After starring in a very successful and popular series of short comedies released by Paramount, 'The Round-Up' was Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle's first feature film. And it's a surprising choice ... because 'The Round-Up' is a straightforward Western, not a comedy. Arbuckle supplies a small amount of comedy relief -- he falls off a horse, and does his rolling-papers gag -- and Buster Keaton (unbilled) does one spectacular pratfall that's more astonishing than funny ... and that's it. This film is not a comedy; it's unlike anything Arbuckle had done previously, although he still retains his "Fatty" sobriquet in the opening credits.
Paramount's decision to cast Roscoe Arbuckle in this vehicle may have been influenced by the fact that 'The Round-Up' had formerly been a popular stage play, starring the actor Maclyn Arbuckle ... no relation to Roscoe.
I was horrified to discover that the title of this film refers to human beings. The critters being "rounded up" are Red Indians: 'renegades' who were supposed to get off this particular parcel of Arizona land because white men want it. Buck McKee (Wallace Beery) is scorned as a 'half-breed' -- half white, half Red Indian -- and everyone assumes that he's just automatically no good. As played brilliantly by Beery (surprisingly slim and virile at this point), McKee is indeed a rotten piece of work, guilty of murder and grand larceny ... but perhaps he turned evil because everyone treated him that way to begin with.
I have a very low threshold for Westerns: I tend to enjoy the epics such as 'High Noon' but I tend to dislike the routine oaters. Matters are not helped in 'The Round-Up' by its dialogue: everyone speaks (in the intertitles) in that horrible cowpoke dialect, with generic situations expressed in cowhand metaphors. Two characters who want to marry are "aimin' to get hitched". Another character notes: "I'm powerful hungry. Can you rustle me some grub?" And nobody can just do something: they have to "reckon" they'll do it. The narrative intertitles are nearly as bad as the dialogue intertitles, with lots of sub-Zane Grey purple sage.
Arbuckle, to his credit, gives a strong dramatic performance in the lead role. He's the sheriff, and because of his girth the local varmints regard him as a joke. Even his name suggests a punchline: Arbuckle's character is cried William Henry Harrison Hoover, nicknamed 'Slim'. And yet Slim Hoover repeatedly demonstrates that he can out-bluff, out-fight and out-shoot anyone who makes trouble. Arbuckle is absolutely and stunningly believable in this straight hero role.
The real problem here is the script. There are something like eight different subplots, most of which are deeply uninteresting. For a Western, this movie has very little roping or riding or shooting. This film offers many spectacular desert vistas, but I suspect that some of these were glass shots or mattes rather than actual tableaux. Some of the landscapes in 'The Round-Up' resemble Monument Valley.
Arbuckle brings a great deal of pathos to his character. Time and again, Slim Hoover has fallen in love with some woman who has moved into his frontier settlement, only to see some other man win her affection. The movie ends with massive Arbuckle heaving a massive sigh as he turns his back to the camera and comments rhetorically: 'Aw, what's the use. Nobody loves a fat man.'
'The Round-Up' was in release in 1921 when the scandal broke that destroyed Arbuckle's career, amid false rumours that he had raped an actress and caused her death. During a screening of 'The Round-Up' at the Maverick Theatre in Thermopollis, Wyoming, cowboys arrived on horseback and shot up the screen, declaring that Arbuckle wasn't "fittin'" to be allowed near American womanhood. They then seized the film from the production booth and burnt it in the street! This incident turned out to be a stunt cooked up by that cinema's manager, but the damage was done. Public opinion swiftly turned against Arbuckle. Nobody loves a fat man, indeed.
I'll rate 'The Round-Up' 6 out of 10. I'm tempted to rate it higher, but that's probably just a pity vote for what happened to Arbuckle afterward.
Paramount's decision to cast Roscoe Arbuckle in this vehicle may have been influenced by the fact that 'The Round-Up' had formerly been a popular stage play, starring the actor Maclyn Arbuckle ... no relation to Roscoe.
I was horrified to discover that the title of this film refers to human beings. The critters being "rounded up" are Red Indians: 'renegades' who were supposed to get off this particular parcel of Arizona land because white men want it. Buck McKee (Wallace Beery) is scorned as a 'half-breed' -- half white, half Red Indian -- and everyone assumes that he's just automatically no good. As played brilliantly by Beery (surprisingly slim and virile at this point), McKee is indeed a rotten piece of work, guilty of murder and grand larceny ... but perhaps he turned evil because everyone treated him that way to begin with.
I have a very low threshold for Westerns: I tend to enjoy the epics such as 'High Noon' but I tend to dislike the routine oaters. Matters are not helped in 'The Round-Up' by its dialogue: everyone speaks (in the intertitles) in that horrible cowpoke dialect, with generic situations expressed in cowhand metaphors. Two characters who want to marry are "aimin' to get hitched". Another character notes: "I'm powerful hungry. Can you rustle me some grub?" And nobody can just do something: they have to "reckon" they'll do it. The narrative intertitles are nearly as bad as the dialogue intertitles, with lots of sub-Zane Grey purple sage.
Arbuckle, to his credit, gives a strong dramatic performance in the lead role. He's the sheriff, and because of his girth the local varmints regard him as a joke. Even his name suggests a punchline: Arbuckle's character is cried William Henry Harrison Hoover, nicknamed 'Slim'. And yet Slim Hoover repeatedly demonstrates that he can out-bluff, out-fight and out-shoot anyone who makes trouble. Arbuckle is absolutely and stunningly believable in this straight hero role.
The real problem here is the script. There are something like eight different subplots, most of which are deeply uninteresting. For a Western, this movie has very little roping or riding or shooting. This film offers many spectacular desert vistas, but I suspect that some of these were glass shots or mattes rather than actual tableaux. Some of the landscapes in 'The Round-Up' resemble Monument Valley.
Arbuckle brings a great deal of pathos to his character. Time and again, Slim Hoover has fallen in love with some woman who has moved into his frontier settlement, only to see some other man win her affection. The movie ends with massive Arbuckle heaving a massive sigh as he turns his back to the camera and comments rhetorically: 'Aw, what's the use. Nobody loves a fat man.'
'The Round-Up' was in release in 1921 when the scandal broke that destroyed Arbuckle's career, amid false rumours that he had raped an actress and caused her death. During a screening of 'The Round-Up' at the Maverick Theatre in Thermopollis, Wyoming, cowboys arrived on horseback and shot up the screen, declaring that Arbuckle wasn't "fittin'" to be allowed near American womanhood. They then seized the film from the production booth and burnt it in the street! This incident turned out to be a stunt cooked up by that cinema's manager, but the damage was done. Public opinion swiftly turned against Arbuckle. Nobody loves a fat man, indeed.
I'll rate 'The Round-Up' 6 out of 10. I'm tempted to rate it higher, but that's probably just a pity vote for what happened to Arbuckle afterward.
