User reviews

"The Knockout" (1914, Avery) "The Knockout" is more of a Fatty Arbuckle film than a Charlie Chaplin film as Charlie appears as an interfering boxing referee in a segment of the film. With a fair amount of action and a hilarious fight scene to start it off, and introduce us to Arbuckle's character Pug, this is a better than average 1914 film but still a bit tedious after the boxing match. Apparently, firing guns into the air and at people was cause for hilarity. Pug even runs around struggling to work double fisted with pistols and boxing gloves still on. One dis-jointed from reality marker in the shooting sequence is that everybody reacts to getting hit like someone just hit them with a paintball or a rubber bullet. The film's highlights inevitably involve Arbuckle's great physical comedy aided and abetted by his physique as well as Charlie who is great as the referee who keeps stumbling into the fighters during the first round and joins the match in the second round much to the delight of the audience (both on screen and off!). Drop-kicks, rock throwing, shooting, boxing…c'mon, what's missing? Not a bad effort and much better than some of the other Keystone 1914 films.

The folks at Keystone might just as well have called this film "The Knockabout" for that's what they offer us: two reels of rowdy, fast-paced, and curiously amiable violence. Bricks are thrown, faces are punched, guns are fired, and cops are dragged across asphalt at high speed, but when the final scene arrives everyone looks okay, just a little winded. Viewers might feel a little winded, too, for despite its advanced age this movie amounts to something of a cinematic assault. MTV didn't invent rapid cutting, nor did Jackie Chan invent choreographic fighting; you'll find both in The Knockout, admittedly in rough and unsophisticated form, courtesy of Roscoe Arbuckle -- who, according to some sources, directed this film in addition to playing the lead.

The plot gets under way as we find two tattered hobos, looking for food. One of the tramps decides to impersonate the boxer Cyclone Flynn, who is scheduled to fight a bout that afternoon. Since the promoter hasn't met Flynn, he believes the tramp's false claim and gives him an advance on the proceeds. Meanwhile, Roscoe (called "Pug" here) defends his girlfriend from the unwanted attentions of a masher so successfully that he's persuaded to turn pro and take on Cyclone Flynn himself. After various complications Pug faces the real Flynn in the ring. The bout turns into a wild brawl and the police are summoned as Pug, now armed with two pistols, attempts to kill Flynn. Flynn ultimately escapes with his life across the rooftops and through an elegant party. Cops pursue Pug to a pier, and assorted personnel sail through the air into the ocean.

Decades after this film was made Roscoe Arbuckle retains his boyish charm as a screen comic. He gets quite a workout in this short. Gags as such are few, but there's a nice moment when Roscoe prepares to remove his trousers, becomes aware of the "viewers," and directs the camera's gaze upward, only undressing when he is safely out of camera range! (He would repeat this gag in his comedy Coney Island, three years later.) Minta Durfee, who was married to Arbuckle when this film was made, is a pleasant leading lady and looks fetching in the male drag she wears in the latter portion of the film, but, in my opinion, lacks the warmth Mabel Normand brought to similar roles. The rest of the supporting cast represents something of a Keystone Who's Who of 1914: Hank Mann as the tramp, Edgar Kennedy -- with hair -- as Cyclone Flynn, Al St. John as the masher, and Mack Swain (so memorable as the delusional prospector in Chaplin's The Gold Rush) as the gambler, mugging furiously as he watches the big fight. If you look quickly you can spot producer Mack Sennett in a brief bit, in the street in front of the arena. And of course, you can't miss Charlie Chaplin as the referee.

As Chaplin's popularity eclipsed Arbuckle's this film was re-released and advertised as a Chaplin vehicle, which is misleading, for Charlie is present for only a few minutes during the chaotic boxing match. Still, the sequence is the comic high point, as Arbuckle, Chaplin, Mack Swain, and Edgar Kennedy, all on screen simultaneously in a medium long shot, compete for the viewer's attention. But it's no contest: Chaplin's frantic attempts to avoid the boxers' punches draws our attention and steals the scene. Just to make sure our attention doesn't wander, Charlie vigorously mimes wooziness, falls, drags himself across the ring by the ropes, and pauses to count the stars he sees, whirling around his head. Arbuckle has to fire pistols to recapture the focus. If we view this sequence as a Battle of the Keystone Comics, it's plain that, a mere six months after his screen debut, and still only 25 years-old, Chaplin was now the undisputed Champion of screen comedians.

This is a Fatty Arbuckle short in which there is a special appearance of Charlie Chaplin late in the film as a fight referee. Both comedians were in the beginning of their film careers and because of this they still hadn't really developed their characters. So, in many ways this looks nothing like a later film by either--Chaplin is not the Little Tramp and the often sweet characters Arbuckle plays is not evident here. Instead, a lot of action occurs on screen with little regard, at times, for plot or humor. You can really tell that the director just yelled "action" and told the guys to improvise. However, unlike SOME early Keystone efforts there is at least some plot and a few interesting moments, hence the score of 4. It's not good, but compared to what these two were making in 1914, it's better than average.

