that are in sync with the frolicking activity in the scenes. THE BELL BOY (1918): Fatty and Buster are the bellhops and Al St. John is the bullying desk clerk at a hotel the three are operating. This 2-reeler contains anti-German WW1 references, such as refusing to serve German food and smushing a barber chair customer with shaving cream after Fatty has dressed him up as Kaiser Wilhelm. "The Bell Boy" also contains an appearance by Buster's father Joe, and the 2 do a variation of the act they staged in vaudeville. Buster later borrowed a lot from this film to enhance his 1937 short "Love Nest on Wheels". THE BUTCHER BOY (1917): The plot to this 2-reeler involves Fatty and Al St. John as general store employees who rival for the hand of the store owner's daughter. This being Buster's very first film appearance, Fatty cast him as an accessory in the role of an anonymous customer in the store. In the 2nd reel, Buster has (unexplainably) become a pal to Al St. John, by helping Al sabotage Fatty's efforts to woo the gal at the boarding school she is attending. OUT WEST (1918): Fatty plays a hobo who stumbles into a saloon and is hired by Buster to fill the vacancy of bartender, after Al, as the villain, has murdered the previous one. Some eye-popping politically incorrect humor is milked in this 2-reeler, but I won't get into that. MOONSHINE (1918): Al St. John plays a scary-looking hillbilly who attacks much-hated revenue agents Buster and Fatty after they invade his 'still'-infested territory. Some really nice gags pop out of this 2-reeler, my favorite being Buster and Al behaving like monkeys in a tree. Buster must have had a photographic memory of the chimp acts he observed in the wings of the vaudeville stage because his expertise in mimicking them shows itself again perfectly in his future 2-reeler "The Playhouse" (1921). Unlike the other 4 films on this DVD, the quality of this print of "Moonshine" is unclear and murky. I suppose it is the only available copy Kino could find. THE HAYSEED (1919): Buster and Fatty are employees at a general store, unintentionally revealed as being on a street in Culver City, a provincial village outside of L.A. at that time (a sign on the exterior of the store reads "Don't Go To The City To Be Cheated - Buy Here"). Also cast as the villain is John Coogan, who performs some specialized dancing that our guys poke fun at. It's this specialized dancing that John taught to his little son Jackie that eventually caught the eye of Charlie Chaplin, who put the talented boy under contract and sent him on to mega-stardom in the 1920s. "The Hayseed" is not considered one of their classics, but it contains my all-time favorite Buster and Fatty gag. In this dry, ahead-of-its-time scene, Buster feeds Fatty a batch of salted onions to regain the strength of his singing voice. After giving a tear-jerking performance, Fatty is wrongfully accused of stealing $300. No one will believe his pleas of innocence because they cannot stand the reeking stench emitting from his mouth, and so then turn their backs to him in revulsion. The accompanying sound effects made by the Alloy Orchestra make it even more of a howl.  Comment (1) | Permalink |  function showYesNoCommunityResponse(uId,result,value) { var msgLayer = getElement("thanks" + uId); if ( result == "SUCCESS" ) { msgLayer.innerHTML = "Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided to other Amazon.com readers and reviewers. Your vote will be counted and will appear on the product page within 24 hours."; } else { showVoteErrorResponse(msgLayer,result,value); } } (Report this)

Arbuckle and Keaton, Vol. 1 List Price: $29.95 Available from Amazon Price: $26.99 Updated on 11-27-2008.

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