The Rough House (Arbuckle 1917)

Been away for a wee while, otherwise occupied with a house move- now I need to ease myself back in with my Main Guys. Though in truth this wasn't a great choice- fundamentally it's a solo vehicle for Arbuckle: Buster's role is on a par with Al St John's and neither of them get up to anything too remarkable (there is just a sense though that they seem to be battling it out to perform the most outlandish jump or fall- it would be interesting to know if there was genuine rivalry between the two of them at this stage to be Fatty's number one back-up guy, or if that's just revisionist thinking).
This is a pretty poor film, but with one saving grace (perhaps more than one, but one especially notable saving grace). Is there anything better anywhere than Arbuckle lazily, nonchalantly trying to put out a bedroom fire with a cup of water? This scene is irresistible, and I can watch it again and again. His expressions, his utterly carefree walk to and from the bedroom- it's beautiful stuff. Notable too I think is the soup-serving scene- his interactions with implements and diners are fascinating. Not particularly funny perhaps, but there's something about the scene, some indefinable sense of magic, that makes you want to pause it, slow it down, savour it frame by frame. He is operating on a higher plane, playing to a higher audience than his other cast members here, and just as with some of Chaplin's early Keystones, it is as if the little portion of the moving image that he is occupying hs taken on a powerful, almost spiritual, resonance of its own.
There's no great plot here- Arbuckle is a tenant in a guest house? Maybe even a henpecked husband? It aint clear. St John is a cook. Fatty ends up as a waiter. Buster is a delivery boy. They all kiss the maid. Yeah, it's all very confused- throw in a couple of thieves and some crazy Kops, and you really are, for the most part, just dealing with a raucous frenetic Keystone affair. Just watch out for the little bits of magic.  

Tango Tangles (Chaplin / Sterling 1914)

Sterling again, though without the goatee, and the gulf betwen him and Chaplin and Arbuckle is certainly... notable. Fatty has by far the lesser role of the three of them here, but it's still nice having him around. The three comedians are rivals for a hat-check girl's affections at the local dance hall. Fatty and Sterling are musicians, Charlie is a suave drunk. There's no nore to it than that, but it's different enough to be very watchable.
Chaplin is the very model of subtlety, understatement and poise- he is without his moustache here, and he just looks like he did in all those old newsreel films: young, fresh, innocent and English, with a hell of a head of hair and wildly excited eyes. He has a couple of fight scenes with Sterling and here at least the great gesticulator is... good. Sterling takes a good fall, a spinning eye-catching collapse and back up again. The fight scenes momentarily becomes dances themselves. But wherever he is and whatever he is doing, you can't help watching Chaplin. We are watching him with hindsight of course because of what he became, but even if you're judging him on what he is, you're watching someone who shouldn't have been allowed to fill the same screen as Ford Sterling. He is so clearly putting the older comedian to shame with every movement he makes.

The Rink (Chaplin 1916)

Well that's enough Chaplin for a while.
I don't have a prejudice against Chaplin, and if anything I've gone into these Mutual films expecting perhaps a little too much, but just like 'The Immigrant', I found 'The Rink' pretty tiresome. Brilliant, yeah of course- but tiresome. Someone explain to me why, because as with 'The Immigrant' I can't really explain it. I'm not enjoying the character at all- the character circa 1916 anyway, with the tendency to kick people in the pants and throw punches all over the place, but with the tendency towards tendeness and sentimentality thrown into the mix as well. Give me one or the other. And so I can appreciate what Chaplin is doing here, but I'm not enjoying it at all.
With a day job as an incompetent waiter in a swanky restaurant, feuding with his bosses and his colleagues, Charlie spends his free time at the skating rink next door, causing mayhem, getting into fights, flirting with the girls. There's no particular plot beyond that- he makes out with Edna, he tangles with Eric Campbell. The little bits of business, the hat and cane stuff, can be appreciated by anyone- here Chaplin is irresistible. Tellingly this stuff is detatched from the character and the film- it is just business, it's pantomime. You could watch it over and over again and love it just as much. Some of the skating rink stuff is lively and fun. And beyond that I'm struggling. So I'm going to pass. I'll revisit ths stuff one day.

