The Hayseed 1919

The opening sub-title tells us that Arbuckle works in the 'general-store-post-office-and-community-center'. Buster has the stable job. Keaton's style is beginning to develop and has several very typical gags in this film. As the film opens he is seen oiling the joints of Arbuckle's horse with an oil can, later one of Keaton's gracefully geometric spatial acrobatics is used. Buster escapes from a rooftop on the end of an arcing ladder, which deposits him with perfect accuracy in Arbuckle's buggy.

The opening has Arbuckle preparing to deliver the mornings mail, Buster, after finishing oiling the horse goes about his duty of sweeping the street out front of the store. Buster and Arbuckle become entangled and begin hitting each other over the head with the mail. The post office manager comes out to stop the fighting and becomes caught up in it too. There are some nice acrobatic falls in this sequence. Arbuckle eventually sets off to deliver the mail, here Keaton has used the same technique he devised for the knife catching sequence of Al StJohn's for Arbuckle's mail throwing abilities straight into the mail slots. He casually throws the letters at the box and they slide effortlessly in. Nothing stops the mail save Arbuckle's girlfriend, he makes a point if delivering her mail by hand. He also examines her letters as he gives them to her, on this occasion one looks as if it is from a secret admirer. She goes around the back of her house to show the letter to her mother, Arbuckle follows her determined to know whom it is from. She is not going to tell him and runs off to hide in an open roofed hay barn. Arbuckle decides to play hide-and-seek with her and he hides in a pile of hay. While she is searching for him the sheriff, his arch rival for her hand arrives, and she becomes sidetracked forgetting about Arbuckle. Meanwhile he has gone to sleep in his hiding place waiting for her to find him. Her father thrusting a pitchfork into the hay pile rudely awakens him. Arbuckle returns to the store dejected.

Keaton stands to attention with his broom as Arbuckle returns and orders Keaton to put the horse back into the stable, which he does, with the aid of some film reversal. Arbuckle goes inside the store's office cum sitting room to sort the newly arrived mail, amongst it is a letter insured for $300. The sheriff arrives too and hears Arbuckle discussing it with his manager. The store phone rings, Arbuckle leaves the office to answer it in the store, it is a lady ordering cheese, the store manager also leaves the office, neither of them notice the sheriff lurking in a corner. The sheriff sneaks into the office and steams open the letter with a conveniently boiling kettle, he pockets the valuable contents reseals the envelope and returns it to the pile of mail. Unbeknown to him Keaton is watching through the window and as he leaves the premises Keaton confronts him. The sheriff tries to buy Buster's silence, but Buster refuses, the sheriff punches him repeatedly in the face and walks off with the threat that next time he'll get tough.

Arbuckle's girlfriend comes into the store, there is also another young lady there who has just become engaged and is showing of her ring. Arbuckle's girlfriend asks him if he would buy her a ring like that, he promptly gets out a costume jewelry catalogue and mails in an order for a ring to be "the same size as just past the third wart on the enclosed pickle". He also orders a suit and gets Buster to measure him for it. Meanwhile the sheriff has taken the girl into the office and presents her with a real diamond ring bought with the money stolen from the envelope. She is very impressed and wants to tell every one, the sheriff tells her it would be better to keep it a secret. The ring Arbuckle has ordered arrives and he too takes the girl into the office to present it to her. The sheriff is watches through the window and is furious that she is happier to receive Arbuckle's ring than his. The sheriff decides to go off in pursuit of other women, they he presumes, will be an easy catch now that he is flush with money. He starts with two ladies leaving the store, but Buster dampens his ardor by tipping a bucket of water over them from the store roof. He just happened to be there! A fight begins with Keaton tipping down bucket after bucket of water onto the sheriff and the sheriff throwing large objects back up at Buster who accidentally tips a bucket on the store manager who has come out to see what the fuss is about. Making a hurried escape Buster tips the ladder over and swings down on top of it landing perfectly next to Arbuckle who is passing by in the store's buggy.

