Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. If you've ever heard of this great film comedian — mainly of the silent era — you've probably heard that his career ended because he raped some woman in a hotel room and she died. You may not have heard that he was totally exonerated of the crime but nonetheless banned from the silver screen.
And you may not have heard that as a performer, he was right up there with Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, two of whom claimed Arbuckle as a friend and mentor. There is more to learn about him in this mini-documentary, including the frustrating fact that his films are hard to come by these days. Several are lost. Others exist but have not had the extensive restoration work that has preserved the legacy of other great movie clowns. It is perhaps telling that even this overview of his life had to reuse some clips several times to fill eighteen and a half minutes.
I've sought his films out over the years and the more I see of Arbuckle, the more I see where other comics — Keaton, especially — picked up the tricks and styles they picked up. Watch this short but fine overview of his life by Joe Ramoni and see what I mean…