His Wedding Night

In something of a thematic follow-up to The Butcher Boy from just a few months prior, Fatty Arbuckle plays a drug store clerk with a thing for the owner's daughter. Despite the sweetness of his immediate wedding proposal and the usual array of silly antics and messy customer confrontations, Arbuckle's character explores some strangely dark corners in this one. Price-fixing the gasoline and taking swigs from the pump may be one thing, a disconcerting throwaway gag, but swapping perfume samples for chloroform is another, especially when he uses the opportunity to make advances on the kayoed shoppers. It's weird and out of place, a dirty turn for what's, otherwise, a very light-hearted romp around the soda fountain. Buster Keaton is kicking around the store, too, as a harried delivery boy recruited to model gowns for the bride-to-be, but he's a less active participant than usual and the comedy suffers for his absence. The best scene, pictured in most promotional materials, involves Arbuckle's ill-fated attempts to somehow get a live mule up on his shoulders. Strange but mostly amusing.

Buster Keaton posing after trying on the wedding dress is hilarious, and worth the price of admission. Roscoe Arbuckle using chloroform to knock a woman out and then kiss her is not. Giving the black customer charcoal as a skin product was regrettable too. On top of those things, not much of the exaggerated antics work, e.g. The rival for the woman's affections choking people and trying to gnaw their faces when angry (Al St. John, Arbuckle's real-life nephew). Arbuckle tries to get the most he can out of each bit though, like randomly taking a sip from the gasoline pump as if it were a garden hose at the end of that scene, or sticking his head between the donkey's legs from behind in the effort to get it to move. He's not that appealing, but it's watchable for Buster Keaton. Just seeing Buster smile and wink at the end in this pre-Great Stone Face period was fantastic.

Buster Keaton got his start in movies alongside Fatty Arbuckle. Keaton obviously ended up more famous due to the collapse of Arbuckle's career following a scandal. Nonetheless, their collaborations were usually enjoyable. An example is 1917's "His Wedding Night". It's basically an excuse for them to pull a series of zany gags, one involving a watermelon.

One of the most famous things about this short is that we get to see Buster Keaton smile, one of the rare instances when he did so onscreen. But even beyond that, it's just a funny short. It just goes to show that talent is main thing required to make any performance work. You're sure to enjoy it. Available on Wikipedia.

Compared to the previous short I watched that starred Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle with Buster Keaton in support, His Wedding Night isn't all that funny though there are a few good laughs like when Roscoe changes the gas from 26 cents to $1.OO when a limousine arrives or when there's a food fight between him and his rival Al St. John for a girl's hand. Things really pick up when Buster arrives with the wedding gown as he first does a hilarious flip when he stops his bike and then-after trying the gown and keeping it on-he gets kidnapped by St. John and a couple of henchmen! There's also a mischievous scene when Arbuckle steals a kiss from a female customer while she's fainted from chloroform that Roscoe put in a perfume bottle that I was amused by. Otherwise, besides some boring spots there's also some racist humor on a couple of people of color that marred some of the enjoyment. Still, for all that, His Wedding Night was pretty enjoyable and I say this one's worth a look.

'Fatty' Arbuckle works in the drugstore where he serves the drinks and also services the gasoline pump. He is about to marry Alice, the daughter of the drugstore owner. Al St. John, again, stars as Fatty's rival. When he gets pushed aside by Alice he decides to kidnap Alice. Unfortunately they kidnap delivery boy (Buster Keaton) who were just showing off the wedding dress to Alice.

Nothing too original, clever or inventive - Fatty again fights over a woman with his rival Al St. John. Buster Keaton's role is literally just being thrown around by others.

Most interesting moment in the movie was a scene, where Arbuckle's character (who were supposed to be sympathetic and heroic) drugged the female customers in the store to make out with them. Something that definitely couldn't pass nowadays.