Fatty and Mabel Adrift

Fatty and Mabel Adrift
Original 1916 theatrical poster
Directed by	Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Written by	Roscoe "Fatty' Arbuckle
Produced by	Mack Sennett
Starring	Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle Mabel Normand Al St. John Joe Bordeaux Jimmy Bryant Glen Cavender Luke the Dog Frank Hayes Wayland Trask Mai Wells
Production company	Keystone Studios
Distributed by	Triangle Film Corporation
Release date	January 9, 1916 (1916-01-09)
Running time	34 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	Silent film English (original intertitles)

Fatty and Mabel Adrift is a 1916 short comedy film produced by Keystone Studios and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and Al St. John.

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Plot

The story involves Arbuckle as a farm boy marrying his sweetheart, Normand. They have their honeymoon with Fatty's dog Luke at a cottage on the seashore. At high tide that night, Al St. John (Fatty's rival) and his confederates set the cottage adrift. Fatty and Mabel awaken the next morning to find their small house floating in the ocean and water rapidly flooding their bedroom.

Cast

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as Fatty
Mabel Normand as Mabel
Al St. John as Hiram Perkins' son
Joe Bordeaux as Henchman
Jimmy Bryant as Henchman
Glen Cavender as I. Landem, Realtor
Luke the Dog (miscredited "Teddy, The Keystone Dog")^[a]
Frank Hayes as Mabel's father
Wayland Trask as Brutus Bombastic, Chief Criminal
Mai Wells as Mabel's mother (as May Wells)

Critical response

Variety in its 1916 review gives the film a positive review, commenting that "the picture is amusing with some new and good effects, without the customary dose of messy slapstick one expects in a Keystone with these principals."^[1] As was often the case in contemporary reviews of Arbuckle films, the direction of the film is singled out for praise, although it is not mentioned that Arbuckle himself is the director. The review mentions "a dandy lightning storm is a feature of the film and there are some pretty views of breakers rushing on to the shore."^[1] The review also contends that Al St. John's performance is not as good as his usual work for Keystone but adds, "The picture is a sure laugh maker and as it is fairly clean, it is the more worthy."^[1]

Fatty and Mabel Adrift was the closing movie of the 56-film Arbuckle retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in April and May 2006. Prior to the presentation of this short, the event's curators cited the film as their favorite of Arbuckle's screen productions.^[2]

Notes

^ The composer of the original 1916 screen credits erroneously identifies Luke as Teddy, another dog star at Keystone in the silent era. Teddy, however, was a Great Dane, not an American Staffordshire Terrier like Luke.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Fatty and Mabel Adrift" (film review) in Variety Weekly. February 4, 1916.
^ "Rediscovering Roscoe: The Careers of 'Fatty' Arbuckle", Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Manhattan, New York, April 20–May 15, 2006; curators' comments archived in MoMA's schedule of film offerings at that event. Retrieved February 27, 2021.