The Butcher Boy (1917)

Genres - Comedy  |   Sub-Genres - Comedy of Manners, Screwball Comedy, Workplace Comedy  |   Release Date - Apr 23, 1917 (USA)  |   Run Time - 30 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Janiss Garza

The Butcher Boy is the first film that Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle made for his own production company after leaving Mack Sennett, and it's also the first time Buster Keaton ever appears on screen. Arbuckle plays a butcher boy working in a general store; Keaton is one of the customers. The two of them get an amazing amount of comic mileage out of a mere nickel's worth of molasses ... and they did it all in the first take. There's more to the film, of course -- Arbuckle performs some handy knife tricks and dons his usual drag gear when his honey Josephine Stevens gets shipped off to a girls' finishing school. But the real story here is the teaming of two of the greatest comics of the silent era. Arbuckle and Keaton look amazingly comfortable together for a first-time pairing.

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Keywords

slapstick, Americana, butcher, customer