Underneath his hobo greasepaint, FATTY ARBUCKLE is hard to recognize since he usually plays a working class guy, often teamed with MABEL NORMAND. Here he's a street hobo looking for handouts who inadvertently becomes suspected of being "the bomber" when he waltzes into MACK SWAIN's bar with a cheese Swain thinks is a bomb.
That's the set-up and it's a thin one on which to hang a plot, even for a short film. This being the Age of Terror, as someone else observed, it's not exactly a "feel good" sort of comedy.
It's hard to recognize SLIM SUMMERVILLE behind the bar and I never did recognize EDGAR KENNEDY as the generous man who offered the cheese. But the sad fact is that Arbuckle's hobo is never an appealing creature, unlike the gifted Charlie Chaplin who was able to make so much more of that sort of character.
This is one you can miss without missing anything.
That's the set-up and it's a thin one on which to hang a plot, even for a short film. This being the Age of Terror, as someone else observed, it's not exactly a "feel good" sort of comedy.
It's hard to recognize SLIM SUMMERVILLE behind the bar and I never did recognize EDGAR KENNEDY as the generous man who offered the cheese. But the sad fact is that Arbuckle's hobo is never an appealing creature, unlike the gifted Charlie Chaplin who was able to make so much more of that sort of character.
This is one you can miss without missing anything.