The Movies

The Chaplin Puzzle

This rare two part documentary focuses on Charlie Chaplin's development at Keystone and Essanay. It concludes with a director's cut of the film Police (1916). The series is narrated by none other than Burgess Meredith.

Home Cured

Johnny is a hypochondriac and he spends all of his time fussing over his health instead of paying attention to his lovely wife. The wife and the family doctor pretend he is going to die -- and behave in a heartless fashion that gets him to lose his temper and get out of his sickbed forever.

Mrs. Jones' Birthday

If all husbands have had similar experiences, it is too bad to harrow them up with the telling of this story. If they have not, perhaps it will be a warning to them to watch very carefully the birthdays and see that some appropriate gift is at home in time for the event. Not wait, as poor Jones did, until the fateful day arrives, and then have a series of unfortunate accidents overtake one and prevent him presenting the present he intended.

Gasoline Gus

Based on the comic strip character and his auto obsessed life.

A Desert Hero

A Desert Hero is a 1919 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. The film is considered to be lost.

Bridge Wives

A pseudonymous Roscoe Arbuckle directs this comedy short about a man who goes insane because of his wife's bridge addiction.

When Comedy Was King

A compilation featuring comedic stars of the silent era including Fatty Arbuckle, Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy.

In the Dough

A cafeteria owner has problems with gangsters and gets more trouble by hiring 'Fatty' Arbuckle and chef.

Curses

When Buttonshoe Bill steals some papers from Buckwheat Ben, and kidnaps Ben's daughter, Rodney Hemingway comes to the rescue.

Character Studies

Carter DeHaven announces that he will perform a series of "impressions." For each we see him applying makeup and changing the combing of his hair or putting on a wig. When he tilts his head down during each supposed makeover, up pops the actual celebrity (Keaton, Lloyd, Arbuckle, Valentino, Fairbanks, Coogan) he appears to have been making himself up as.

Peeping Pete

This early Keystone has Pete spying on his neighbor's wife through one of those little knotholes in a fence. The neighbor (Sterling) notices and chases him all over town with sheriff and family close behind. Fatty Arbuckle plays the peeper's wife(!).

Special Delivery

The second and last of Eddie Cantor's silent vehicles, Special Delivery casts the wide-eyed comedian as a hapless mailman. While going through his swiftly appointed rounds, Eddie stumbles upon a gang of crooks who are planning a large-scale confidence scam. He exposes the villains and wins the love of heroine Madge (Jobyna Ralston). Though Cantor was a fine physical comic, he didn't truly score in films until the arrival of talkies allowed his fans to hear as well as see him. Special Delivery was directed by "William Goodrich," who in reality was comedian Fatty Arbuckle, hoping to stage a comeback after the sex scandal that destroyed his career.

Love

"Fatty", a poor good hearted farm boy is deeply in love with Winifred, a farmer's daughter. A rich neighbor offers the farmer a large plot of land if Winifred marries his slow witted son Al. "Fatty" has less then one day to save heartbroken Winifred from the rushed ceremony.

Tomalio

Roscoe runs afoul of a demented Mexican general.

Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day

A henpecked husband's innocent friendship with a married woman leads to chaos.

The Sanitarium

A young man transforms his uncle's palatial residence into a sanitarium only to end up paying back the money his patients gave him.

A Grand Day Out

Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese.

A Close Shave

Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.

The Rink

After amusements working in a restaurant, a waiter uses his lunch break to go roller skating.