The Bell Boy (1918) User Reviews

some good, some bad

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 11 May 2006]

There were parts of this movie I absolutely loved. The hotel elevator sequences were pretty original and funny--especially when poor Buster got his head stuck--it hurt just watching it! Plus, the amazing trolley sequence at the end of the film was amazing to watch. However, at the same time, the film relied too much on run-of-the-mill slapstick and lacked much of a story. In other words, there was, at times, too much slapping and falling. Also, because Fatty Arbuckle was at the time THE star of the film, many times Buster Keaton just looked lost and his talents were somewhat wasted.

Finally, this was from a video from KINO FILMS called ARBUCKLE AND KEATON Volume 1. The music from this short was particularly bad--just too loud and fast-paced. After a few minutes, I turned the sound off because it was just too distracting.

My favorite Arbuckle-Keaton so far

[claudecat · 8/10 · 5 November 2006]

This is a film I would show to novices as an introduction to silent film. Yes, it has little plot, a few topical jokes that might need explaining, and a few bits that modern audiences might find slow (though hardly any of those). But there's nothing old-fashioned about Arbuckle, Keaton & St. John's jaw-dropping slapstick energy. (This is the first time I appreciated Al St. John, by the way.) I can understand how some people hate the Alloy Orchestra, but they really do get the zany spirit of this movie. I watched it 3 times in a row, and can't wait to buy the DVD so I can see it again.

I really don't see why IMDb is making me add more lines to my beautifully succinct review--I could describe my favorite bits, but why? You'll enjoy them much more if you discover them yourself.

The Double Trouble

[SendiTolver · 7/10 · 26 August 2018]

'The Bell Boy' is one of the best (if not the best) Arbuckle/Keaton collaboration. Arbuckle and Keaton star as bellboys in the lavish hotel with the first rate prices and third rate service. Whenever these two show up there's bound to be trouble. 'The Bell Boy' is not overloaded with slapstick, instead this one has much more subtle humor (signs like 'Painless Shaving, Our Specialty') and more action. The bank robbery scene is great example of well staged physical comedy with wonderful acrobatic elements (Buster Keaton finally got to be in his own element).

'The Bell Boy' is not very typical Arbuckle slapstick but rather humorous action comedy that is recommended to every Buster Keaton fan (and 'Fatty' Arbuckle fans as well).

An average Arbuckle and Keaton short

[gbill-74877 · 6/10 · 3 April 2023]

Relying heavily on less-inventive slapstick shenanigans, The Bell Boy is a pretty average Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton Film. It starts with them as hapless bell boys in a hotel that provides "third rate service at first rate prices." Not much of it is memorable, but I liked Arbuckle rather aggressively cutting a man's hair with giant shears. The guy starts off looking like Rasputin, then Arbuckle turns him into a likeness of first U. S. Grant, then Abraham Lincoln, and finally Kaiser Wilhelm, who Arbuckle proceeds to attack. With America having just entered the war, anti-German sentiment was also expressed in a sign saying the hotel offers French and German Cooking, but now the "and German" part is crossed out. Subtle!

Meanwhile, Buster gets in an amusing moment when he's apparently cleaning the window of a phone booth from the inside, but then sticks his head through where the pane should be. He later relives some of his vaudeville days to use a springboard to stand atop Arbuckle's shoulders, as well as acrobatically leap over a succession of walls at a bank. The whole bank caper plot felt less than cohesive and disjoint, however, as if the original idea of being hotel bell boys simply couldn't be exploited further. The film has a few nice moments with the camera, the first being Cutie Cuticle (lol, Alice Lake) being launched atop a mounted stag's head using reverse motion, and the second a long shot of a horse-drawn tram car detaching itself atop a hill with three men inside, then rolling backwards. Overall, it's watchable, but not amazing.

Silly But Scattered, Arbuckle and Keaton Pull it Together in the End

[drqshadow-reviews · 6/10 · 8 August 2020]

Now filming in Los Angeles, Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton occupy familiar roles: twin slackers working menial day jobs, and doing so very poorly. In this instance, they're a pair of hotel clerks, responsible for scrubbing floors and toting luggage, but also trimming beards and operating heavy machinery. As always, there's a girl involved - object of immediate attention and intense competitive interest - who serves as spark to a set of climactic fireworks.

Arbuckle gives us an entertaining skit involving the barber's chair (transforming a ghastly bearded man into several famous political figures) while Keaton absent-mindedly humiliates an upper-class gentleman with his mop, but the story is scattered and disorganized until the closing moments. That's when the duo (along with their constant supporting man, Al St. John) get mixed up in a bank robbery and literally tear the place down. When it's all over and done with, we find that the bank's in ruins, the hotel ballroom is missing a wall, paper money is casually fluttering through the streets and one of our stars has finally, decisively scored the girl. A big finish for what had otherwise been a rather low-key, by-the-numbers effort.

hotel me true

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 2 December 2019]

"The Bell Boy" features Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton as bellhops in a hotel. Their jobs get complicated by a series of mishaps. It's nothing profound, but I laughed all through it, especially the scenes with the device on the clothesline.

