The Garage (1920)

The last Arbuckle-Keaton short is a pretty good one.  It has some major Bustery tendencies, always a good thing in my book, and the cinematic partnership pulls out most of the stops for its last hurrah.  Really fun.

Fatty and Buster are working at a combination garage/fire station.  Naturally, whether they’re working with other people’s cars, the garage’s, or the fire hose, they cause plenty of havoc.  Meanwhile, a very determined but overly-slick suitor is trying to woo the boss’s daughter (Molly Malone,) and he could prove to cause a little havoc of his own.

What little plot there is is very meandering, but it’s the type of short that’s funny enough that it hardly matters.  The gags come fast and furious (even if the cars do not) in a variety of shapes and sizes, with Fatty and Buster’s clowning always at the center of things.  There are lots of mechanical gags to be found here – natural, given the setting – and you can definitely feel Buster’s influence.  I like the turntable used for the car wash (and of course, it’s only a matter of time until Buster and Fatty get stuck on it while it’s moving,) and the ready-for-action system they have rigged up in case of a fire alert is a ton of fun.  There’s also a really impressive shot of a car falling apart piece by piece.  It’s like the famous car gag from Three Ages, but slower, and in both cases, I really don’t know how they did it.

That’s not the only gag that feels like Buster all over.  At the start of the short, Fatty does Buster’s cleaning-the-imaginary-pane-of-glass routine, and there’s a sequence of out-of-control grease-flinging that really reminds me of The Blacksmith; Fatty and Buster gradually (and mostly unintentionally) rendering the dandy’s white suit filthy is particularly reminiscent of how Buster gets oil all over the white horse in that short.  Buster getting on the wrong side of a police officer due to an unfortunate mishap is also very familiar.  In fact, the cop situation in Daydreams similarly begins because Buster is inappropriately clothed in the street and goes through much the same struggles to obtain a pair of pants.  (In this case, though, the Fatty-Buster version is funnier.  I love Buster using the paper kilt he tore off of a poster, and Fatty is a great help during the unfortunate circumstance.  Their movements here are expertly timed, especially Fatty lifting Buster so he can put his pants on while they’re still walking.)

The final sequence, with the fire, is really top-notch.  I’ve previously mentioned Buster’s impressive fire-pole moves, and the whole bit with the leaky hose is great, both from Buster’s end of trying to use it and Fatty’s end of trying to plug the leak.  No surprise, there’s a nice daring rescue, although this one comes with a few good twists.  Also, it’s a little thing, but I laugh so hard at Fatty and Buster racing back to the fire station when they realize they’ve put on the wrong helmets – so absurd, so perfect.

All in all, a great finale for a great partnership.

Warnings

Slapstick violence and a little drinking.