UPDATED AS OF 7/06: I just saw this short again, but this time the movie was dramatically different--with maybe ten more minutes of movie that gave it more coherence and watchability. This was the version from Mackinac Media in their "Forgotten films of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle" collection. This isn't a total surprise, as in the early days of comedies, there usually existed several different prints and they were often cut and pasted to suit the needs of the theaters--an awful but common practice. I have seen this with several of Chaplin's shorts as well--and the versions were so different that they were like two different films. It is a terrible disservice to the memory of the actors and everyone else involved with the movie. As I mentioned above, this movie has a lot more plot in this version and if quite likable. Heck, Al St. John, who was an important part of the film, wasn't even in the first version I saw!!! What a shame.

The Knockout (1914)

*** (out of 4)

Nice short from Keystone has Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle having to defend his girlfriend but he soon gets double crossed into entering the boxing ring with a professional champion. THE KNOCKOUT really isn't a good movie as there are so many things wrong with it but at the same time you have to give the film credit for its final five-minutes as well as the importance that Charles Chaplin brought to it. It seems like the first fifteen-minutes were fairly uneventful except for a rather funny fight that Arbuckle gets into defending his woman. From this point on we see a bunch of nothing and for the most part there's really nothing interesting happening up to the fight. Once the fight happens is when the film really picks up and a lot of the credit has to go to Chaplin who plays the referee who doesn't seem to know what he's doing. It's funny to watch this thing because you can see the old-fashioned Keystone ways pretty much going out the window in favor to the type of comedy that Chaplin would be doing from this point on. This here is also worth watching for the performance of Arbuckle who is extremely fast on his feet for such a big man and he really gets to show his comic grace.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do better than 'The Knockout', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'The Knockout' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the better efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch.

'The Knockout' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy and confused.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'The Knockout' is not bad at all.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'The Knockout' is humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

Overall, far from one of Chaplin's best but pretty good and perhaps one of his better efforts from the early Keystone period. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I saw a new 32-minute restoration of this film (courtesy of the Chaplin Keystone restoration project) and came away with the feeling that half an hour was too long; the film degenerates into endless repetitive scenes that the more mature comedy shorts of the 1920s would have trimmed drastically to greater effect. However, reading other users' comments, I get the impression that the material previously edited out of "The Knockout" was actually the early, plot-based part of the picture -- hardly an improvement!

There are some funny bits; chiefly those that are allowed to stand as one-off gags and not over-milked by repetition. Don't (as if this needed mentioning!) look for realism -- the film clearly features the pair of six-shooters with the largest number of consecutive charges in the world, for a start...

There is, incidentally, no knockout in this boxing match. Much other activity, though; including Minta Durfee as a girlfriend with a decided taste for fisticuffs, Charlie Chaplin in a long-shot cameo as the referee, and a brooding Mack Swain apparently having trouble with his moustaches.

Roscoe Arbuckle takes on a prize fighter in this Keystone short, and somehow ends up firing guns while wearing boxing gloves during a rooftop chase. Plenty of frantic pandemonium, and a scene-stealing appearance from Charlie Chaplin as the referee, but it's all a bit messy.

This short silent comedy features a great, large cast, and many hilarious scenes. The large number of characters help support a plot more complicated than the average 1914 Keystone comedy.

For a 1914 Keystone, this has it all, or almost all: cartoon violence, street fights, fraud, romance, a cross-dressing heroine, Arbuckle's acrobatic slapstick, a (brief) love triangle, death threats, menace, the funniest boxing match of the decade, with Chaplin as a guest star and the Keystone Kops! The last ten or so minutes in particular (of the 25 minute version I saw) were outstanding: densely packed with ludicrous action and surprising gags. There's easily enough going on to reward multiple viewings. It's one of Chaplin's best Keystone films (though he's only in a few minutes), one of Arbuckle's best Keystone films and has the funniest Keystone Kops sequence of the handful I've seen.

Recommended!

Pug (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle) tries to please his girlfriend. When she gets harassed by a ruffian, Pug takes him and his friends out. The ruffians are impressed and convince Pug to sign up to box Cyclone Flynn who is taking on all comers. A couple of bums play a prank on him. The match has a wacky referee (Charles Chaplin). It ends with a shootout and a Keystone cops chase.

I'm not sure about the story. Fatty Arbuckle seems a bit too angry to be that fun. The girlfriend is not terribly nice. This movie does have two great scenes. Charles Chaplin makes a great cameo and basically steals the scene. The only problem with it is that the camera doesn't move. The manic fun only comes from the performers. The other great scene for me is breaking the fourth wall. I love Fatty's playfulness with the audience during that bit. The two great scenes more than make up for any deficiencies.

