The Bell Boy

The Bell Boy
The Bell Boy
Directed by	Roscoe Arbuckle
Written by	Roscoe Arbuckle
Starring	Roscoe Arbuckle; Buster Keaton
Cinematography	Elgin Lessley; George Peters
Edited by	Herbert Warren
Production; company	Comique Film Company
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	March 18, 1918;
Running time	33 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Bell Boy is a 1918 American two-reel silent comedy film directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle for the Comique film company.^[2]

The Bell Boy (1918) by Roscoe Arbuckle

The film stars Arbuckle and Buster Keaton as bellboys in the Elk's Head Hotel. Much of the material in the film was later re-used by Keaton in his 1937 film Love Nest on Wheels. One sequence involving a mop was reused by Keaton in one of his last film appearances in The Scribe.

Plot

Arbuckle and Keaton play a pair of incompetent bellhops who are constantly careless with guest's luggage and slack on the job. One morning a new customer, who resembles Rasputin the Mystic, arrives at the hotel asking for a shave and Arbuckle, being a skilled barber, is happy to oblige. He cuts his hair and facial hair in a way which first makes him resemble Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln and finally Kaiser Wilhelm (America had entered World War I only months earlier). His attention is soon turned, as is Keaton's, to an attractive new hotel manicurist, Cutie Cuticle, and they begin to bicker and fight over her. While Arbuckle finishes dealing with Rasputin, Keaton gets stuck in the hotel elevator, and while attempting to free him, Arbuckle accidentally propels Cutie into the air and onto a moose head mounted on the wall. The bellboys both rescue her, but Fatty takes all the credit and scores himself a date with Cutie.

In order to make himself look even more heroic, Arbuckle arranges for Keaton and the hotel clerk to pretend to rob the town bank so that Arbuckle can show up on the scene and apprehend them in front of Cutie. However, when Keaton and the clerk arrive at the bank they discover that it is already being robbed. The robbers brawl with the bellboys and the clerk, and in the ensuing chaos the thieves get away, hijacking a horse and trolley and riding out of town. The bellboys and the clerk chase the trolley on foot; the local livery stable proprietor (who is also the town constable) gives chase on a motorcycle. The trolley becomes unhooked from the horse while in the middle of an uphill climb and comes speeding back down, crashing into the hotel lobby. The thieves are arrested; Arbuckle is given a reward for apprehending them, and receives a kiss from Cutie.

Cast

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as Bellboy, barber
Buster Keaton as Bellboy
Al St. John as Desk Clerk
Alice Lake as Cutie Cuticle, manicurist
Joe Keaton as Guest
Charles Dudley as Guest

Critical Reception

Variety gave an unqualified positive review of the film: "Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's latest screen comedy, released this week, 'The Bell Boy,' is excruciatingly funny... The rapid, acrobatic comedy of these three slapstick comedians had the audience in hysterics at the Rialto Sunday afternoon."^[3] The reviewer also mentioned the "long-haired, bewhiskered individual", stating that the character was dubbed "Jassrutin the Mad Monkey", a likely reference to Rasputin.

The Moving Picture World espoused a similar view of the picture, adding that: "Fatty Arbuckle is a living example of how to be nimble though fat, and his fertility of invention supplies him with the right piece of business for every situation. Al St. John as the hotel clerk, Buster Keaton as the assistant bell boy and Alice Lake as the manicurist are a trio whose acting ability is equaled only by their disregard of life and limb."^[4]

References

^ Knopf, Robert (2 August 1999). The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton. Princeton University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-691-00442-6. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
^ Progressive Silent Film List: The Bellboy at silentera.com
^ Variety (1918). Variety (March 1918). Media History Digital Library. New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company.
^ New York, Chalmers Publishing Company (1918). Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1918). Media History Digital Library. New York, Chalmers Publishing Company.

External links

The Bell Boy at IMDb
The Bell Boy is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
The Bell Boy on YouTube
The Bell Boy at the International Buster Keaton Society

[Knopf1999-1] Knopf, Robert (2 August 1999). The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton. Princeton University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-691-00442-6. Retrieved 21 October 2010.

[2] Progressive Silent Film List: The Bellboy at silentera.com

[3] Variety (1918). Variety (March 1918). Media History Digital Library. New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company.

[4] New York, Chalmers Publishing Company (1918). Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1918). Media History Digital Library. New York, Chalmers Publishing Company.

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