That weekend there is a dance at the store all are there, Arbuckle steals away into the office with the girl while some of the towns perform an impromptu entertainment. Buster does a magic act producing a rabbit out of thin air, although when his assistant turns his back to the audience we see the air was not so thin, the rabbit is in a harness clipped to his back. Next the sheriff tries his hand at entertaining, he appears to be a rather eccentric dancer. Arbuckle is next and due to sing, Buster goes in search of him and finds him in the office where some food has been laid out. Arbuckle tells him his voice has given out and he won't be able to sing tonight. Keaton suggests a remedy, munching on onions may help, Arbuckle gives it a try. The Master of Ceremonies announces "Fatty, who's aires can make anybody cry." A truer word was never spoken, no sooner does Arbuckle begin singing and his oniony breath has everyone in tears. The sheriff is jealous of Arbuckle's apparent success and he stands up telling everyone that Arbuckle stole the money from the envelope. Arbuckle proclaims his innocence to the assembled crowd, but they all turn away in apparent disgust… It is the onion breath again. Arbuckle is dejected, even the store's dog rejects him. The sheriff goes to arrest Arbuckle but Buster spills the beans and all is well. Arbuckle gets the girl and the dog gets to chase the sheriff all the way out of town.

Back Stage 1919 

This film has the Keaton mark on it from start to finish this and 'The Garage' are Keaton and Arbuckle's final collaborations together before Keaton got his own studio. Here we see the first real Keaton opening which he used again and again. The illusion of deception, the actuality of the situation gradually revealed to us, not as we had thought.

Keaton is asleep in bed and being rudely awakened by three men, he is apparently being evicted from his home. They not only remove the furniture but also start taking the walls down too, the revelation, Buster has been asleep on a stage set which is now being struck. Keaton uses the self-same gag in 'The Playhouse' 1921. In the meantime Arbuckle is putting up a poster for the new show on the wall outside the theatre. An inquisitive child who has the knack of being exactly where Arbuckle is about to go watches him. The child ends up being pasted to the wall after trying Arbuckle's patients just a little too much. Another favourite Keaton gag follows when a flat, leant against the wall partially covers the poster which now, instead or reading "Gertrude McSkinny - Famous star who will - Play - The Little La Undress - First Time Here - Tomorrow at 2 p.m." reads "Skinny - Will - Undress - Here - at 2 p.m." Back in the theatre Keaton uses another one of his gags of deception. He keeps apparently, going up and down a flight of stairs as he disappears behind the banisters into the basement. A stagehand removes the 'banister', which is actually a flat on its side, to reveal Buster walking forward, forced to crouch down more and more to avoid hitting his head on the underside of the flight of stairs directly above him. He is actually going down on his knees to nail something to the stage floor.

The performers start to arrive and more than one of them thinks they should have the star over their door. This is no problem to Buster, he has a star rigged to a system of lines and pulleys for just such occasions, he can move the star from dressing room door to dressing room door with a pull of a string. The eccentric dancer arrives and gives an example of his art which Arbuckle and Keaton try to emulate with little success, he is far above their antics and leaves them in disgust.

Next the strong man arrives with his assistant, a tiny little thing, she also it appears, doubles as his servant. He forces her to carry his bags, she enters with a case under each arm, one in each hand and a fifth between her teeth. The strongman demonstrates further his obnoxious personality by starting to bully Buster while the Arbuckle assists the girl with unpacking his weights. The strongman objects to Arbuckle's help insisting that the girl unpack his trunk herself without any interference from bystanders. The stage crew looks on aghast and decides that the strongman needs teaching a lesson in chivalry. Arbuckle walks up to him, he takes a deep breath and blows Arbuckle's hat into the remaining crew. Buster has a go, he hits the strongman on the head with an ax, but he thinks it is a fly bothering him until he spots Keaton and requests that he stops tickling him. Keaton and Arbuckle hit on a plan. They connect a set of dumbbells to the fuse board and ask the strongman to prove he can lift them, he is unaware of the wires leading from the dumbbells. He can't resist showing off, so he obliges. Keaton throws the switch, knocking the strongman out with the jolt of electricity. Keaton turns the current off again and helps Arbuckle remove the weights from on top of the strongman, unfortunately they fall onto Keaton trapping him against the floor by his neck. Arbuckle isn't strong enough to move them on his own but help is near, the girl picks them up with one hand and walks off with them. The strongman is so angry he persuades the whole cast to walk out on strike with the exception of the girl. The girl suggests the performers aren't needed anyway, they can put on the show themselves, which they proceed to do.