The Frozen North (Keaton 1922)

I knew nothing about this one before watching it, and I'm not sure how much more I really know about it now. I don't think I particularly liked it, but it threw me- I was expecting 'just another' Keaton short, with all that implies, and 'The Frozen North' manifestly isn't that.
Buster is a kind of arctic evil genius, with Joe Roberts as his loyal henchman- it's a melodrama pastiche with everyone playing against type but frankly it's more... interesting than it is enjoyable. We are thrown straight into the middle of an ongoing scenario (though given the film's length I'm guessing there may be a scene or two missing somewhere along the way) with Buster attempting to hold up a saloon single-handedly and then shooting a couple of lovers dead after mistaking the girl for his wife and her house for his own house. And of course by this point you're well aware that you're not getting a typical Buster Keaton product, but you're still not entirely sure what it is you are getting. Buster's a cheater, a lothario, a villain through and through, and yes of course it's all revealed to be a dream, and of course we know he's sending stuff up, but it's still a shock to the system. A shock that would perhaps be easier to take if it were just a tad funnier.
And this is where my ignorance of the source material for his pastiche is probably doing Buster a disservice- all I can do is imagine the wild overacting and the outlandish scenarios in the films he is taking down a peg or two: I can guess what they were like and I can guess why this film was probably funnier in 1922 than it is now.
There's an overplayed and predictable ice-fishing scene though that I'm damned sure was just as tiresome ninety years ago as it seems today. 

Willful Ambrose (Swain 1915)

I've come to the conclusion that I've never seen anyone in my life quite like Mack Swain. His face was just a weird one- permanently contorted into a kind of teenager's gormless disgusted sneer, like he's just been told by his parents that he's got to be in by one o'clock- no later. But it's that sneer on the body of a big lumbering oaf of a man that is so odd. He's a bully and a slob and I can't think of another comic so firmly rooted in the mid 1910s as Swain. And for that reason he's interesting. And, as I've said before, in small occasional doses I can find him quite watchable.
Ambrose and wife have a falling out after he shoots up her beer stein. He takes his child-woman daughter out with him to get a replacement- they run into trouble with another couple in the park intent on acquiring a beer stein of their own. I think you can tell that I don't really know what a beer stein is.
So, help me out, I'm struggling: the sexy dark-haired girl in the park- is that Mae Busch? Or is that Minta Durfee? I'm sure I'm going to look back at myself in a few months time and shake my head in despair at my ignorance- I liked her, I thought she was attractive and very modern looking, but I only know Mae Busch from her Laurel and Hardy stuff a decade and a half later, and all I know about Minta Durfee is that she was Mrs Arbuckle. IMDB tells me the girl in the park is one of them, but such is my horrendous ignorance, I don't know which one. Can you imagine the difficulty of this situation for me? Especially when some of my comments about Mae Busch before have been less than flattering.
No-one will find 'Willful Ambrose' particularly funny of course, but I think a pleasant feeling of bafflement and bemusement is not unwelcome on occasions, and you certainly get that with the Swain Keystones. And damn it I enjoyed this. I found some of the stuff with the backwards daughter just... weird, but hey, weird's good too.

Soldier Man (Langdon 1926)

A few brilliant moments aside- the King's parade notably, Harry as the mock-King failing to understand his subjects' reverence- this is pretty tiresome. The initial scenario- the soldier still fighting the war because no-one has told him it is over- would be famously re-used by Langdon for Stan and Ollie's 'Blockheads', and to much better effect than here. Langdon carries off the mainly solo stuff of the first few minutes very well- his expressions and gestures are beautiful- but the material itself is a bit laboured. And from fighting a solo war the Langdon character somehow ends up as an impostor king, and that takes up the rest of your picture. Right up until the 'it was all a dream' conclusion. Always a sign that no-one involved could think up a better ending.
I didn't dislike this, but it didn't make my heart sing. You get to briefly see Langdon in a dual role though- he plays the alcoholic monarch before the king gets abducted by rebels- and so there's a certain amount on novelty value in there if nothing else.

