Fatty and Minnie He-Haw

source: Fatty and Minnie He-Haw

This is not a great piece of film comedy from Roscoe Arbuckle: good work, but not the eye-popping work he would do the following year. Nonetheless, there are a few good gags, particularly when he and Minnie and trying to kiss, but their bellies get in the way. Still, there is almost always something interesting in Arbuckle's work. First, I am struck by his characterization in the movie as cowardly and lecherous in a way that reminds me of Bob Hope's best work in the 1940s... which made me think of THE PALEFACE... Hope's version, not that of Arbuckle's pupil and friend, Buster Keaton. Second, this movie shows Arbuckle's wife, Minta Durfee, at her most adorable. Third, one piece of camera-work that I have never seen before: when Durfee, Arbuckle and Minnie move between the Indian camp and town, they are shown in distant silhouette: smaller than the way John Ford would typically shoot people but larger than, say, William Wyler would shoot people in THE BIG COUNTRY. Somehow, in this movie, this is irresistibly funny. I can't tell you why. If you can tell me, please do.