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.  

Easy Street (Chaplin 1917)

One more chance then.
And I'm glad I watched 'Easy Street', because this is great. I think the first thing to say is that it's got a structure, a satisfying structure- beginning, middle, end. And the humour has a resonance because of that.
Charlie, the tramp, is inspired by religion (and Edna)- he becomes a cop on the unruly Easy Street, lorded over by bully Eric Campbell. Taming the bully, he transforms Easy Street and brings hope (and religion) (and Edna) to the community. Yeah, so stripped bare like that it sounds a bit corny, but it works just fine. The heart of the film is the encounter with Campbell, and this is so well done. The initial scene between them is one long take- the cop patrolling his new beat, becoming aware of this huge bruiser of a man prowling around, and then the cop's attempts to act nonchalant as his movements are aggressively mirrored- it isn't hilarious, but it's so beautifully done, really precise and powerful. Each situation in the film develops from the last- structure again. The final scene is a ludicrously rose-tinted glasses view of the world of course, but that's okay- it's charming, and by this point in the film you're ready to embrace it.
There's something genuine too in the transformation of Charlie's character here- on the simplest level he gets his redemption when he returns the collection box to the church, but there is genuine development in his worldview too. At the onset, he is is his own universe- his hunger and his poverty: there is nothing beyond that. He grows from exisiting for himself to his moment of misguided 'charity' with the bully's wife, and from here to his attainment of 'power', a power he uses over the community as a unifying force. That's what the love of a good woman can do. I think the film's implying that that's what religion can do as well, but I'm not sold on the sincerity of this implication.  

The Immigrant (Chaplin 1917)

Edna Purviance was so much more appealing here, back in 1917, than she was in 'The Kid'. Even if I hadn't heard the stories of alcoholism there's a freshness to her here that's a treat to see- fundamentally she's still in there for drama rather than comedy, but there's a twinkle in her eye here and she makes the performance memorable.
This is a much lauded Chaplin Mutual, and it's very well done, and I didn't care for it as much as I wanted to, which is why I'm wasting words on Edna Purviance while I try and figure out why it didn't hit home for me.
One or two of the ideas seemed a little milked. A little stretched. Breaking point beckons. Maybe even three of the ideas. The lurching of the boat from side to side. The card game. Charlie's problems with the bill in the restaurant in the promised land. These were all great ideas, and maybe it's just me- really, maybe it's just me- but I was watching them thinking: enough already. Move on. Perhaps this is the great drawback of watching these things on DVD- they were crafted for large audiences, of course they were, and what can be expertly paced for a huge room of hysterical punters isn't going to work so well in a more intimate one-on-one encounter.
I watched this and 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' over the course of the same day, and 'The Immigrant' isn't the film I'd be watching on DVD again out of choice. Not given those two options it isn't. This is a far more 'brilliant' film in every way, but I found myself struggling to care about it.
The little touches though- ah, they make it worthwhile. Charlie catching a fish in the opening scene, his shuffling in the card game, some of the pantomime stuff in the restaurant (especially with his hat)- these are beautiful, beautiful moments. I'd just rather snip them out of the film and watch them in isolation if that's okay with you. That okay? We'll do that and say no more about it. And if some great auditorium somewhere decides to showcase the Chaplin Mutuals, maybe I'll give it another chance then.