Coney Island

Coney Island is a quick churn out with thirty minutes of standard slapstick and pratfalls featuring silent giants Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. Arbuckle was the biggest (figuratively speaking) thing in silents at the time save Charlie Chaplin and its easy to see how this self effacing big kid with a sweet face to match must have regaled the audiences of his day.

In Coney Island he plays a bored husband at the beach and though susceptible to adultery and forced to don female attire and hang out in the ladies dressing room Fatty easily sanitizes the whole situation with his cherubic arrested development.

Buster Keaton plays a supporting role that offers more than the stone face he would maintain in his prime and while the injury producing stunts are well in evidence it's unpleasantly out of character to see Buster busting a gut laughing or breaking into tears. Al St. John matches Buster in pratfalls and Alice Neilson as Fatty's wife is comically and forcefully shrewish but Coney Island is little more than a basic Keystone Cops two reeler filled with the obligatory orgy of people falling down and being batted about the face an head.

If you enjoy low comedy, i.e. low to the point of downright crudity, with plenty of slapstick, strenuous mugging, cross-dressing, and general anarchy -- Congratulations, you've come to the right place! The two-reel comedy known as "Coney Island" is a prime example of the sort of rough-housing that made Roscoe Arbuckle one of the top comedians of his era, second only to Chaplin in popularity. It's also a good example of the kind of comedy Arbuckle would soon outgrow, thanks at least in part to his newfound colleague Buster Keaton, who influenced Roscoe to employ more low-key and sophisticated comedic elements in his work. But that would come later. Here, in this early appearance, Buster overacts as shamelessly as everyone else, uncharacteristically grinning, laughing, and even indulging in Stan Laurel-style weeping. In addition to his prominent role as Alice Mann's escort, Buster doubles as mustachioed policeman in the movie's climax (he's the cop relieved of his trousers by Roscoe in the jail house), and also acts as Alice's stunt double in the water slide sequence. They sure did keep the guy busy.

Like so many comedies of its era, this one is built around escalating rivalries over a pretty girl. Initially, Buster is Alice's Coney Island date, but he loses her to creepy Al St. John -- how humiliating! -- who in turn loses her to Roscoe, who must first ditch his homely wife. After various shenanigans at the amusement park Roscoe and Alice wind up at the beach, where they must "hire" bathing suits, and this is where things turn a little strange. Seeing as how there are no men's swim trunks on hand large enough to fit him, Roscoe pilfers and dons a lady's XXX-tra large swimsuit instead. Alice, who doesn't seem to find this turn of events the least bit odd, helpfully finds him a curly wig to wear. Roscoe is in drag for the rest of the film, even when flirting with yet another girl who crosses his path. Somehow, when Arbuckle performs this kind of shtick it's not only amusing but strangely innocent, which is not to say there aren't some weird undercurrents. Anyhow, it all ends in wild mayhem at the jail house, leaving the viewer exhilarated and a little dazed.

This is primitive stuff all right, but it has a number of things in its favor. When the film was made the star comics were young and healthy, and had every reason to expect bright futures ahead. Their exuberance comes across strongly. (I happened to watch this film back-to-back with a short comedy called The Railrodder which Keaton made in Canada more than 45 years later; the contrast between the grinning, muscular 21 year-old Buster we see here and the grizzled, exhausted yet still game old man he would become was harrowing and poignant.) In this Coney Island romp everyone is buff, happy, and full of mischief, and they look like they're having a blast.

For that matter, Coney Island itself looks pretty spiffy here and boasts some really cool looking rides, and that's another plus. This film serves as a historical record of the legendary amusement park in its prime, and it features several great shots that have turned up in various documentaries about the place. The Coney Island of 1917 looks almost as clean and well maintained as the Disney theme parks of today, and this too is poignant: I happened to visit Coney Island myself a couple of years ago, and I'm sorry to say it's not such a cheery place anymore. The only way to visit that bright and happy Coney Island, vicariously anyway, is by seeing this film.

This was a mostly funny film of seeing Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, and Al St. John, all of whom are competing for the same girl, hit and getting hit by various objects at Coney Island. I say mostly, because by the end, the short was almost running out of steam especially with Arbuckle's battle-ax of a wife continuing to appear. Arbuckle also dresses as a woman-having stolen another plus-size bathing suit from a female stranger because there wasn't a male suit for him-to hilarious effect especially when St. John flirts with him! The cop chase wasn't as funny but by that time I didn't care. So if you love knockabout silent slapstick comedy, I highly recommend Coney Island.

...because I actually think this is one of better-plotted Arbuckle/Keaton/St. John comedies. The three main characters remain consistent throughout--Amoral Fatty, Hot-Tempered Al, and Put-Upon-but-Resilient Buster--and their story lines are nicely interwoven. Good use is made of Luna Park, and Newton's law ("every action has an equal and opposite reaction") is thoroughly tested. The two women, Agnes Neilson and Alice Mann, are both skilled actresses, in the Vaudevillian manner, and have a few nice little comic bits of their own. (Also, love that striped bathing suit!) Some of the Keystone Kop ("Comique Cop"?) business got a little tiresome for me, but whatever...I've still watched this picture about 5 times, and will watch it more once I actually buy the DVD.

Another symptom of my oncoming mental illness is that, after seeing a pile of these Comique things, I'm starting to think Al St. John is kind of cute. I guess he's an acquired taste, like beer, or arsenic, but you can't deny his slapstick ability. Watch the terrific head-spin he makes after Fatty pushes him into Buster at the bell-ringing stand. And I love the way he looks just like a terrier when he makes his "angry" face.

Part of the fun of watching these shows is not so much to laugh at the falls and fighting--I'm not sure they would have been considered so hilarious even in their own day. But to know that these are all real stunts, that the actors really could jump and tumble like that, is awe-inspiring. It's like watching Jackie Chan's stunts. And the Comique boys didn't have the help of CG tricks, and probably could only do a limited number of takes.

The Alloy Orchestra's soundtrack for the Kino DVD is problematic for a lot of people, but boy, that's a rollicking Luna Park theme. Just try to resist dancing or at least bouncing to it.

New York City's beach-side Coney Island amusement park is the setting. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle plays in the sand with inattentive wife Agnes Neilson. Fatty leaves her and goes to enjoy the rides and attractions at Luna. Fatty's friendly rivals Buster Keaton and Al St. John are there, causing laughter. The three men vie for the attentions of pretty Alice Mann. Fatty's yen for women's clothing increases the merriment and a few Keystone Kops later join in the fun. The cast is in good form, with the men famously physical. Keaton's stunts are the most daring. He also cries and laughs herein, well before his character's non-emotional "stone face" was cemented. This two-reel short seems cobbled, but is recommended more for its cast, setting and physical comedy.

****** Coney Island (10/29.1917) Roscoe Arbuckle ~ Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John, Agnes Neilson