This is only the second Fatty Arbuckle movie that I've seen after "A Reckless Romeo". These shorts aimed to make people laugh and they succeeded. It's particularly good that they launched Buster Keaton's career. Nice, silly stuff. No masterpiece, but enjoyable.

My nominee for the best of the Comique series

[wmorrow59 · 9/10 · 25 October 2005]

In my opinion The Bell Boy is the most enjoyable of all the "Comique" productions starring Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. I'll go farther than that: I think it's one of the best Arbuckle films from any period, and ranks just a notch or two below Keaton's top solo shorts from the 1920s. This is a delightful comedy, free-wheeling and fun, packed with clever routines that display both Buster's and Roscoe's talents to good advantage. Their characters are likable, violence is kept to a minimum, and even Al St. John comes off well. (Luckily, and unlike some of the other Comique shorts, The Bell Boy survives in good condition with decent picture quality and no obvious missing pieces.) It's clear that Buster himself held this effort in high regard, for he continued to reprise its gags throughout his career. In the '30s he reworked entire sections of this film in Love Nest on Wheels, a sound short for Educational that also marked a reunion with Al St. John. And in TV and movie appearances as late as the 1960s, Buster was still polishing invisible panes of glass and mopping the floor from a sitting position, gags that can be traced back to The Bell Boy.

Our setting is the Elk's Head Hotel, which boasts "third-rate service at first-class prices." Roscoe and Buster are bell boys, and Al is the desk clerk. When new manicurist Alice Lake arrives a competition for her attention erupts between the guys, but there's little suspense about the outcome, for she openly prefers Roscoe from the start. Meanwhile, there's plenty of time for goofing around. The most original and unexpected sequence involves a bearded, demonic-looking guest who seeks a shave at the hotel's barber shop. This scene might surprise some viewers when the guest, who initially seems so menacing, proves to be a mincing swish -- watch for Roscoe's quick "fairy" pantomime when the guy isn't looking -- but this sort of risqué humor was not uncommon in the silent era. Things get a little surreal when Roscoe serves as barber, and briskly transforms his customer into the living image of 1) General Grant, 2) Abraham Lincoln, and 3) Kaiser Wilhelm. This comedy has the heady atmosphere of a live-action cartoon, where anything can happen, and the characters seem to be made of unbreakable plastic.

Before you know it we're back in the lobby, where Buster engages in some knockabout with a top-hatted hotel guest (played by his father Joe), and then all the lead players take part in an exquisitely well choreographed routine involving the hotel's faulty elevator, a plank, and a mounted elk head on the wall which winks lewdly at Alice. For most of the film's running time the players are blessedly unencumbered by any sort of plot, and are free to use the hotel setting to stage one great set-piece after another. Towards the end there's a half-hearted attempt to work up a plot about bank robbers, but it's really just a springboard for a wildly staged fight and a frantic chase that ends things on an exhilarating note.

The Bell Boy is available on DVD from both Kino and Image Entertainment. The source material appears to be identical for each of these versions, but the wording of the title cards differs somewhat. More significantly, the musical score supplied by The Alloy Orchestra in the Kino release is so incongruous it practically ruins the movie: it's too raucous in some scenes and inappropriately spooky-sounding in others, and generally calls too much attention to itself. This is precisely what silent film music is NOT supposed to do! But the piano score by Neil Brand heard in the Image release supports the material nicely, so I'd recommend seeking out that version. In any event, this movie is an absolute must for fans of Arbuckle & Keaton, and also an ideal selection for anyone unfamiliar with silent comedy, a newcomer who would like to experience the real thing, demonstrated by experts.

Hotel horrors

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 10 October 2017]

"The Bell Boy" is an American black-and-white silent film from 1918, so this one will have its 100th anniversary already next year, and maybe it already did depending on when you read this review. It was written and directed by Roscoe Arbuckle and he also plays a central character like so many other times. There are several other big names in here from the silent film era, most of all Buster Keaton who collaborated with Arbuckle on several occasions. Add to that Al St. John and you basically have the equivalent to a modern movie starring Pitt, Depp and DiCaprio perhaps. And it is only a short film that runs for slightly over half an hour in the original, bur around 25 minutes in the DVD version. It's all about the comedy really, a great deal of slapstick, lots of chaotic mayhem etc. Of course, the "horrors" I am referring to in the title are just horrors for the staff because of the mess created by the central characters and not really scary or even supernatural creatures. That was Méliès' thing back then perhaps, but not the Americans'. Overall, the film struggles from several perspectives that were common problems back then, too much over the top, not enough intertitles. The historic references (Lincoln e.g.) felt rushed in and really random and pointless. It's only worth seeing for the very biggest fans of the silent era. I cannot agree that this should be considered one of Fatty's most known and most lauded. I give it a thumbs-down.

