Keaton hadn't completely severed ties with Fatty Arbuckle when Buster left on his own. He remembered Roscoe giving him directorial duties when Keaton was in productions with the star, a learning curve he quickly absorbed. "When he (Roscoe) was doing a scene and I wasn't in it, I was alongside the camera to watch it," recalled Buster. "I directed when he was in the scene. So by the time I'd spent a year with him, it was no problem at all to direct when I set out on my own."
Traces of Arbuckle's influence on the comedian shows up in November 1920's "The Scarecrow," Keaton's only third solo effort. He plays a farmhand who falls in love with the nearby farmer's daughter, played by Sybil Seely. Her father is Buster's dad in real life, Joe Keaton. Several Roscoe trademarks appear in the film: One is actor Joe Roberts, whose girth resembles Fatty and is his housemate living in a gadget-filled small home, complete with stringed foodware and compact furniture. Also, Roscoe's personal pet, Luke the Dog, was hired to play a memorable sequence of chasing Keaton around the area after the canine downed an adrenaline-inducing pie Seely had just cooked and set outside to cool.
Throughout his career, Keaton had several writers design gags for him, including Edward F. Cline, who worked on "The Scarecrow" scenario. Buster wrote most of his own jokes, though. Director Leo McCarey remembers those days when "All of us tried to steal each other's gagmen. But we had no luck with Keaton, because he thought up his best gags himself and we couldn't steal him!"
Traces of Arbuckle's influence on the comedian shows up in November 1920's "The Scarecrow," Keaton's only third solo effort. He plays a farmhand who falls in love with the nearby farmer's daughter, played by Sybil Seely. Her father is Buster's dad in real life, Joe Keaton. Several Roscoe trademarks appear in the film: One is actor Joe Roberts, whose girth resembles Fatty and is his housemate living in a gadget-filled small home, complete with stringed foodware and compact furniture. Also, Roscoe's personal pet, Luke the Dog, was hired to play a memorable sequence of chasing Keaton around the area after the canine downed an adrenaline-inducing pie Seely had just cooked and set outside to cool.
Throughout his career, Keaton had several writers design gags for him, including Edward F. Cline, who worked on "The Scarecrow" scenario. Buster wrote most of his own jokes, though. Director Leo McCarey remembers those days when "All of us tried to steal each other's gagmen. But we had no luck with Keaton, because he thought up his best gags himself and we couldn't steal him!"