weezeralfalfa Review of The Cook

The Cook (1918)

Roscoe, Buster, Al, Alice and Luke the dog star in a funny 2 reeler.

[8/10 · 20 August 2018]

Just the year before(1917), film comedian Roscoe Arbuckle(he hated to be called Fatty) was introduced to veteran vaudevillian Buster Keaton, and the latter was invited to participate in a series of 2 reeler comedies. Thus was born the first (to my knowledge)of a series of famous 2 man comedy teams, in which one was fat and the other skinny or average. Other examples through the years include Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and Jackie Gleason and Art Carney. In this film, Roscoe continued to employ his nephew Al St. John as a third lead, in this case, as the villain, who danced roughly with Alice, and chased her on the roller coaster by the ocean, causing her to make a high dive into shallow water. With the coming of sound, Al switched to roles in westerns, eventually staring in a long list of B westerns , as Fuzzy, sidekick to several cowboy heroes, including Buster Crabb........In this film, which was lost for decades until a near complete copy was found in an attic in 1999, Roscoe plays a very dexterous restaurant cook, who flips pancakes up in the air and catches them behind his back, then slings them to Keaton, on the other side of the kitchen, who catches them on a plate, to be served. Roscoe does the same with ham and eggs, after bouncing the rotund eggs off the floor. Roscoe even flings cups of coffee across the room, which Keaton catches.......A young lady provides some hooche cooche dancing. Later, Keaton joins her in dancing. Roscoe then dresses himself up with pots and pans and such, with a bowl on his head, and dances a bit.......Al St. John arrives, as 'tough' guy, and dances roughly with Alice, spinning her around, off her feet, until she hits Keaton. Luke, the dog, then locks his jaws on the seat of Al's pants, as Al swings around, as he had done with Alice. Luke finally is induced to let go, so that Al can run outside. But Luke soon chases, as they go round and round a building, until Al quickly scampers up a long ladder. Luke follows , at a slower pace. Surprisingly, that's the end of this scene. .....Next, Roscoe, Keaton, and another man are eating spaghetti, using various methods to tame the stringy mess. One cuts them with scissors. Another cuts thern with an egg beater. Eventually, Al, followed by Luke, fall in the middle of this springy table, Luke having chased Al to the roof(like a continuation of the previous scene)......Next, Roscoe gets out his absurdly long fishing pole, and rides, with Luke, in a goat-pulled cart to the ocean for some surf fishing. Along the way, he knocks some people down with his pole. Meanwhile, Alice rides in another goat-pulled cart, to the adjacent amusement park. She gets on the roller coaster, alone, but villainous Al gets on the next car, and chases her. At a peak, she gets off and climbs to a vantage point above the ocean, and dives off. Rosco and Keaton busy themselves trying to find rope or lifesaver, as they don't seem to swim. Finally, they steal a rope, tie one end around Roscoe, while Keaton jumps off the pier with the other end. Roscoe gets pulled into the water. We don't find out if they saved Alice.......See it on YouTube or commercial DVD.