RECENT VIEWINGS (Bad Movie Thread!)

[M.10rda]

FATTY AND MABEL AT THE SAN DIEGO EXPOSITION (1915):
Roscoe Arbuckle (who didn't like being addressed by his stage name - would you?) and Mabel Normand walk around the SDE gawking at nothing particularly impressive, then ride some golf carts around and get in fender benders, then visit a mildly  -ing "Hawaiian" exhibit, there's lite romantic drama, then people start grabbin' and slappin' each other and most of the cast (including Roscoe but not Mabel) end up falling into a big fountain. The End. Director Arbuckle figured out a lot about comedy between 1915 and 1918, when he made and starred in the pretty incredible OUT WEST, but this early effort is pretty unfunny and boring.

Arbuckle and Normand's careers both peaked in the early 20s and then were abruptly interrupted by their respective scandals. Normand was accused of or implicated in TWO successive/unrelated murders  Around the same time actress Virginia Rappe became gravely ill after having sex w/ Arbuckle (okay, no jokes, please), was promptly hospitalized, and subsequently died. Gossip rags and "morality" organizations  alleged variously and groundlessly as follows: that Arbuckle had sexually assaulted Rappe, that he had crushed her in bed  or had outrightly murdered her, and that she was underage. The issue of consent might be fair game by 21st century standards, as Rappe was probably drunk, though so was heavy drinker Arbuckle. Rappe died of a severe, untreated UTI (drink your cranberry juice, folks) and suffered no violent injuries, but 100 years of dramatizations have exaggerated the story to the extent that Arbuckle sometimes stabs her or shoots her!     And Rappe was 30.

Nevertheless the Fake News resulted in zealous prosecutors charging and trying Arbuckle three times on Manslaughter-related charges. He was unanimously acquitted by the jury in the third trial and they apologized to him for the prosecutorial harassment, but his career as a lead actor was ruined for a decade. Arbuckle spent the 20s directing films under assumed names and making cameos in disguises (including in drag). He began making a comeback in early 30s talkies but died abruptly of a heart attack at age 46. Chris Farley was in negotiations to star in a Roscoe Arbuckle biopic when he, too, died prematurely in the 90s. That sounds like a good match but supposedly Vince Vaughn was going to play Buster Keaton, an abominable idea which fortunately never became a reality. 

...All of which is more interesting than this movie.    2/5    I will keep watching Arbuckle flicks though to figure out when he really catches fire.