The Life of the Party

The thesis of the opening text is basically fake-it-til-you-make-it. Lawyer Algernon Leary (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle) does fake it to the point where the Milk Manufacturers try to hire him. Milly Hollister from the Better Babies League is battling the corrupt milk trust. She asks Judge Voris (Frank Campeau) for help although she doesn't know that he's part of it. The judge sends her to Algernon expecting a foolish lawyer. Algernon falls for her and the two men end up battling each other.

The scandal happened in 1921. So that didn't affect this movie. There are some comedic actions. The big section is a costume party where everybody dresses as 'kiddies'. It makes for some crazy awkward times. There is a clash of tones here. A lot of this is meant to be funny, but the comedy gets a bit muted by the serious story.

"He gave up his seat on the trolley to three women."

Yes, he was known as "Fatty" and his roles often played on or against his size and weight. But he really was an actor, even if he didn't always get a chance to prove it.

"Life of the Party," probably an unfortunate title considering the event that ended his acting career, gave him such a chance.

It was a sort-of comedy about politics and corruption -- which pretty much go together like "horse and carriage" and "love and marriage" -- but with lots of dramatic and sometimes adult situations.

Arbuckle was a large man but with lots of physical abilities, some even say "acrobatic." He used everything in "Life of the Party," including some serious facial expressions, to create quite believably a young would-be reformer lawyer -- would-be reformer because of the hoped-for love of the proverbial good woman.

None of his fellow cast members is known today except Roscoe Karns, an excellent character actor of especially the 1930s, but all were superbly worth watching.

"Life of the Party" is not complete, being fleshed out with some stills -- it is one of the famous "lost films" -- but is quite enjoyable, very well done, and a film I hope you get to see, perhaps when it's presented again on TCM as it was Sunday night, 18 October 2015.

"Life of the Party" was released shortly before the scandal that ruined Roscoe Arbuckle's career, which resulted in the Hays Office banning Arbuckle from the screen even though he was acquitted on all charges. Consequently, there were no plans to re-release this film, and no American or British prints of "Life of the Party" are known to exist. (Even this film's title is ironic, in view of the Virginia Rappe incident.) "Life of the Party" survives only because some prints were distributed in Europe, where the original intertitles were cut out and foreign translations were spliced in.

I saw "Life of the Party" at the British Film Institute, from a nitrate print with Polish intertitles, with a curator reading English translations of the intertitles over the BFI's Tannoy system. As is often the case with foreign-language prints of Hollywood silent films, the titles are not accurate translations: in one scene of this Polish-language version, Roscoe Arbuckle speaks an outright obscenity which could never have appeared in a Hollywood film of this period.

"Life of the Party" is based on a magazine story by Irvin S. Cobb, a popular author of the time. Cobb's brief career as a movie actor in the early sound era was thwarted by his thick Southern accent and his physical appearance: he was a heavyset man with a face like a bullfrog.

Cobb's original story is about a man who attends a masquerade party dressed as a little boy. When he leaves the party in his heavy winter coat, his car won't start so he decides to walk home. A stick-up man steals his wallet and coat, leaving him wearing only his costume. The poor guy has to walk home in a snowstorm, dressed like Little Lord Fauntleroy. End of story.

The film version has a well-written plot, more plausible than usual for this actor. For once, Roscoe Arbuckle plays a solid citizen. He's cast as a respected attorney who runs for office as a reform candidate against the local machine politicians. Some society women involve him in their charity drive to obtain milk for the local schoolchildren. They throw a charity ball in honour of the schoolchildren: all the adults invited to the party are told to arrive dressed as little children. (No comment.) Roscoe arrives, decked out as a four-year-old boy, and he's the life of the party. Then something goes wrong, and Roscoe ends up in a snowstorm while dressed as a toddler. Eventually he gets back into long trousers, but now he's got to deal with the election and those crooked politicians...

Regrettably, at one point in this movie, a crooked judge employs a woman named French Kate(!) to drag Arbuckle's character into a compromising situation so that he can be destroyed in the ensuing scandal. In light of the real-life tragedy that wrecked Arbuckle's career, I found this subplot painful to watch.

Arbuckle's dazzling gift for acrobatic slapstick is neglected in this film, which (despite the Polish titles) is probably very much as it would have been released in America. It's interesting to see Arbuckle playing a "straight" role as a credible human being, in a comedy more subtle than usual for him. This film emphasises the very great talent that was lost when this funny man was unfairly banned from the screen.

I'll give "Life of the Party" a 6 out of 10 .

This is an odd full-length comedy from Fatty Arbuckle. I don't mean it's odd in a bad way, but it's quite a departure because the film is much more plot-driven than his shorts and because he initially plays a rather non-sympathetic character.

When the film begins, Algernon Leary (Arbuckle) is a very successful lawyer--thanks in part to his complete lack of ethics! So, when the evil Milk Trust is being sued, the crooked judge advises the Milk people to hire Leary, as he will do anything to win a case. But, before Leary can cash the retainer check from the milk folks, he's visited by a group of concerned women who want him to fight the Milk Trust! Smitten by one of the lovely ladies, he reluctantly agrees to take the case and rips up the Trust's HUGE check.

Soon, Leary is seen by the community as a virtuous man and he's nominated as a reform party candidate for mayor. Now, with his reputation cleaned up, Leary decides to actually clean up his act and gain the woman's love. But this is not going to be easy, as the Milk Trust will resort to any sort of underhanded politics to win their case--and if it means destroying Leary, so be it.

While none of this sounds all that funny, it is a comedy...but one with its major emphasis on the story and characters, not cheap laughs. Because of this, the film is slower and the comedy clearly is secondary...but the film IS well-crafted and very enjoyable. Well worth seeing and among Arbuckle's best.

By the way, if you do see this film, it was until recently assumed lost. It's now about 99% restored but the final few seconds of the print are gone--replaced by stills and intertitle cards.