A pretty forgettable short from Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, their penultimate effort together. It peaks early with a gag that has Arbuckle apparently picking flowers for his sweetheart (Molly Malone), but then using them to perform a little burial service for an empty whisky bottle. The humor in the love triangle (John Coogan playing the other man) isn't strong, relying mostly on slapstick, but I liked the subversiveness in the cop being one stealing the money, especially for 1919.
Buster gets in a few moments relying on camera tricks, like taking the horses back to the stable (the team then move in reverse motion backwards) and getting pummeled by the cop (shot faster with a reduced frame rate, emphasizing the violence). Dropping off a big ladder tipping over into a horse drawn carriage was pretty neat too. I wish the magic act had been expanded on instead of the extended bit with Arbuckle's onion breath, but the resolution of the latter was amusing.
According to James Curtis in his biography of Keaton, one of the reasons Buster was downplayed here was that Arbuckle was determined to play a more rounded character, and even the advertising for the film reflected this (it read in part "He's Human," with a picture of him hugging Luke the dog). This almost certainly had to do with him wanting to grow as an artist and begin playing in feature-length films, as opposed to two-reelers, which he would begin doing a year later in The Round-Up (1920). In this short I think this more "rounded" character not only reduced Keaton's impact, but also took away from Arbuckle's performance, which was missing his usual dark comedic edge. All in all it's not bad, but a bit lacking.
Buster gets in a few moments relying on camera tricks, like taking the horses back to the stable (the team then move in reverse motion backwards) and getting pummeled by the cop (shot faster with a reduced frame rate, emphasizing the violence). Dropping off a big ladder tipping over into a horse drawn carriage was pretty neat too. I wish the magic act had been expanded on instead of the extended bit with Arbuckle's onion breath, but the resolution of the latter was amusing.
According to James Curtis in his biography of Keaton, one of the reasons Buster was downplayed here was that Arbuckle was determined to play a more rounded character, and even the advertising for the film reflected this (it read in part "He's Human," with a picture of him hugging Luke the dog). This almost certainly had to do with him wanting to grow as an artist and begin playing in feature-length films, as opposed to two-reelers, which he would begin doing a year later in The Round-Up (1920). In this short I think this more "rounded" character not only reduced Keaton's impact, but also took away from Arbuckle's performance, which was missing his usual dark comedic edge. All in all it's not bad, but a bit lacking.