“The Butcher’s Assistant” ( The Butcher Boy ) is a short mute comedy featuring trinity of comic actors: the then-popular Roscoe Arbuckle, Arbuckle's nephew, who played in many of Uncle Al St. John’s works and first appeared on the screen in a small role, subsequently the great comedian Baster Keaton .
| Butcher's assistant | |
|---|---|
| The butcher boy | |
 | |
| Genre | comedy |
| Producer | Roscoe Arbuckle |
| Producer | Joseph Schenk |
| Author script | Roscoe Arbuckle Joseph Anthony Roach |
| In the main cast | Roscoe Arbuckle Buster Keaton Al St. John |
| Operator | Frank D. Williams |
| Film company | Comique film company for Paramount pictures |
| Duration | 30 minutes |
| A country |  USA |
| Tongue | silent movie English (intertitles) |
| Year | 1917 |
| IMDb | |
Content
Story
The film tells about the rivalry between fat (Fatti - actor Roscoe Arbuckle ) and thin (Slim - actor El St. John ) for the love of pretty Amanda, the daughter of the owner of a rural store.
In the first part of this short comedy, the action begins to develop in a small shop where Fatti, being the seller of the meat department, makes truly juggle numbers, cutting meat and packing sausages. Just as quickly and easily, he serves incoming customers, sometimes being somewhat rude with them, but by the way, no one is offended. One of Fatti's clients was Malek (the first role in the movie of Buster Keaton ), who went to buy molasses, and here some funny episodes were played when Malek was no, no, and he sticks to this molasses. When Fatti begins to flirt with pretty Amanda, the jealous senior salesman Slim enters into a hassle with him. After the ongoing quarrels of their employees and due to damage to the store, the owner of the shop Grush ("Bryuzga") is forced to send his daughter Amanda out of sight to the guesthouse.
In the second part of the film, Fatti, wanting to penetrate her beloved Amanda, dresses in a woman’s dress and posing as a girl is recorded in a girl’s boarding house. Unaware of his rival’s plans, Slim does the same. So, having met inside the hostel two mummers “girls” make a real commotion, again clinging to each other. Fatti, of course, becomes the winner, and at the end of the film, he suggests Amanda to get married.
Cast
- Roscoe Arbuckle - Fat Man (Fatti)
- Al St. John - Slim, Senior Salesman
- Buster Keaton - Malek, buyer
- Josephine Stevens - Amanda
- Arthur Earl - Pear - "Bruise", Amanda's father and shopkeeper
- Joe Bordeaux is an accomplice
- Charles Dudley - (uncredited)
- Alice Lake - (uncredited)
- Agnes Nielson - Miss Tichem, teacher (uncredited)
Making a movie
Like all Arbuckle / Keaton short films from 1917-1918 , the film was shot without any ready-made script. Arbuckle and his team simply rented a room for shooting, and everything was invented and improvised during the process, until Arbuckle was satisfied with the shot [1] . And the scriptwriters Arbuckle and Roach indicated in the credits of the film are simply those from the group who made the greatest number of proposals and ideas during the filming.
Buster Keaton , whose work in stage vaudeville liked Arbuckle , was simply invited to watch the shoot, but during the process was involved in staging for improvisation [1] . So his film debut took place and Keaton's long-standing friendship with Arbuckle and his nephew Al St. John began . Together they will work more than once. Keaton will be one of the few who, during the famous 1922 trial of Arbuckle , and after him, will support the disgraced actor.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 IMDb-Trivia
Josephine Stevens and Roscoe Arbuckle in a frame from the film | Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton in a frame from the film |
Links
- The Butcher’s Assistant on the Internet Movie Database
- The Butcher's Assistant on the allmovie website
- Butcher's Assistant (1917) on YouTube
Literature
- Buster Keaton , Charles Samuels. "My wonderful world of farce." - M .: The cognitive book +, KRPA "Olympus", 2002. - 368 p. - ISBN 5-05-005129-0 .
- Kirill Vinokurov. “Comedians. Great and forgotten. " - M .: AST, 2008 .-- ISBN 978-5-17-053644-3 .
- Kevin Brownlow . Pioniere des Films. Vom Stummfilm bis Hollywood. Basel und Frankfurt am Main 1997 (English) , ISBN 3-87877-386-2 .