Le Garage de Fatty

AFTER HAVING ENTERED the world of movie making rather casually in 1917, Buster Keaton's ascent to the top of the heap of Silent Clowns was put on hold thanks to World War I. Returning to the cameras after cessation of hostilities, he remained a supporting player for now good friend, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. This is his last short in supporting role.

SEEMING MUCH MORE complex and developed than previous outings, THE GARAGE offers us plenty of action, sight gags and a more substantial storyline than those that preceded it.

UINDER THE DIRECTION of star, Mr. Arbuckle, the action and situations flow freely through the commercial garage; what we would nowadays call a "service station." The characters and their accompanying situational humor situations are ushered to front stage in a smooth, well paced fashion. Time is taken in the prep, as well as the ultimate execution of each vignette and its gag potentiality. Arbuckle and Keaton had both evolved high above the break neck speed of Sennett, Larry Semon and others.

OCCUPATIONS ARE DEFINITELY on the front burner of this outing, as the story mixes in Police and Fire services. The boys are apparently in some volunteer fire department; as they both sleep on the upper floor, use a firemen's pole to descend to main level and do answer a false fire alarm.

THE PREVELANCE OF mechanical gadgets in the story. such as a giant turn table and fan system indicate that Buster Keaton might well have had a good deal of influence in shaping this last Arbuckle silent short into what it was. It is not hard to imagine that Buster could have readily fit the bill of hero without sidekick/assistant.

FOLLOWING THIS MOVIE, Keaton did move into his own series; superseding Roscoe at the Comique Studios. Roscoe had moved on to his own company, Paramount, Feature Films, and the scandalous accusations which ruined a ruined career and a shortened life.

Keaton and Arbuckle's final collaboration is also their finest. With Fatty soon moving on to feature-lengths and Buster continuing as a solo act, the prolific duo came together one last time to entertain audiences (and themselves) in a typically short, simple silent comedy.

They're a pair of mechanics this time, serving double-duty in a combination garage / firehouse, and incapable of finishing one job without creating two or three new ones. The various props and occasions of a busy day in the auto repair business provide ample opportunity for clever laughs, which Arbuckle and Keaton casually pluck like fresh fruit from an overburdened apple tree. It's jam-packed with smart, funny, groundbreaking material; twenty-odd minutes of nonstop escalation. A posh suitor, interested in dating the boss's daughter, sees his neat white suit (and thoughtful flower bouquet) summarily ruined by the bumbling duo, who happen to be working with motor oil nearby. Wobbly vehicles are rented out with no chance of leaving the yard. An enormous turntable, once used to wash and inspect cars, becomes a high-speed human dry-cleaning station and, soon enough, a treadmill.

There's so much rich, creative energy jammed into this small package, it's hard to believe the masterminds behind it were about to split apart. In time, that divorce would work to Keaton's benefit. Arbuckle, sadly, wasn't quite so fortunate.

The final collaboration between Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, and the duo end on a high in a comedy that's filled with inventive gags and comical situations. They're mechanics at a garage who also double up as firemen. Keaton has a lot more screen time here than he had in the earlier of the 14 shorts he and Arbuckle made together, and the couple work extremely well together as near-equal partners.

This Arbuckle/Keaton short comedy has a lot of good material and is quite enjoyable. It's all done in Arbuckle's free-wheeling style, so the story is held together less by the plot than by its setting and by the antics of the two stars.

The setting in "The Garage", where Arbuckle's and Buster's characters work both as mechanics and as firemen, lends itself to all kinds of humor, and the various props and situations are used to good effect. The first part gets lots of mileage out of the cars, tools, and various gadgets in the garage, and later there is an amusingly chaotic fire-fighting scene. There are quite a variety of good gags, with even a billboard getting in on the act.

Although there isn't really a story to speak of, there are lots of frantic goings-on and some great comic moments, making it well worth seeing for any fan of these two great silent screen comedians. In the classic series of comedies that paired the two, this is one of the best ones.

The Garage marked the end of an era, as it was the final short Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton would make together. The 1920's would see Keaton's solo career skyrocket into immortality, and to Arbuckle's credit, he fully supported Keaton going his own way. Meanwhile, Arbuckle's career would of course be brutally derailed by the injustice of the Virginia Rappe case less than two years later, the public fanned into a frenzy by the tabloid journalism of William Randolph Hearst and willing to believe the worst about a star whose screen persona always had a dark streak. Knowing the impending parting of ways and fates of these friends makes watching this short special.

There are lots of amusing bits here, including getting several gags out of an automobile turntable (Buster running on it like a gerbil among other things), Arbuckle walking behind Buster and hoisting him up so Buster can swipe a pair of pants and instantly put them on, and Buster getting stuck in the fence and having a dog (good old Luke) attack his backside. The garage mechanics are also firemen (of course!), and the contraption they rigged up to whisk the covers off their beds as well as their nightshirts in response to a fire alarm was hilarious, my favorite. As James Curtis writes in his biography of Keaton, Buster believed this was the best of his films with Arbuckle ("It was a honey," he said, "It was a pip."). While I don't fully agree with him, it's certainly entertaining.