Buzzin' Around

This is one of a handful of Fatty Arbuckle movies made as his return to starring in two reelers, now in sound.

The movie has ots of pantomie with sound effects, but it also has speaking roles, including Fatty.

It's directed by a seasoned director who specialized in two reel comedies but also directed Laurel & Hardy in a couple of their best films (and one of their worst).

Pete the Dog from the Little Rascals is also in this.

The movie has a lot of decent gags and although Fatty is a bit aged and a bit slower, he's still pretty funny. I enjoyed it as a curio piece.

Filmed around the Vitagraph/Warner Studios in Brooklyn, NY.

Buzzin' Around (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The second film in Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's comeback has him playing a farm boy who creates a special liquid that when applied to dishes makes them unbreakable. He goes to take this into the city so that he can make some major cash but he ends up taking the wrong stuff and all sorts of trouble follows. BUZZIN' AROUND isn't a masterpiece and it can't hold a candle next to the classic Arbuckle pictures but for the most part I found it to be mildly entertaining thanks in large part to the star. He manages to really come across as likable, which is something that made his silent pictures so entertaining. You certainly believe him as this farm boy who creates this special chemical and we're given several funny situations where Arbuckle simply gets to use his charm for laughs. I think the highlight of the picture is when he gets his car attached to that of a rich man and what follows is certainly full of laughs. Another funny sequence involves what happens once he finally gets to the location wanting to buy his chemical. The weirdest moments are at the start of the picture when Arbuckle comes under attack from bees. The special effects, using animation, are weak to say the least but at the same time you've never really seen this type of comedy attempt. Al St. John is good as well in his supporting role.

Roscoe Arbuckle has invented a liquid that, when painted on pottery, makes it bounce instead of breaking. He's on his way into town to show it off to manufacturers. However, Al St. John has accidentally switched a jar of hard cider for the invention, and a nest of angry wasps has fallen into Roscoe's car on the way in.

It's a funny and old-fashioned comedy, full of slapstick and sight gags, and sound gags too. More than that, it was a way back for Arbuckle, who had been banned from appearing in the movies after he had been acquitted of murdering Virginia Rappe. Yes, that's right, acquitted, with an apology from the jury. For more than ten years he had worked as a comedy director under a false name. Now Warner Brothers was giving him a chance to appear in front of the camera again in six shorts.

Thankfully Hollywood forgave Arbuckle in time that he was able to make 6 talking shorts before passing away. I gave this short a 9. It is not hilariously funny for a modern audience but probably as good or better than any other shorts of it's day and does have it's moments. You can tell his ordeals have taken their toll on him as a man, but Arbuckle still had the knack of being funny. The scene where the doctor examines him after swallowing a bee is very funny indeed. One reviewer here mentioned that Arbuckle was a long time heroin addict by the time this film was released. I have read about everything there is on Arbuckle and have never heard that from any other source and do not believe it for a second. Arbuckles alcoholism was well known but that hardly made him a heroin addict. I would like to know where the reviewer got that info.

"Buzzin' Around" is the funniest (and most action-packed) of the six Vitaphone shorts which comprise Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's entire talking-picture career. (Of the other five, "Close Relations" and "In the Dough" are only a whisker less funny than "Buzzin' Around".)

More significantly, "Buzzin' Around" features the ONLY team-up of Roscoe Arbuckle and Al St John in a sound film. St John was Arbuckle's nephew, who got into films (at Keystone) with Arbuckle's help. A natural athlete and acrobat, St John did some virtuoso pratfalls and daredevil stuntwork in many silent films for Keystone and other studios ... usually in support of other comedians, but also (with less success) in his own starring series. When Arbuckle starred in his own series of silent comedies at the Comique studio, Al St John came along and did dazzling work as Arbuckle's third banana (seconded by Buster Keaton).

Throughout their silent-film collaborations, Al St John nearly always played Arbuckle's rival ... usually for the affections of the girl. The first time I saw "Buzzin' Around", I expected them to play rivals or enemies here. To my delight, I was wrong. In this movie, Arbuckle and St John are working towards a mutual goal, although mostly in separate scenes. Roscoe plays Cornelius, a hayseed who has invented a varnish which renders pottery unbreakable. He goes off to the big city to demonstrate his invention to some investors, but the varnish has vanished and he accidentally brings along the family's moonshine jug instead of the jug containing his varnish. When St John discovers this, he grabs the proper jug and goes off to rescue Roscoe. But then the two jugs (and the two jugheads) get mixed up with a hive full of bees. Oh, beehive yourself! The precise relationship between the characters played by Roscoe and Al in this film is never explained; they live together in a hillbilly shanty and are apparently brothers, or possibly cousins. Cue the theme from "Deliverance".

It's a joy to see Arbuckle and St John playing allies for once, in their last appearance together. They both do dazzling pratfalls during the climax of this movie, although they appear separately in most of the footage. After this film, alas, Al St John's career dwindled into supporting roles in cheap westerns, and Arbuckle died tragically young.

The "bees" in this movie are actually animation, but they are extremely well drawn and animated, and look quite realistic. Silent-film veteran Arbuckle uses sound quite effectively, especially in a sequence in which Cornelius has swallowed a bee, and weird buzzing sounds replace Arbuckle's voice.

One footnote, or paw-note: In this film, Arbuckle and St John appear alongside a dog named Pete who is a dead ringer for Pete the dog in the 'Our Gang' comedies, including the ring round his left eye. I'm positive that this is NOT the same dog, though he has clearly been made up to look like the original.

IMDb reviewer Ron Oliver has called this film Arbuckle's final curtain call. Not quite. "Buzzin' Around" was the second of Arbuckle's six Vitaphone shorts: it was, however, the last of his films released during Arbuckle's lifetime. The third ("How've You Bean?") was released less than a week after Arbuckle's sudden death. The sixth and last, "Tomalio", is by far the least funny.

"Buzzin' Around" benefits from some interesting location work in a semi-rural section of Brooklyn near Coney Island. "Buzzin' Around" is required viewing for anyone who cares about American film comedy. Rate it ten out of ten: no; let's cheat and rate it an eleven. Make every possible effort to see this hilarious short movie.