This is quite simply the funniest of Arbuckle's half dozen Vitaphone shorts. Nothing subtle here - the setup is implausible, the humor crude - but miraculously it brings the house down. It's only a notch below the best of his work with Buster Keaton, namely "Out West" and "Moonshine" and "Back Stage" and might even have benefited from a lack of dialog. But it works.
I like to think of this film as Arbuckle's "Grand Slam Opera." Keaton's 1936 short for Educational Pictures was a summing up of his career to date, a resume on film if you will, letting the industry know he was alive and kicking. Buster lampooned his days at MGM, the Major Bowes "Amateur Hour" radio show, and several of the era's hit films, especially the Jolson/Keeler extravaganza "Go Into Your Dance." Keaton also managed to display all his talents: comedy, singing, dancing, and juggling. (Radio Host: Do you do magic and card tricks too? Keaton: Yeah, but I juggle better.)
Perhaps Keaton was inspired by his buddy Roscoe's effort a few years earlier, in which the star trots out some gags from "The Butcher Boy", juggles props with great dexterity, does a charming Chaplinesque pantomime with dinner utensils, and takes some astonishing and hilarious pratfalls. Not too shabby for a man of 46 who didn't look a day over 35.
By the time this film was released, Keaton was "at liberty," his contract with MGM being terminated in early February of 1933. Arbuckle's series of shorts was a success, and perhaps he and Keaton may have teamed up again. But it was not to be. Roscoe Arbuckle died on June 28, 1933, four days after the release of "How've You Bean?"
It is hard to watch the credit sequence of this and other Arbuckle talkies without a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye. Arbuckle tips his trademark derby, winks at the audience, replaces the lid and suddenly goes deadpan, a clear tribute to his best friend Keaton. One mourns the early loss of this great talent and the wasted years of his friend at MGM and in the Poverty Row wilderness in the thirties. Buster at least lived long enough to have his career revived and to know his place in history was assured.
Roscoe Arbuckle should have been so lucky.
I like to think of this film as Arbuckle's "Grand Slam Opera." Keaton's 1936 short for Educational Pictures was a summing up of his career to date, a resume on film if you will, letting the industry know he was alive and kicking. Buster lampooned his days at MGM, the Major Bowes "Amateur Hour" radio show, and several of the era's hit films, especially the Jolson/Keeler extravaganza "Go Into Your Dance." Keaton also managed to display all his talents: comedy, singing, dancing, and juggling. (Radio Host: Do you do magic and card tricks too? Keaton: Yeah, but I juggle better.)
Perhaps Keaton was inspired by his buddy Roscoe's effort a few years earlier, in which the star trots out some gags from "The Butcher Boy", juggles props with great dexterity, does a charming Chaplinesque pantomime with dinner utensils, and takes some astonishing and hilarious pratfalls. Not too shabby for a man of 46 who didn't look a day over 35.
By the time this film was released, Keaton was "at liberty," his contract with MGM being terminated in early February of 1933. Arbuckle's series of shorts was a success, and perhaps he and Keaton may have teamed up again. But it was not to be. Roscoe Arbuckle died on June 28, 1933, four days after the release of "How've You Bean?"
It is hard to watch the credit sequence of this and other Arbuckle talkies without a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye. Arbuckle tips his trademark derby, winks at the audience, replaces the lid and suddenly goes deadpan, a clear tribute to his best friend Keaton. One mourns the early loss of this great talent and the wasted years of his friend at MGM and in the Poverty Row wilderness in the thirties. Buster at least lived long enough to have his career revived and to know his place in history was assured.
Roscoe Arbuckle should have been so lucky.