Johnny Arthur gets fired for not showing up to work. He blames wife Helen Foster, who leaves for Mother. Johnny says that by the time she gets back, the place will be clean.
We've seen this scenario many, many time over the decades -- usually with the wife taking on the husband's job -- and we know it's going to be a disaster. What's excellent about this is the way director Roscoe Arbuckle adds in gags that build on each other. The handsome dog, Napoleon, another owned by Roscoe and wife Minta Durfee has some very nice bits too.
I've looked at three of the four shorts that Arbuckle directed Arthur in -- the four is missing in action -- and like the others, it shows him as an able comic. The reason he didn't become an enduring star is, alas, that he had no consistent screen character during the silent era, and his weak, sissified character in the talkie era was not particularly endearing either. But these comedies survive and can still be enjoyed a century later. I hope you get to see it.
We've seen this scenario many, many time over the decades -- usually with the wife taking on the husband's job -- and we know it's going to be a disaster. What's excellent about this is the way director Roscoe Arbuckle adds in gags that build on each other. The handsome dog, Napoleon, another owned by Roscoe and wife Minta Durfee has some very nice bits too.
I've looked at three of the four shorts that Arbuckle directed Arthur in -- the four is missing in action -- and like the others, it shows him as an able comic. The reason he didn't become an enduring star is, alas, that he had no consistent screen character during the silent era, and his weak, sissified character in the talkie era was not particularly endearing either. But these comedies survive and can still be enjoyed a century later. I hope you get to see it.
