Oh Doctor!

Roscoe Arbuckle's comedic persona has none of the sweetness or vulnerability of the giants who would dominate the decade following his own heyday - Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd. I mean, he sticks a tie pin into his son's leg to make him scream in pain and divert his wife's attention so he can sit next to a woman who's flirting with him, for god's sake, and that's not the only abuse he doles out. He gambles at the racetrack, using beer bottles for binoculars and gripping the legs of both his wife and another woman in his excitement. He dispenses potent alcoholic beverages while making a house call as a doctor more readily than medicine. There is an impish malevolence in his mischievous grin as he tries to cheat on his wife, walking into a trap set up by a couple of thieves to rob his wife of her necklace while he's doing so. There is also darkness in a funeral home asking a doctor for a list of his critically ill patients, and the doctor turning his unmanned car loose upon a crowd of pedestrians to scatter them and then distribute his business card.

Arbuckle is probably harder to like over a century later or maybe he's just an acquired taste, but I started to see his appeal in this, his 4th film with young protégé Buster Keaton. He's like a dark libidinous force, unafraid of what you may think of him. When his wife kicks him out of frustration at the end, he kicks her back - there is no syrupy redemptive arc at work here, which I actually appreciated. Plus, you get Buster at 22 playing a child, crying and expressing frustration before trying to track the bad guys down. The names are amusing too, Dr. I. O. Dine, M. Balm Moribund & Co. Funerals and Interments, and Digger O. Graves. This two-reeler won't be for everyone, but I thought it was a decent way to spend 24 minutes.

Buster Keaton's fourth film and credited as containing his most animated facial expressions while playing Fatty Arbuckle's son appears in September 1917's "Oh Doctor!" Distribution company Paramount Pictures was so impressed with Arbuckle's Keystone Studio movies its executives offered Roscoe in late 1916 his own comedy studio under the name Comique Film Corporation as well as giving Fatty full control over his productions. Arbuckle agreed, and set up his studio on 318 East 48th Street, Manhattan (which is now an indoor parking garage). Arbuckle made 21 films from 1917 to 1919 under the Paramount umbrella, using the studio for interior filming while locating in New Jersey's countryside for his bucolic exterior sequences.

Keaton plays Arbuckle's son in "Oh Doctor!" a role which requires quite a range in visual expressions for the usually Stone Faced comedian. Fatty, meanwhile, plays in one of his standard adultery roles where he all too often wanders off the marriage path seeking variety. As a doctor, Roscoe is extra friendly to one particular female patient, who, with her husband, turn the tables to heist one of the doctor wife's prized necklaces. Arbuckle's disguise as a policeman to reclaim the necklace causes a great amount of on-screen amusement.

Though much of it is rather silly, "Oh Doctor!" has some good material too, and it is generally entertaining. The story is goofy and implausible, but it is told and played with verve by a pretty good cast. 'Fatty' Arbuckle plays a pretty disreputable character who is not really sympathetic, yet Arbuckle's good-natured energy is enough to make you hope that things will turn out all right for "Dr. Fatty". Buster Keaton's performance as the doctor's son (mostly a foil for 'Fatty') is rather interesting, because it is the exact opposite of the stoic manner that he adopted in his own later pictures - his performance here is even more exaggerated than in some of the other short features he made with Arbuckle.

The story hops around between a number of settings, and without a good cast it might not have worked very well. But the different settings do give rise to some worthwhile comedy material. There are a good number of Arbuckle/Keaton shorts that are better, but "Oh Doctor!" is still worth seeing if you enjoy the lively antics of Arbuckle & company.

Roscoe Arbuckle plays a rude family man who argues bitterly with his wife and pushes around his young son (played by a twenty-one year old Buster Keaton!). When he is lured in by a greedy vamp who, along with her thieving cohort played by Al St. John, his wife's jewels are endangered, in addition to Arbuckle's own finances, which are all at stake in a horse race.

Oh Doctor! is one of Arbuckle's stronger efforts, with more of a coherent plot and character-based gags. Arbuckle plays a truly horrendous person, which is funny in a dark way. Al St. John seems to be a love or hate performer in my circles, but he's great here as the scheming conman. Folks used to Buster Keaton's stoic manner will be shocked to see him mug so here, crying and laughing and whining with his mouth gaping open at its fullest capacity. Especially hilarious when you read interviews of his from the 1950s and 1960s in which he proclaimed he could not smile in front of a camera ever. That's show business, kiddos.

Oh Doctor (1917)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Dr. Fatty gets in trouble when a woman he flirts with turns out to be a thief with his wife's jewelry on her mind. The best aspect is Buster Keaton playing Fatty's son and being constantly abused by daddy.

His Wedding Night (1917)

** (out of 4)

Fatty once again has to fight for the woman he wants to marry. Going through these films in order I've noticed that each one basically has the same storyline and always has a food fight. This is getting a tad bit boring but Buster Keaton has a small role and brings some laughs.

Out West (1918)

*** (out of 4)

Spoof of the western genre has Fatty Arbuckle landing in a small town being over run by thugs. Buster Keaton plays the timid sheriff. There are minor laughs throughout the film but it really works due to its wonderful charm and the fact that the spoofs work for westerns even made within the past few decades. There's some off colored racial humor, which might insult some.