Fatty's Tintype Tangle (1915)
Driven out by his nagging mother-in-law, Fatty is photographed on a park bench beside another man's wife; when the jealous husband sees the tintype, Fatty flees on a fake business trip, only for his wife to rent the house to that same couple. The chase ends with Arbuckle balancing along a web of telephone wires high above the street.
A two-reel Keystone knockabout built around Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s startling agility, Fatty’s Tintype Tangle was chosen for the National Film Registry in 1995.
Background
Fatty’s Tintype Tangle is a two-reel Keystone comedy from 1915 starring Roscoe Arbuckle, one of the company’s most popular comedians, known for his size and surprising agility. Edgar Kennedy and Louise Fazenda appear in the cast. The film is a knockabout built around a compromising photograph and a chase, typical of the studio’s output in the period. It was selected for the National Film Registry, which recognizes its place in the history of American silent comedy.
What to watch for
The plot escalates from a photograph taken on a park bench into a chase around town. Watch Arbuckle’s physical comedy as he flees on a fake business trip and then returns, and the way the story loops back on itself when his wife rents the house to the same couple. The climactic sequence, with Arbuckle balancing on a web of telephone wires high above the street, is the film’s best-known image and shows his agility. Keystone’s chase logic and rapid gag construction are on full display, and Kennedy and Fazenda get room for their own comic beats.
