The Butcher Boy

While everyone knows that this is Buster Keaton's debut into movies and a taste of genius to come, I find the most incredible fact is that at the start of the day this movie was filmed Buster had no plans to go into movies, he was, in fact, about to start work in a New York theatrical show. He was invited to work on the film by Fatty and basically improvised his very first scene with the props to hand, in this case a barrel of brushes, he had never been in front of a movie camera before and in those days there was very little rehearsal, proof of his natural ability for the moving picture medium.

This is a typical Arbuckle slapstick, very frenetic, but, lots of fun, but, it is mainly a curiousity as it was Keaton's debut. An interesting thing to do is watch all Keaton/Arbuckle movies in the order they were made and see Keaton's increasing influence on them, a real taste of things to come when Keaton was making his own movies.

By the way, as usual Luke the dog comes very close to stealing all the scenes he's in.

The way Buster Keaton told it, his first encounter with Roscoe Arbuckle happened by chance on a rainy day in New York in March, 1917. Having recently left his family's act The Three Keatons, he accepted Arbuckle's invitation to come do a scene in The Butcher Boy, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In the first half of the film, we meet Arbuckle, a butcher who is light on his feet and gracefully slides over the countertop, or easily maneuvers around the shop on a mounted wall ladder on wheels. He casually flicks a cut of meat over his back to have it land on a hook, and tosses his knife into the air to have it land embedded into the board. These are the same kinds of things we would see from Keaton in later films. Meanwhile, the shop's dog Luke runs on a giant treadmill to grind pepper, which was a funny contraption, and probably the film's best gag.

It's at the 6:25 mark that Buster shows up, and after sampling some molasses that he's wiped off the bottom of his shoe, decides to buy some. Arbuckle, Keaton, and sticky molasses - you can clearly see that hijinks are coming. Keaton's money gets stuck in the bottom of the bucket, his hat gets stuck on his head, his foot gets stuck on his floor, etc. The butcher has eyes for the shop manager's daughter (Alice Lake), but she's also being pursued by Slim, the store's clerk, and the two of them get into a fight over her, resulting in bags of flour being hurled all over the store, Keaton (naturally) joining in the fray. Gags with sticky goo and food fights have been done countless times over the 106 years since this was made so it's not going to wow anyone today, but it's watchable, and seeing this pair in their earliest scenes together was special.

In the second half of the film, in response to the brawling, the father sends his daughter away to a boarding school where no men are allowed. To get around this rule, Arbuckle dresses up as a girl and meets with the teacher to enroll. Unfortunately, his rival has the same idea, and they end up in the same room with her. The gags that result, including the two men fighting, Arbuckle being spanked by the teacher, and Slim and his accomplices (including Buster) attempting to kidnap the young woman, aren't all that funny, relying more on the novelty at the time of the men in drag than anything else. The teacher wielding a gun and good boy Luke helping Arbuckle get the girl was cute though. Overall, it's certainly not great, but not bad either, and it got bonus points from me for it being Keaton's first film.

This film certainly wasn't very sophisticated. No, the humor was in fact pretty dumb now that I think about it. But, also while I think of it, I did laugh--proving decent comedy doesn't need to be very deep.

Fatty Arbuckle is the definite star of this short, despite Buster Keaton's appearing in the film as well. He is the butcher in an old-time grocery store. A lot of silly stuff occurred in the store and I think I laughed the most at the coffee grinder sequence--you'll just have to see it yourself.

Anyway, later, Fatty's girlfriend is forced to go to a girls' school and because he can't stand to part, he dresses in drag and infiltrates the school. Arbuckle is one ugly woman! So, for silly and unsophisticated fun, see this film. It won't change your life and is a very slight picture, but it's also fun.

... but don't get your hopes up about Buster contributing that much to this short. He was invited to participate by the short's actual star, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. That's not me calling Mr. Arbuckle names, but is actually his name in the credits of his films.

Fatty is an employee in a general store of the period, and he loves the proprietor's daughter, Amanda. The owner doesn't want Fatty anywhere near his daughter and sends her to a boarding school where men are not allowed and Amanda is only allowed mail from her parents. Fatty decides to dress up like Amanda's female cousin so that he can see her, but a fellow rival for Amanda, Slim (Al St. John), has a similar idea. So the store portion comprises the first half and the boarding school portion the second half.

This short is pure 1910's comedy with food fights, lots of flour throwing, and pants -kicking. Buster is just a guest star in all of this, with his main contribution being posing as a grocery store customer who comes in to get some molasses but winds up with it in his hat and stuck to his head and with it stuck to the bottom of his shoes so that he cannot walk.

Buster's role in the creative process of Arbuckle's shorts increased over the couple of years that they worked together such that, by the time of their last collaboration in "The Garage" in 1920, you can definitely see that Keaton's brand of gadget filled comedy and complex gags have won the day.

This Fatty Arbuckle short feature is a historical treasure in that it was the first film appearance of the great Buster Keaton, and it has some decent slapstick too. The first half takes place in the general store where 'Fatty' is working as the "Butcher Boy", and it has some good moments, with a couple of clever gadgets, although no big laughs. The last half is the best part, with Fatty, Buster, Fatty's frequent foil Al St. John, and their dog all converging on a boarding school, in a manic sequence that includes some good material. It's unrefined, old-fashioned slapstick, but good fun for anyone who enjoys Arbuckle and/or Keaton.