The Butcher Boy

The details of how Buster Keaton first met Roscoe Arbuckle are murky, but when they did, the initial encounter introduced to the screen one of cinema's greatest silent movie comics.

Keaton is included in the top handful of comedic actors during that era who's acting continues to have an enormous impact in today's films. His trademark calm demeanor in the midst of utter chaos on the screen stood in stark contrast to the helter skelter world of the popular Keystone comedians, of which Arbuckle was one of them. Yet Keaton's cool film personality not only endured, but created a new kind of comedy acting imitated in future generations of movie humorists.

Keaton's first appearance in film is seen in April 1917's "The Butcher Boy," with "Fatty" Arbuckle starring and directing the two-reeler. He shows up part-way into the movie, examining brooms in their holder at the shop. Keaton does some nifty handling of these sweepers in this debuting sequence. Later on, his struggle with molasses, a cinematic classic, with Fatty literally cements the pair's on-screen association. Altogether, the two actors appeared in 14 movies, proving the first meeting was especially pivotal to the 21-year-old Keaton.

Buster, contracted to play in in the Broadway revue "The Passing Show," met on a New York City street either a mutual friend of Arbuckle's or a professional associate of Paramount Pictures. Either way, the person invited the vaudeville star to stop by the local film studio where Fatty was rehearsing for his next movie, "The Butcher Shop." He did, and Fatty, knowing of Keaton, invited him to play a small role in his movie. Buster had some free time and dived in, and like lightening, the two comedians clicked. An anecdotal tale has Keaton so intrigued by what he had just witnessed in the studio he asked to borrow a camera for the night. He proceeded to take apart and put together again in his hotel room the camera to understand its inner mechanisms.

The Butcher Boy was Buster Keaton's first steps into the world of cinema. And for this reason alone, the film has made its own niche in cinematic history. Although it stars Fatty Arbuckle, Fatty was unusually generous in allowing Buster a considerable amount of film time, considering how new Buster was to the medium. The Butcher Boy opens up at a butcher shop where Fatty, the butcher, deals with a number of customers in his own unique way. One, of which, happens to be Buster. The 21 year old Buster interacts with the veteran Arbuckle like someone who has been doing this all his life (a tribute to his vaudeville training). From the butcher shop the scene shifts to an all girl school in which Fatty, trying to sneak a visit with his girlfriend, disguises himself as a girl (dressing in drag seems to be a recurring theme in Fatty's films). His rival for the girl, Al St. John, does the same thing and utilizes Buster to assist him in an attempted kidnapping of the object of his affection. The plot, as with just about every comedic short of that era, has the feel of being made up on the spot. And although the film is void of any real belly laughs there are a few moments that might illicit a chuckle or two. However, the film stands best as simply a curiosity, and will always be remembered not so much as another Arbuckle film, but rather as the film that began the impressive film career of one of the true geniuses of comedy, Buster Keaton.

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.

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.

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.