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Roscoe Arbuckle, Comique, released 25 June 1917, distributed by Paramount. Arbuckle is both the husband who sets the bedroom on fire and the cook who serves the dining room. Buster Keaton, newly hired after a chance meeting in New York, plays the gardener and a cop: his first screen work. Two reels. Arbuckle throws food, falls through furniture, and treats a loaf as a mop. Keaton later said Arbuckle taught him to write with the camera, not just take a fall.
In one programme
Keaton's first day on film, handed a broom. Arbuckle does the rest: the bedroom on fire, a loaf as a mop, a big man moving like a small one. The method here is still the pile-up. Keaton is already watching where the camera is.
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