Coney Island (1917)

Coney Island (1917)

Also Known As: Fatty at Coney Island
USA/Silent/B&W

Directed by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle

Filming Locations: 
Luna Park, Coney Island, Brooklyn, & New York City, New York, USA

Production Co: Comique Film Company


Cast: 

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle...Fatty 

Joe Bordeaux...Sledgehammer Man/Cop
  
Jimmy Bryant 

Luke the Dog

Buster Keaton...Rival/Cop with Moustache 

Alice Lake...Girl at Vanity Table 

Alice Mann...Pretty Girl 

Agnes Neilson...Fatty's Wife

Al St. John...Old Friend of Fatty's Wife


Fatty tries to dump his wife so he can enjoy the beach attractions. Buster arrives with Alice who is taken away from him by Al who loses her to Fatty. Bathing beauties and Keystone Kops abound.

The film was shot on location at Coney Island, and prominently features many contemporary rides and attractions as venues for the slapstick action. These include The Witching Waves and Shoot-the-Chutes. 

The two-reel comedy known as "Coney Island" is a prime example of the sort of rough-housing that made Roscoe Arbuckle one of the top comedians of his era, second only to Chaplin in popularity. It's also a good example of the kind of comedy Arbuckle would soon outgrow, thanks at least in part to his newfound colleague Buster Keaton, who influenced Roscoe to employ more low-key and sophisticated comedic elements in his work. But that would come later.

The comic trio of Keaton, Arbuckle, and Al St. John work well together as usual, and together they pull off some creative gags, making even the implausible ones work all right because of their timing and teamwork. Their romantic rivalries can get pretty silly, but are still funny. 

Coney Island itself looks pretty spiffy here and boasts some really cool looking rides, and that's another plus. This film serves as a historical record of the legendary amusement park in its prime, and it features several great shots that have turned up in various documentaries about the place.

Coney Island was filmed before Keaton had fully established his screen persona. Because of this, he employs a wide range of facial expressions, including mugging and laughing, differing drastically from his subsequent unsmiling, but still eloquent, expression. This is the only film in which you can see Buster Keaton laughing. 

Arbuckle breaks the fourth wall in one scene where, about to change his clothes, he directly looks at the camera and gestures for it to raise its view above his waist; the camera obligingly does so.

Like many American films of the time, Coney Island was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors required a cut of a scene with a girl raising her dress above her knee.

Suggested Soundtrack