Country: United States
Director: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
Stars: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle,
Mabel Normand and Al St. John
Release Date: 18 January 1915
(USA)
Also known as: Mabel and Fatty's
Simple Life (USA - alternative title)
Production Co: Keystone Film Corporation
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Farm | Farm Hand |
Mortgage | Farmers Daughter | Cow
| Well | Romantic Rivalry |
Milking | Tree | Boyfriend Girlfriend Relationship | Rope | Slapstick | Hose |
Chase | Wedding | Automobile | Character Name In Title
Genres: Comedy | Short
Fatty is a farm hand at Mabel's
father's place. He and Mabel love each other, but dad wants to marry Mabel off
to the landowner's son in exchange for tearing up the mortgage. When Mabel and
Fatty find out dad's plan, they elope, pursued by dad, the hopeful suitor, and
the local constables.
Although the title must have been
intended ironically, life sure does look simple for Mabel Normand and Roscoe
"Fatty" Arbuckle in this pleasant little Keystone comedy. Roscoe
works on a farm owned by Mabel's father, and the two of them are secretly
betrothed. Mabel, introduced by a title card simply reading "She was
happy," is shown handling (and kissing) a calf. Roscoe, who is introduced
with the phrase "Poor but honest," deals with the cattle, and rural
life seems idyllic. Before long, of course, knockabout comedy erupts when
Roscoe has a bit of a run-in with farm hand Joe Bordeaux, and we're also
offered a memorable sample of barnyard humor when Mabel squirts milk from a
cow's udder through a knothole in a fence, right into Roscoe's eye.
Trouble erupts when young Mr. Jenkins, the wealthy
squire's son-- an uncharacteristically dapper Al St. John --shows up to collect
the rent. Mabel's father, who drinks on the sly, offers the young man a snort,
and Jenkins' reaction makes it clear that the stuff is turpentine in all but
name. Once he's recovered, Jenkins conveys the news that his father would be
willing to tear up the mortgage if Mabel were to marry his son, i.e. Jenkins
Jr. This arrangement sounds perfectly acceptable to Mabel's father, but when
Mabel rejects it out of hand she is locked in her room. Roscoe comes to the
rescue, and the lovers have no choice but to elope in a fast car-- a car that
turns out to have a mind of its own and an ornery "personality"
--while Mabel's father, the squire's son, and the local constabulary give chase
on bicycles.
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