The curtain rises on a room in an Egyptian style palace, Arbuckle is the king and Keaton his queen dressed in a white Grecian style dress and with long flowing curls. They dance wildly as the eccentric dancer who has come to disrupt the performance heckles them. Arbuckle misses catching Keaton as he throws himself across the stage, he is too busy arguing with the heckler, Keaton flies past and lands feet first on the dancer whom leaves. Meanwhile the strongman has also come to cause trouble. He sits in the center of the upper balcony waiting his chance.

The next number is 'Serenade in the Snow', the 'snow' created by Al StJohn throwing liberal handfuls of prop snow from a Boson's chair hanging over the stage. Keaton, the chauffeur and Arbuckle, the passenger/singer walk on stage behind a cardboard cut out car which they are carrying. It is put down and Keaton opens his door, gets out and opens Arbuckle's, he has a ukulele and begins serenading the girl who is looking out of an upper window in a house flat. Keaton takes the car offstage and manages to get it tangled with the flat's supporting braces, suddenly the flat falls over, it's window frame neatly passing over Arbuckle's head. This is the first time the gag, which is developed further in 'One Week' and finally calumniates in the house front falling over Keaton in 'Steamboat Bill Jr.' is used. Arbuckle and Keaton set about righting the flat, (which revealed the girl sitting on top of a tall ladder), they fail and give up, the girl comes down onto the stage while Arbuckle finishes the song. At the end he kisses her which throws the strongman into a jealous rage, he pulls out a gun and shoots at them, the girl falls to the floor wounded. The strongman starts attacking the audience who are trying to restrain him. Arbuckle lowers the Boson's chair, Keaton climbs to the upper level dressing rooms, onto the chair and swings out over the audience, grabbing the strongman round the waist with his legs and pulling him back with him onto the stage. The strongman fights with the stage crew but is knocked out when Arbuckle, who has filled the strongman's trunk with weights, drops it on his head after hauling it to the grid with the Boson's chair's hemp line. The final scene sees Arbuckle visiting the convalescing girl.

The Garage 1919

Another well used Keaton gag opens this film, Arbuckle is cleaning the side window of a car, suddenly he puts his head through it, the window was open all along, Keaton is inside a garage eating his lunch. Arbuckle finishes cleaning the car, which he has polished so well he can see his reflection in the side door. Keaton finishes his lunch and picks up the grease gun hose, the nozzle is gummed up and it won't work, Keaton puts the nozzle on the workbench and hits it with a hammer to clear it. It is no longer bunged up! Grease squirts all over the side of the newly cleaned car much to Arbuckle's anger, he throws his bucket of water at Keaton who in turn kicks a spare tire to him. Arbuckle is now bending over inspecting the damage, the tire bounces off his bottom and rolls back to Keaton who is knocked over. Keaton throws a pie (?) at the car leaving a slippery light coloured mess all over Arbuckle's hard work. Keaton comes out to the car to inspect the damage still carrying the grease gun hose which is squirting grease, Arbuckle and soon Keaton are slipping all over the place in the grease and water. The only reason they keep their jobs is because they are the only mechanics in town… They with the garage owner also double as the firefighters and dogcatchers too.

The owner of the car comes to collect it, Keaton and Arbuckle are thrown into panicked action, Keaton and the garage owner try to entertain the man stalling for time by dancing and performing tricks while Arbuckle tries to clean the car up again. He drives the car onto the garage turntable, switches the turntable's motor on at full speed and hoses down the rapidly spinning car, to dry it, he simply turns on the garage fan. The car owner is happy to see his clean and shiny car delivered safe and sound.

A new customer comes in wanting to rent a car. He gives Arbuckle the rental fee and Arbuckle gets him a car which the man drives off in, well as far as outside the garage anyway. The engine blows up, the man gets out and stands back looking on in astonishment as the car disintegrates before him, (very reminiscent of Keaton's car in 'The Three Ages'), he walks back into the garage for a replacement. The local town Romeo, Jim is on the prowl and visits the garage on the off chance that the owner's daughter might be around, she has fallen for his charms. She is overjoyed to see him and he takes her outside to show her his new car. Arbuckle and Keaton are busy doing an oil change on a car inside the garage with their usual lack of efficiency. The girl and her beau come back inside so he can give her some roses he brought earlier and hidden behind the counter. He holds them behind his back and tells her she cannot have them until she gives him a kiss. She plays hard to get and as the man holds the flowers behind him Keaton, wandering around with a pan of sump oil manages to deposit some on the bouquet. Eventually the girl kisses the man, he gives her the flowers and without looking at them she smells them pressing them close to her face. She is covered in the sump oil. Upset she runs upstairs leaving Jim alone with Arbuckle and Keaton. Arbuckle tries to shake the oil off the flowers inevitably covering the man with it. Keaton joins him in trying to clean the man up but they end up covering him from head to toe in oil. Arbuckle has an idea, use the same method to clean up Jim as he did for the car! They hose the man down glue his feet to the turntable to hold him in place turn the motor on and dry him with the fan. The glue however doesn't hold too well and he is sent flying across the garage floor knocking over the owner who has just slid down the garage/fire department pole.