The Bum's Rush (Pollard 1927)

A new one for me- I'd never seen a Snub Pollard film, I couldn't even have picked him out of a police line-up. 1927 is apparently quite a step into his career, so I couldn't say how representative this is of him and his style of comedy- but I enjoyed it. Another big moustache- a huge moustache actually- and, well what are those? Mock oriental eyebrows? Is this how he looked all the way through his career, or has his appearance been refined somewhat? He seems to have quite an amiable persona- there's certainly something there. I do feel sometimes before watching these, shall we say, second tier comedians, that they are going to be a little bland, a little soulless, but I liked what I saw of him here and- you know what? I think I may even be able to pick him out of a police line-up now. He works particularly well with the little kidnapped kid- the hugs and affection seemed spontaneous rather than forced and that hints at depths to the character that may or may not be justified when I get to see further films of his. This is from the 'Weiss-o-rama' DVD set and I know there's a couple more Snubs on there, so I'm looking forward to those.
He plays a- no surprise- bum here, who becomes entangled with a convict and his iron ball thingy. In a surprising twist the convict is actually rather grateful to Snub for his inadvertent assistance in helping him escape, and becomes a pal to him, helping him out when he needs it. The two of them come across a kidnapped kid, and the story writes itself from there. There's some high-wire action with one of those washing line contraptions that apparently used to run between apartment buildings (do they still have those? were these a uniquely American affair?) that drags on a little too long, but mostly this is quick-moving and very likeable.

Mabel And Fatty's Married Life (Normand / Arbuckle 1915)

There's not much going on here, not a huge number of laughs to be had, yet its got a nice feel to it and Fatty and Mabel are always lovely to watch together. There's something easy-going and spontaneous about them, especially their scenes together where they seem so relaxed and care-free. This is very rare for films of this vintage, to my eyes at least. Having two actors appear so natural and at home on the screen makes the film enjoyable even when the material may be a little lacklustre.
The film is an anecdote really, a throwaway shaggy dog story. Cursed by an organ grinder in the park, Mabel finds herself terrified of strange movements around the house while her husband's away. It turns out to be the organ grinder's monkey playing peek-a-boo around her curtains. Damn I've spoilt the twist for you. This one is very much about Mabel, and she oozes class with those heavy eyelids of hers, dishevelled hair and pretty but slightly geeky face. Both of these comedians could have made it big in films at any time I think- their appeal is timeless and that's why it's a shame that the films themselves can appear quite dated. I can't imagine sitting down and watching one of these Keystone films with my 7 year old daughter- wind forward to the early twenties though and the films become so much more approachable for modern audiences.
The Keystone cops help to wrap things up, but they are going through the motions rather.
Lovely giggle at the end from Fatty as his Mabel recounts her experiences.

I Do (Lloyd 1921)

Harold and Mildred learn something of the perils of parenthood. Married for a year, they are given the task of babysitting a couple of unpleasant little 'uns for a night- tie this in with rumours of a burglar in the neighbourhood and a fun night is on the cards. It's enjoyable and has quite a dark side- the elder of the children isn't just cheeky, he's downright malevolent- but all the way through I was thinking: well, you know, it could be better.
I didn't laugh much, I know that.
And some of the gags I didn't even get. I can kinda fit pieces together now and surmise that most of the early stuff in the film like the young lovers pushing around some kind of cask in a pram, and a whole procession of young men coming out of the same house pushing prams- well I'm guessing that this is about prohibition or something, yeah? Ah, silent comedy. A medium that was specicifically aimed at, let's be frank here, the widest popular culture audience imagineable, ultimately pretty much a lowest common denominator kind of thing, but separate yourself from the source by a few long decades and you may as well be tying to modernize Chaucer. Well, you get my drift. What was dumb fun then can take a little brainpower now.
There's a curious, very brief, animated episode in here- the wedding service of Harold and Mildred, and so unexpected is it that it may just be the highpoint of the film. It isn't funny, but it's quirky and sometimes that's enough. A lot of the business with the children, especially the baby's milk- hell, it's ok, it's just a litlle pedestrian, a little uninspired. You see Harold Lloyd on the screen, that great iconic figure, and pedestrian and uninspired just isn't enough.