The Bell Boy was a great comedy starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton

[tavm · 10/10 · 20 July 2009]

This silent comedy short in which Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton play hotel bellboys and Al St. John plays the hotel desk clerk was the funniest of theirs I've seen yet. Plenty of hilarious gags of falling and slipping and missed targets not to mention getting a head stuck in an elevator and Buster getting into a fight with a top-hatted man who happens to be his dad, Joseph! There's also a girl and a bank robbery involved. That bank, by the way, is called "Last National Bank". Since I have to put a few more lines if I actually want this to be submitted, I'll just say how much Mr. Keaton has really come into his own as an accomplished movie comedian under the tutelage of Mr. Arbuckle and sown the seeds of his own solo career. Oh, and like many of these early appearances, he smiles and laughs which is so in contrast of his reputation as The Great Stone Face! So on that note, I heartily recommend The Bell Boy. P.S. The version I watched was on the Image Entertainment "The Best Arbuckle-Keaton Collection" DVD.

Two Great Comics in Fine Form

[Snow Leopard · 7 August 2001]

'Fatty' and Buster are both in fine form in this short feature. It has a couple slow stretches, and many of the scenes are only loosely connected, but it more than makes up for that with some great sequences. The duo of great comics are working as bellboys in a hotel, and they get involved in quite a few scrapes in just half an hour. There are a couple of great gadgets in the hotel that remind you of some of Keaton's later short features, and they get a lot of mileage from them. Watch also for a funny scene where 'Fatty' fills in as a barber. This is old-fashioned manic slapstick, quite unrefined, but if you're a fan of Arbuckle and/or Keaton, it's great stuff.

Good comedy by Roscoe, Buster, Al, Alice, and others.

[weezeralfalfa · 9/10 · 20 August 2018]

Just the year before(1917), Roscoe(he hated being called Fatty) Arbuckle was introduced to veteran vaudeville performer Buster Keaton, who was invited to do a series of mostly 2 reel comedy shorts. Thus, was born perhaps the first famous 2 man comedy team, in which one was fat, and the other skinny or normal. Other examples through the years include Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and Jacky Gleason with Art Carney. Al St. John was also a fixture in these films. With the dawn of talkies, he switched to westerns, eventually becoming Fuzzy: comical sidekick to a number of western heroes, such as Buster Crabb. ......As the bell boys, of coarse, Roscoe and Buster created mayhem in the lobby of the Elkhead Lodge. Roscoe was also the lodge barber. He got a terrifying-looking tall bewhiskered man. First, he made him look like General Grant, then like Abe Lincoln, giving them appropriate hats to heighten the illusion.. .....I especially liked the elevator scene. The elevator moves up and down via a rope tied to a horse. Keaton somehow got his neck caught between the elevator floor and the wall. The horse refuses to budge backwards, so the horseman builds a little fire under the horse. But it only succeeds in burning the rope, causing the elevator to descend with a jolt. This gets Keaton out of his predicament, but Alice was standing on a board partly in the elevator shaft. With the elevator pushing the other end down, Alice was launched up to the mascot elkhead, getting stuck in it's antlers. Keaton went about trying to get her down, and wound up in a predicament, himself......At a dance party, Roscoe has Keaton and Al dress up as robbers. They sneak in the nearby bank, but it's already occupied by real robbers. The 2 groups don't get along. The boys escape through a series of high jumps, but the robbers catch up, and we have a slapstick free for all, until the robbers escape onto a horse-drawn trolley, and go up a steep hill. Somehow, the horse becomes detached, and they go speeding down the hill, running off the end of the track, into the Elkhead Lodge, where another fight ensues.......42 years later Jerry Lewis would make a film also called The Bellhop.......See it at YouTube, or on commercial DVDs

One of the First "Fat And Skinny" Pairings

[springfieldrental · 9/10 · 14 August 2021]

BusterKeaton remembered many of the gags Roscoe Arbuckle drew up in his film, March 1918's "The Bell Boy." The comedic actor used several of them in his much later movies when Buster was on his own. "The Bell Boy" shows the respect Arbuckle had for Keaton's talents in his equal pairing with the relatively-new film actor. This is the first film where the two work as a team--bellhops in a hotel that offers "Third-rate service for first-rate prices." The two formed what can be termed as one of cinema's first "fat and skinny" comedic teams, although the first may be Oliver Hardy and Bobby Ray's 1916 "Plump 'n Run" film.

The action is so breathlessly fast, as in all Arbuckle movies, the viewer is still laughing at one sequence when another follows in mere seconds. The horse-powered elevator, the winking wall-mounted moose head, the foiled bank robbery all are presented in rapid fashion. This film is the only instance where Buster appears with his father, Joe Keaton. His dad had formed years earlier The Three Keatons, which propelled his son into the entertainment business. He's seen as one of the hotel's cliental who constantly gets his hat knocked off, blaming Buster for the maneuver.

Arbuckle

[Michael_Elliott · 10 March 2008]

Bell Boy, The (1918)

** (out of 4)

Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton play bell boy's at a lavish hotel where trouble is always happening. Not too many laughs here, although there are some good stunts involving an elevator as well as a nice scene where a bearded Satan looking guy is transformed into other people by a haircut.

Moonshine (1918)

Not Rated

Fatty and Buster travel into the woods to break up a moonshine ring but are captured by the rednecks. Only fragments of this short are known to exist, which is a shame because what's available is pretty funny. Fatty staging his suicide is the highlight of what's available.