Determined to get even the Jim visits the owner of a dog act at the local vaudeville show, he offers him $10 to do as he asks. The dog handler lets one of his dogs out to run through the streets and then calls the garage to report a mad dog on the loose. Arbuckle and Keaton chase through the streets after the dog trying to catch it The handler, hiding in a doorway waits for the dog to come to him and instructs him to 'Go chase the boys'. It does, Keaton tries to escape by squeezing through the space in a fence left by a missing plank and gets stuck. The dog goes for his trousers ripping them to shreds, Keaton manages to squeeze through the gap trouserless and makes his way back to the garage using a barrel to cover his modesty. On the way he trips over a paste pot a billposter has left on the ground and the barrel breaks as he falls. The sight of a pantsless Keaton horrifies A middle-aged spinster walking by. She rushes off to find a policeman, Keaton in his panic cuts out the kilt from a Harry Lauder poster that is being pasted on the signboard and holds it in front of himself. The woman arrives back with the policeman who laughs at the woman telling her he can't go around arresting all Scotsmen. Keaton, overconfident in his new found attire does a Highland fling to demonstrate his newly adopted roots but as he spins round all is revealed! Keaton makes his escape rapidly back to the garage.

While Keaton, Arbuckle and the garage owner have been running around town after the dog Jim has been pestering the girl, she is still angry with him for the greasy roses though. He follows her upstairs and she shuts her room door in his face. Suddenly Keaton, Arbuckle and the garage owner return. Jim is trapped upstairs, he tries to make his escape by sliding down the pole but Keaton is climbing up it, Jim's only chance is to hide under one of the beds in the mechanics/firemen's quarters. Keaton and Arbuckle get ready for bed, this entails clipping lines to their nightshirts and bedclothes so that in an emergency the fire bell ringing triggers a system of pulleys stripping their beds and pulling off their nightshirts. Jim, hiding under Keaton's bed needs to get out of the building and fast, he pulls the rope that rings the fire bell. Keaton and Arbuckle are off… straight down the pole and out the garage doors with the hand pulled fire cart. They come to a fork in the road and cannot decide which one to take both wanting to take a different one. Suddenly they notice they do not have their fireman's helmets on, they run back to the garage for them, grab one each and run out again followed by the owner who locks the garage doors after him. Jim is now trapped inside and tries to burn his way out through the doors with a blowtorch, he burns his fingers and drops the blowtorch which rolls under a car setting it and the garage ablaze. Keaton and Arbuckle meanwhile are looking for the fire. They do not know where it is, they climb a small hill to look around for tell tale signs and see it is the garage that is on fire.

They hurry back to put it out, Arbuckle attaches the hose to a fire hydrant and turns it on, the hose has a hole and very little water comes out the end. Arbuckle sits on the hole sealing it, a tram drives over another section of the hose making more holes. Jim is seen at an upstairs window, Keaton, Arbuckle and the garage owner hold out a fire blanket for him to jump into, just as he makes a running jump they spot the girl at another window and move over to save her. Jim jumps landing in a dazed heap on the ground, the girl jumps but she bounces straight up and onto the overhead telegraph wires, suddenly the 12.00 lunch whistle blows and the gathered crowed rush off for their meals leaving Keaton, Arbuckle and the garage owner to rescue her alone. Keaton and Arbuckle climb up the telegraph pole and roll along the wires, they rescue her by making a human chain and lowering her safely to the ground. Now they are stuck up there, but the girl has an idea, she runs around the back of the garage and gets a car. She drives it exactly under Keaton and Arbuckle drop into the back seat, our heroes are safe.