cricket30 Review of Fatty's Tintype Tangle

Fatty's Tintype Tangle (1915)

A newspaper item gets "Fatty" Arbuckle into trouble?

[7/10 · 16 January 2014]

Why does THAT sound so familiar? The "tintype" in FATTY'S TINTYPE TANGLE refers to a classified ad that results eventually in the total trashing of Fatty's home--especially the bathroom, which is flooded, smashed, and mutilated during innumerable episodes of mayhem, though it all starts off innocently enough as Fatty surprises his mother-in-law in the tub. This 28-minute short relies on illustrating nearly every trick in the book of physical comedy--Fatty even slips on a banana peel! But isn't it ironic that the title uses a synonym for the news media of the day referring to "tin," the cheapest metal, putting one in mind of tawdry trash? William Randolph "Rosebud" Hearst's trash sheets rose to the top of the heap at Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's considerable expense ($9,444,583 for lawyers' fees in today's money) during the infamous "Tummy Rub Trials" less than ten years after TINTYPE TANGLE was released. Hearst's Crucifixion of Hollywood's Gentle Giant--the kind of nice guy bullies always pick for patsies--not only ruined and shortened Fatty's life, but also put the system of American Censorship into place which still allows the Lowest Common Denominator in the most backwards superstitious boondocks the authority to control what you and I see on our screens!