Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle brings his silent style of comedy to the Talkies, and Shemp is just getting his start.
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle is finally given a chance at a revival after being cleared of any crimes in the San Francisco incident, only to succumb to a heart attack after six films.
The earliest of the Arbuckle comedies look & feel like his old silent comedies, just with a microphone around to capture the sound. Roscoe's physical talent is well presented here. However after just 3 films the Arbuckle comedies start to loose their unique charm and become typical early sound comedies. Shemp makes a brief appearance as a crazy boy in "CLOSE RELATIONS" but gets a substantial role in "IN THE DOUGH" as a gangster's henchman. The DOUGH comedy is a bit hard to watch, the gangsters are too serious and threatening.
One critique about Roscoe's performance in sound films I would make is that he needed a Voice Coach. While his body is living the comedy, his voice is just speaking the lines with no emotion. He does seem to be more at ease with sound as he progresses, one can only wonder...
The Arbuckle Vitaphones in excellent prints, plus second-banana Shemp Howard. Add 1 star if you like early-talkie comedies
Warner Archive has released all six of Roscoe Arbuckle's talking comedies, filling out the set with 13 Vitaphone shorts featuring (but not starring) Shemp Howard. This is great news for those who enjoy two-reel comedies, and for Three Stooges fans who admire Shemp's improvisational talents. As with most assortments of short subjects, the comedy content varies in style and quality, but the batting average is very good.
The Arbuckle shorts are uneven (in this writer's opinion, two are great, two good, one fair, one disappointing) but Mr. Arbuckle himself is always endearing, enhancing variable slapstick scripts with his pantomime skills, friendly personality, and pleasant baritone speaking voice. His talkie debut, HEY, POP!, is a wonderful two-reeler in which short-order cook Roscoe takes charge of an abandoned boy; Arbuckle blends sentiment and comedy expertly. After the success of this short, Arbuckle became a charter member of Vitaphone's slapstick-comedy brigade and the...
Vitaphone
A must for Fatty Arbuckle fans,his last 6 films, a comic genius, Roscoe still shines great in this collection, too bad he died young, he was on the way to a promising return to the screen. The rest of the disc is fun to watch. This was worth the purchase-good sound and picture quality. I showed this to young kids and they laughed at the comedy of Roscoe,and loved all the shows.
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