Fatty's Plucky Pup

After a rather slow start, this silent comedy picks up and has some very good material in the later parts of the movie. It has a relatively long running time for its year and genre, and it could have been better with a few minutes of the plainer material cut out towards the beginning. But it ends up being worth seeing anyway, thanks to a solid second half.

Most of the first part shows 'Fatty' Arbuckle's character living at home with his mother. There are a couple of decent gags, but overall it's rather dull. The one interesting aspect of it is that there are at least a couple of gags that are recognizable from later Arbuckle features, in which he seems to have refined the ideas and the timing to make them work better. Otherwise, many of the gags in this part are predictable and somewhat routine.

The second part is very good, with "Fatty's Plucky Pup" taking a starring role. It uses some creatively silly predicaments to set up a pleasingly manic chase sequence with Arbuckle, the dog, the villains, and some of Keystone's comic policemen all involved. It's filmed in an amusing style that creates some actual excitement and comedy at the same time that it gently parodies itself. It's the kind of touch that is hard to achieve but that works well, and it makes this a worthwhile short comedy despite the more prosaic first half.

Sure, you *could* critique this the regular way ... but stop for a moment and think about how you're watching a film made OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Marvel at the amazing skill and intelligence of Luke The Dog. Watch a MASTER of film comedy inventing an entire industry as he works. Not one subtitle. Just pure, hilarious physical comedy at its best. Watch an entire art form being born. Priceless. Literally. Because only one print of this film survived.

All right. It's not ON THE WATERFRONT. It is, however, several minutes of fast-paced, good-natured humor. The first half is a series of jokes that Arbuckle would elaborate on in ROUGH HOUSE three years down the road. The second half is a warmup for TEDDY AT THE THROTTLE, complete with Keystone Kops and the famous Keystone cyclorama. Roscoe tosses off a joke and gets on to the next one -- none of the elaboration of Chaplin or the grandeur of Keaton, but funnier, perhaps, for not having a fuss made. Look for yourself and see.

Most comments are dismissive of the first half of this short film. It consists of Fatty getting in his mother's way during washing day and listlessly smoking in bed (and we all know how THAT turns out!). Fatty tends to do more harm than good, in fact, and every time he seeks to correct one of his goofs the result is even worse. It's a quick but careful study in just how useless a person can become. All that changes, of course, when Fatty finds a resourceful (albeit illegal) way to get his money back from some con artists, and then is actually challenged to do some good. But for me, notwithstanding an inventive second half, that first half of the movie is what's fascinating.

Fatty's Plucky Pup (1915)

** (out of 4)

Two-reeler has Fatty in love with his neighbor but he's afraid to tell her. Before he even gets a chance to tell her she is kidnapped by some bad men but thankfully his dog Plucky knows where she is. Here's another two-reeler where it seems like no one even tried to get a laugh. There's not a single laugh in the film, which isn't good since this runs twenty-seven minutes. The opening sequence with Fatty setting is bed on fire is amusing but not funny. The majority of the second half deals with the dog running around various obstacles and again, this is amusing but not funny.