The Hayseed

The Arbuckle/Keaton feature "The Hayseed" is a short comedy that has some pretty good gags. The material is held together more by the situation - 'Fatty' and Buster are running a combination general store/post office - than by the plot. There are some routine stretches, but also some good parts, with Keaton getting some of the best moments this time.

As in most of the Arbuckle/Keaton features, they get lots of mileage out of the props and the settings, with some rather creative ideas. Arbuckle has some imaginative ways of handling the mail, and the general store also provides good material. John Coogan (Jackie Coogan's father) also appears as Arbuckle's rival.

Most of it works, and though it's not one of the most memorable Arbuckle/Keaton shorts, it's still worth seeing. Like all of the features in the series, it offers pleasant light entertainment with characters that seem like old friends.

This Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle silent comedy short with Buster Keaton in support is not as funny as their previous efforts but still provides some decent laughs in this post office/general store setting. The beginning was perhaps the most hilarious with Buster and Roscoe each hitting each other with mail packages. There's also some slapstick fun when Roscoe's girlfriend, Molly, pushes him in a barrel. The villain, played by Jack Coogan, Sr., Jackie Coogan's father, is actually more serious here as evidenced by the way he keeps beating up Buster. Like I said, not the most funny of the Arbuckle/Keaton shorts but The Hayseed is still worth a look.

Buster Keaton's second movie after WW1 with Arbuckle turned out to be a career highlight for the pairing, October 1919's "The Hayseed." Buster had a lightbulb moment that followed him throughout the remainder of his career. He designed and shaped a new pork pie hat, a style he wore throughout his most popular years in cinema. The material stood up to the abuse the comedian had heaped upon himself for all those skits.

Arbuckle is a mailman while Buster is the owner of a general store. The villain of the movie is actor John Henry Coogan Jr, a lithesome, tall statured performer who had appeared as a dancer in "Back Stage." Here, he takes cash from a letter and later claims Fatty stole it. As a sidenote, John Coogan was the father of Jackie Coogan, who plays the little boy in Charlie Chaplin's 'The Kid,' as well as Uncle Fester in television's 'The Adam's Family.' Also starring was Luke the Dog, a Staffordshire Terrier who was the personal pet of Roscoe and his wife Minta Durfee. For six years Luke made several appearances in Fatty's movies, including "The Hayseed." He demanded and received a high salary of $150 a week, over $2,200 in today's dollars. When Minta split with Roscoe in 1921, the divorce agreement treated Luke like a treasured child, where Fatty had visitation rights with Minta winning custody of him.

One of the many gags in the film is a dance set that is not to be missed.

A pretty forgettable short from Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, their penultimate effort together. It peaks early with a gag that has Arbuckle apparently picking flowers for his sweetheart (Molly Malone), but then using them to perform a little burial service for an empty whisky bottle. The humor in the love triangle (John Coogan playing the other man) isn't strong, relying mostly on slapstick, but I liked the subversiveness in the cop being one stealing the money, especially for 1919.

Buster gets in a few moments relying on camera tricks, like taking the horses back to the stable (the team then move in reverse motion backwards) and getting pummeled by the cop (shot faster with a reduced frame rate, emphasizing the violence). Dropping off a big ladder tipping over into a horse drawn carriage was pretty neat too. I wish the magic act had been expanded on instead of the extended bit with Arbuckle's onion breath, but the resolution of the latter was amusing.

According to James Curtis in his biography of Keaton, one of the reasons Buster was downplayed here was that Arbuckle was determined to play a more rounded character, and even the advertising for the film reflected this (it read in part "He's Human," with a picture of him hugging Luke the dog). This almost certainly had to do with him wanting to grow as an artist and begin playing in feature-length films, as opposed to two-reelers, which he would begin doing a year later in The Round-Up (1920). In this short I think this more "rounded" character not only reduced Keaton's impact, but also took away from Arbuckle's performance, which was missing his usual dark comedic edge. All in all it's not bad, but a bit lacking.

Like many of the Arbuckle shorts, the story of THE HAYSEED is rambling and unfocused (Roscoe Arbuckle is after a girl and hijinks ensue in his attempts to woo her), but there is a sense of playful charm that more than makes up for that. The actors all seem to be having a great time here. One can well see why Buster Keaton viewed these Comique films with such fondness decades later: they're freewheeling and innocent, uninhibited by the need to impress or be high art.