Fatty and Mabel Adrift

Fatty and Mabel Adrift is a 1916 Keystone short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and Al St. John.

Plot

The story involves Arbuckle as a farm boy marrying his sweetheart, Normand. They have their honeymoon with Fatty's dog Luke, at a cottage on the seashore. At high tide that night, Al St. John (Fatty's rival) and his confederates set the cottage adrift. Fatty and Mabel awaken the next morning to find themselves surrounded by water in their bedroom, and the house afloat.

Cast

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle - Fatty
Mabel Normand - Mabel
Al St. John - Hiram Perkins' son
Joe Bordeaux - Henchman
Jimmy Bryant - Henchman
Glen Cavender - I. Landem, Realtor
Luke the Dog - Himself - Dog
Frank Hayes - Mabel's father
Wayland Trask - Brutus Bombastic, Chief Criminal
Mai Wells - Mabel's mother (as May Wells)

Critical response

Variety gave the films a positive review, commenting that "the picture is amusing with some new and good effects, without the customary dose of messy slapstick one expects in a Keystone with these principals."

As was often the case in contemporary reviews of Arbuckle films, the direction of the film is singled out for praise, though it is not mentioned that Arbuckle himself is the director. The review mentions "a dandy lightning storm is a feature of the film and there are some pretty views of breakers rushing on to the shore."

The review found Al St. John's performance not as good as his usual work for Keystone, but added "The picture is a sure laugh maker and as it is fairly clean, it is the more worthy."

Fatty and Mabel Adrift was the closing movie of the 56-film Arbuckle retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in April and May 2006 and was cited by the curators in the introductory remarks as their favorite of Arbuckle's work.