The Cook (1918)

US 22m, B&W, Silent
Director: Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle; Cast: Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John, Alice Lake, Glen Cavender

The Cook is a situation-style comedy in which the trio of Arbuckle, Keaton and St. John apply their slapstick comedy routines to the high-end restaurant business. Of note is Arbuckle’s kitchen acrobatics and his pot and pan Cleopatra dance routine which is a send up of Theda Bara in Salomé. The film’s second half, which rather unexpectedly is shot in an amusement park is not nearly as creative or funny, except for the highly unusual goat carts (Klaus Ming April 2016).

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