Out West 1918

Al StJohn is the local tough outlaw, Wild Bill Hiccup in this thriving western town, Keaton is its dandyish alcoholic saloon owner who's opening gambit is to shoot a card shark he catches cheating at the card table. Arbuckle drifts in aboard a train inexplicably riding in the water tank of the engine. He gets chased along the train roof by three men (one Keaton doubling stunt man) who eventually catch him and throw him from the train in the middle of the desert. Arbuckle subsequently gets chased by Indians who want to capture him for their winter food supply. In his rush to escape from them he runs into town, flinging himself through the bar's swing doors just in time to knock over Hiccup who is robbing the saloon. Arbuckle grabs two guns and shows off his shooting prowess to the assembled crowd. During the gunfight the bar tender is shot and, after seeing off the gang of outlaws, Arbuckle applies for the job which Keaton gladly gives to him.

Some of the customers pick on a young man by shooting at his feet to make him dance for their amusement. A Salvation Army girl comes in collecting money and shames the men for their inhumanity. Arbuckle, needless to say, falls instantly for the girl and they start talking at one end of the bar. Wild Bill Hiccup returns demanding a drink. Arbuckle obliges with a barrage of glasses, which Hiccup drains just as soon as they arrive. The Salvation Army girl continues to collect money in her tambourine, but when she goes up to Hiccup he offers to give her a dollar if she will give him a kiss. She refuses and he grabs the unwilling girl and tries to kiss her by force. This incenses both Arbuckle, because he has a soft spot for her and Keaton, because he doesn’t want any more trouble in the saloon. The two of them try to subdue the outlaw with little success, Arbuckle tries hitting him over the head with a hail of bottles while Buster stands ready to catch the girl, then Arbuckle shoots at him, nothing. Suddenly he finds Hiccup's weak spot, he is ticklish! Keaton and Arbuckle tickle Hiccup mercilessly until he is a quivering wreck on the floor. They eject him from the saloon where he lands vengefully at his gang's feet.

The angered Hiccup tries to abduct the girl by lassoing her through the saloon doors and dragging her outside and, naturally, a gunfight ensues. During the brawl, Hiccup makes his escape back to his cabin with the girl but Arbuckle and Keaton are in hot pursuit. Keaton gets side tracked with a gun fight of his own but Arbuckle reaches the outlaws hideaway just as Hiccup is trying to force the girl to take a drink of alcohol. She sees Arbuckle through the window and he mimes to her to throw the drink in Hiccup's face, this she does. He falls to the floor, the alcohol burning his eyes and Arbuckle disables him completely by tickling his feet through the open window so the girl can make good her escape. They go off together but not before pushing the cabin over the cliff top it was built on.

Keaton's role in this movie is very atypical Keaton he is senselessly violent and to all intents and purposes superficial to the plot. A thoroughly nasty character who thrives on his viciousness.

The Bell Boy 1918

Writing this up. 

Moonshine 1918

I do not have a synopsis of this film yet.

Goodnight Nurse 1918

The copy of the movie I have has practically no subtitles with it and I suspect the first scene(s) is missing as there is no indication what Arbuckle is doing at the location he is.Here though is a synopsis of the fragments I have.

The film opens with Arbuckle dancing in the rain outside a drug store, for some reason every time he tries to enter the owner opens the door and Arbuckle walks away. A little old lady gets blown past the door and Arbuckle does a bit of business with her using her umbrella as a windbreak while he tries to light a sopping wet cigarette. A drunk in evening dress wanders into frame and Arbuckle manages to convince him his cane is an umbrella, then a cop appears and finally a gypsy girl and an organ grinder with monkey. The girl and the man escort Arbuckle to his home where his wife and a young man friend, have been looking at a newspaper advertisement for a cure for alcoholism by surgery. The wife and friend leave the room and the organ grinder and girl come in, all three start dancing around the room which horrifies the wife on her return. The next day Arbuckle is taken to the 'No Hope Sanitarium'. While waiting in the office to register first Keaton comes in dressed as a doctor in a blood soaked white surgical gown and sharpening a carving knife on a steel, then a young woman comes in and throws herself in Arbuckle's arms. He is quite happy with this arrangement, his wife is not! The girl is carried flailing back to her room and Arbuckle and his assistant Al StJohn escort Arbuckle to his room, number 13. Keaton assisted by StJohn attempt to give Arbuckle a medical, Arbuckle puts in several little gags such as tucking an alarm clock under his shirt and putting the stethoscope on it, then he eats the thermometer, which sends his doctor into panic and Arbuckle directly to the operating theatre.

Arbuckle apparently wakes from his surgery alone in his room he is just checking for missing parts when the crazed girl who accosted him earlier comes in. She tells him that she is trying to escape and asks for his assistance. He gladly obliges and together they make their way out of the sanitarium, the girl secreted in a large pillowcase. Naturally, as soon as she is outside, she wants to go back in. Arbuckle throws himself sideways into a convenient pond, which makes the girl thinks he is drowning and she rushes back inside to get help. Meanwhile Arbuckle, makes his own way back into the sanatorium with the aim of re-rescuing the girl, you know, the one who wanted to go back inside once he got her out last time! He is just in time to see one of the larger nurses hanging up her uniform and leave the sanitarium. Arbuckle puts the nurses uniform on and, when he meets Keaton in the corridor starts flirting with him Keaton reciprocates until Arbuckle throws him in a heap on the floor. Put off by this attack Keaton turns his back on Arbuckle who promptly grabs the girl from her room, and they make a run for the door.

Just as they are making good their escape, the nurse returns and sees Arbuckle wearing her uniform. She rips it off him as he runs out of the building hotly perused by Keaton and his orderlies, lucky for Arbuckle he is able to camouflage himself among the contestants in 'The Great Race For Heavyweights" which is passing the sanatorium. One by one the other runners drop out and as each one falls Keaton checks to see if it is Arbuckle, Arbuckle is the last left running and crosses the winning line to win first prize. This does not save him from the sanitarium staff though, they pounce on him and as they shake him… surprise, we find it was all a dream induced by the anaesthetic. The film abruptly stops here and whether there were anymore scenes after Arbuckle awakes on the operating table I am not sure but it does seem to end suddenly.

The Cook 1918No longer survives

A Desert Hero 1919

A copy of this movie was rediscovered, but as yet I do not have a synopsis of it. Keaton has only a small part in it.