Fatty's Spooning Days (Mabel, Fatty and the Law) (Arbuckle / Normand 1915)

Spooning, I'm assuming, is an Americanism, and presumably an Americanism anachronism, for any kind of flirting or courting behaviour? The great, silly premise for this one-reeler is that absolutely anything of this nature is forbidden in a big, public (but suspiciously empty) park. Fatty and Harry Gribbon and their respective wives end up in this big, public park, not only spooning like there's no tomorrow, but also spooning with each other's partners. Spooning- I like this term, I'm going to be using it more often.
All four of them end up in the police station, having to pay hefty fines. That's your entire plot, to be frank, save for a bit of nonsense with a couple of maids early on. The idea of the police, in great numbers, loitering around the park just waiting to pounce on devious spooners is such a lovely one- it's dumb and cheeky, but it knows it's dumb and cheeky and is so brazen about it you just don't care.
Harry Gribbon I don't think I've seen before- he's very tall and slightly rubbery faced and faux-elegant, and he seems of a different time altogether, as if he's just been plonked down in the middle of 'Fatty's Spooning Days' from his safe house in the 40s, the 60s, the 90s even. I like him, he's got a certain something. Mabel has looked better than she does here, I have to say. She's a little dowdy, a little plain- maybe it's the outfit. There's some great pantomime between her and Gribbon though, and the four leading players- with the Keystone cops supporting them in a relatively subdued and subtle manner- make this very enjoyable. You're not going to fall out of your chair, but neither will you have the slightest inclination to turn away from the screen of your choosing.

That Little Band Of Gold (Arbuckle / Normand 1915)

Arbuckle- how do we refer to him these days? Bear with me, my knowledge in these matters still aint great. Roscoe or Fatty- which is it to be? My heart says Roscoe, but damnit all he made his money as Fatty and he never seemed to have a problem with it (correct me, please correct me, if I'm wrong...) So Fatty, for now, it is. The only films of his I'd seen before this one were a batch of the Keaton shorts, and this I don't think is quite in that class. But that's ok, that's no great shame, I loved those films- 'That Little Band of Gold' doesn't need to be feeling too inadequate. And this is my first glimpse of Mabel Normand (second glimpse shortly to follow (now read on dot dot dot)). And she's eye-catching. She's not exactly forgotten these days, but people, the general public, just know her as a name now don't they? How many people out of a hundred would recognize her picture, let alone be able to name one of her films?
This is a bright two-reeler of romantic entanglements and lazy diversions. Arbuckle (that's Fatty to you, my friend) and Normand are newly married, but he has a wandering eye and enjoys a decadent life, and he soon begins to stray. Ford Sterling is the over-acting friend / rival whose paramour he takes up with. There is a long opera house scene which, despite offering no amusing moments whatsoever, is culturally fascinating- our band of heroes seem to have been plunked down in the middle of a genuine opera audience and so we end up with our own little slice of cinéma vérité. It's fun to watch their get-up and reactions.
Fatty is the antithesis of Chaplin here- was this a standard character for him? Rich and pampered, he lives in a mansion surrounded by servants, and he lives in his own moral vacuum, existing for his own hedonistic pleasures alone. Sure he ends up with Mabel again at the film's conclusion, but how many people are buying that as a long-term commitment? Jeremy Kyle surely beckons a few months down the line. We never learn what it is that allows him to live this extravagant lifestyle either. The film's highlight, probably the only moment (for all Arbuckle and Normand's genuine charisma and chemistry) that you'd want to revisit, is a scene of first-rate clowning with Fatty and his new wife's scandalized mother.