Fatty Arbuckle swings his weight around in this super-shallow pugilistic comedy. There's almost no story to speak of, just a basic theme (prize fighting) wrapped around the loosest of frameworks, which can certainly be attributed to its incredible age. Keystone Studios had only been around for two years at this point and secondary star Charlie Chaplin was still an eccentric supporting player. Fritz Lang wouldn't direct his first film for another five years! Even bearing that in mind, it's lacking as anything more than a historical curiosity. Chaplin is all over the posters, despite being involved for less than five minutes as the rubber-booted ref in charge of the big fight. There's little to the humor beyond cartoony chase scenes and constant head-over-heels pratfalls. Everybody's taking a pratfall. The boxers, the fans, the dream girl in the front row, the infamous Keystone cops... if they've got feet, you better believe they'll be pointed up at the sky before it's all said and done. No way this should stick around for twenty-seven minutes.

The second half or so of this Keystone comedy is quite enjoyable, with a lot of good material. The first half is sometimes amusing, but for the most part it really only serves to set up the last part. Roscoe Arbuckle was skilled at performing almost any kind of comic material, but he is much more fun to watch when he has something good to work with. Charlie Chaplin's appearance in the last part of the movie also adds quite a bit.

The setup has Arbuckle getting hoodwinked into a boxing match with a champion opponent. It takes rather a while to prepare for the 'main event', and some of the material in the first half really isn't that creative. But once the match begins, with Chaplin appearing as a timid, hapless referee, things really get rolling. It's a lengthy, amusing sequence that's not unworthy of being mentioned with the boxing sequences in some of Chaplin's own movies. It's well worth watching this part over again to catch all of the subtle gags that Chaplin throws in.

Arbuckle is still the star here, though, and it ends up being a decent showcase for him to perform slapstick and feats of agility, plus a few mannerisms and facial expressions. It would have been better if some of the unnecessarily complicated setup material had been streamlined, but even as it stands it has some good laughs.

The Knockout, like other Keystone shorts of the 1910's, combines two comedic legends in one short film. We center around Pug (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle), a boxer who is planning to face off against the renowned Cyclone Flynn (Edgar Kennedy). With the help of his girlfriend (Minta Durfee), Pug trains to beat the boxer until, upon getting into the ring, he is greeted with the goofiest of referees (Charlie Chaplin).

The comedy here stems directly from the slapstick breed, making The Knockout incredibly kinetic and fun. It's never too reliant on one breed of comedy and, again, typical for the Keystone shorts, toys with the roles and personalities of its characters. Nothing is ever too linear here and everything winds up being a ribald blast of energy, especially for Chaplin. Chaplin's referee character doesn't come into play until the second half of the short, but when he does, he provides for another element of the diverse comic abilities of the Keystone company. Playing with comedic tropes and having two great performers at the forefront, The Knockout is among one of the big winners for the company.

Starring: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Edgar Kennedy, Minta Durfee, and Charlie Chaplin. Directed by: Charles Avery.

That's not really true, of course, but the level of action and the quality and style of editing in this film is leaps and bounds above a lot of the kinds of films that were coming out at the time, even the ones that Chaplin himself was directing. The first 15 minutes of the film, the build-up to the boxing match, are noticeably slow and almost eventless, but the last ten minutes are so action packed and so frantically fast paced that it almost feels like a full length film.

Fatty Arbuckle stars in this tale of a fixed boxing match gone horribly wrong, and it has slapstick violence, Charlie Chaplin as a referee who doesn't seem to know that he's not supposed to get involved with the fight, gunfights, police chases, and Arbuckle dragging the whole precinct of officers attached to a rope into the ocean off of a pier. There's intrigue, betrayal, romance, crime, comedy, and illegal gambling. There is so much going on in this film that it's amazing how short it is.

Chaplin didn't write or direct this film, and in reality was only a co-star, but this is one of the best films I've seen in the Chaplin collection I have. Chaplin at the time was a very inexperienced filmmaker, and he wasn't really turning out anything better than this at the time that it was made. He became much better than this later in his career, obviously, but any Chaplin fan should not miss this one.

Roscoe Arbuckle, ably supported, makes barrels of fun in this two-reel comedy release. In its early stages, the story has a particularly well-connected plot, but things go to smash a little in this line when a big chase is introduced in the second reel. This chase, as well as a comedy prize fight, is unusually funny. - The Moving Picture World, July 4, 1914

I found The Knockout as more of a Fatty Arbuckle film rather than a Chaplin film, Fatty Arbuckle is the real star in this film means he is as groovy and as funny as Chaplin, The Knockout is a fun half an hour short film.

Fatty Arbuckle shows off his fighting moves before, during, and after a boxing match, Charlie Chaplin shows up briefly as the referee and naturally gets hopelessly tangled up in the brawl, Minta Durfree looks cute dressed up as a man, and the famed Keystone Kops fall all over each other. It's all pretty silly stuff, but I loved the bits where Arbuckle breaks the 4th wall to have the camera pan up while he's changing into his shorts, and his frenetic tug of war with the cops at the end.