His Wedding Night (1917)

Buster Keaton models Alice's wedding outfit Roscoe Arbuckle runs a drug store, and by fair means or foul becomes betrothed to the beautiful Alice. Buster Keaton, still only in a supporting role at this early date, delivers the wedding dress from the milliners. Alice is enthralled, and asks him to model it, so that she can see what it is like. Keaton does so, wearing the dress and shoes and white silk stockings.


Keaton is kidnapped However, Al St John's character had designs on Alice, and with some accomplices he decides to overpower her and marry her by force.

They break in to her bedroom to seize her -- but in fact she has gone to another room to fetch something, and it is Keaton -- still wearing the dress -- whom they overpower. Tying a bag over his head, they assume it is Alice. Quickly they throw their captive down to a waiting carriage -- in the picture that is Keaton, still hooded, being thrown from the upper window (top right of the frame) into the carriage.

Incidentally, the price of gasoline, $1 a gallon is only for rich customers; in an earlier gag, the normal price was seen to be 26 cents.


The forced marriage is interrupted St John and his accomplices rush to the judge's house and an impromptu wedding ceremony is started, with Keaton still hooded. Just as the judge is about to pronounce them man and wife, Arbuckle arrives to stop the proceedings.

Keaton is second from the left, the judge is third, Al St John is fifth and Arbuckle is sixth.


Arbuckle claims his bride Grabbing what he assumes to be his bride, Arbuckle takes her and the judge to an adjoining room, where the wedding ceremony proceeds and is completed.


Keaton sees the humour in being married to Arbuckle Only now do they take the hood off the bride, and of course it is Buster Keaton, apparently married to Arbuckle.

At this early stage, Keaton had not adopted his later acting style of never showing emotion; so here he laughs ironically, and then winks knowingly at Arbuckle.

HF December 2005


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