His Wedding Night
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''His Wedding Night'' is a 1917 American
two-reel A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
silent
comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
written, directed by, and starring
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...
.


Plot

Arbuckle plays a drug store clerk, soda jerk, and gas station attendant, who can be both lazy and dishonest. After he mixes a soda for one customer with elaborate gestures and juggling of utensils, he attends the perfume counter, where another customer has been indulging herself with a free sample. After he confronts her, he is distracted while an African American customer steps up to the counter. When the clerk hugs her and then realizes it is a different customer, he almost faints. Later on, while still on the job, he proposes to his boss's daughter Alice (Alice Mann), and she gleefully accepts. The scene then switches to the gas pump, where Arbuckle's character switches the sign to a higher price when a person with an expensive car drives up. After the car drives away, he drinks from the pump. Meanwhile inside, Al (Al St. John), another admirer of Alice, also proposes to her while they are eating watermelon. When she is tells him she is already engaged to the clerk, Al becomes outraged and begins causing a commotion in the store. After a food fight that involves several customers, the owner of the store throws Al out. Later in the day a delivery boy (Buster Keaton), after a prat fall over a bicycle rack, delivers Alice's wedding dress to her room above the store. He agrees to model it for her so she can see how it looks. When a male customer enters and annoys the clerk, he puts chloroform in the sample bottle to knock him out if he comes in again. The male customer never returns, but several female customers end up knocking themselves out. When a pretty woman arrives, Fatty deliberately knocks her unconscious so he can kiss her. He knocks out his boss, who could be a witness, as well. After he sees another customer sampling the perfume, he is shocked when it has no effect on her, even when she drinks it. He investigates by spraying himself with the "perfume" but is himself knocked out. With Arbuckle's character unconscious, Al, the rejected lover, sneaks into the store with his gang and kidnaps the delivery boy, thinking it is Alice, since his face is covered by a wedding veil. They tie him up and put a sack over his head and, escaping out of the second story window, take the delivery boy by to the justice of the peace's office. There they attempt to force the justice of peace to marry them at gunpoint. However, the clerk regains consciousness and, thinking the group has actually kidnapped Alice, pursues the group, but only after he comically struggles with a mule that he wants to hook to a wagon. He thwarts the gang just in time. He then convinces the justice of the peace to marry him to the delivery boy, who, since his head is still covered in the sack, he thinks is Alice. Alice, discovering what has happened, gets on a bicycle and heads to the justice of the peace's office as well. She arrives in time to stop the clerk from marrying the delivery boy. The clerk then throws the delivery boy into the room with Al and his henchmen. While that scene of slapstick fighting goes on in that room, the clerk and Alice must have been married, for in the final scene the clerk pays the justice of the peace but then sprays him with the chloroform in the perfume bottle and takes his money back. The film ends long before the newly wed couple reach their wedding night, as the title might have suggested would be forthcoming.


Cast

*
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...
as Drugstore soda clerk *
Al St. John Al St. John (also credited as Al Saint John and "Fuzzy" St. John; September 10, 1892 – January 21, 1963) was an early American motion-picture comedian. He was a nephew of silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, with whom he often performed on ...
as Rival Suitor * Buster Keaton as Delivery Boy * Alice Mann as Alice * Arthur Earle * Jimmy Bryant * Josephine Stevens as Lady Customer * Alice Lake *
Natalie Talmadge Natalie Talmadge (April 29, 1896 – June 19, 1969) was an American silent film actress who was the wife of Buster Keaton, and sister of the movie stars Norma and Constance Talmadge. She retired from acting in 1923. Early life and career Ta ...
as Pretty lady in the car (uncredited)


See also

*
Roscoe Arbuckle filmography __NOTOC__ These are the films of the American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter Roscoe Arbuckle. Films marked with a diamond (♦) were directed by and featured Arbuckle. He used the name William Goodrich on the films he dir ...
* Buster Keaton filmography


References


External links

* *, however, the last minute of the film is missing.
''His Wedding Night''
on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

His Wedding Night
at the
International Buster Keaton Society The International Buster Keaton Society Inc.— a.k.a. "The Damfinos"—is the official educational organization dedicated to comedy film producer-director-writer-actor-stuntman Buster Keaton. Mission According to the Damfinos, their mission is "t ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:His Wedding Night 1917 comedy films 1917 films 1917 short films 1910s American films American black-and-white films American silent short films Cross-dressing in American films Films directed by Roscoe Arbuckle Films with screenplays by Roscoe Arbuckle Paramount Pictures films Silent American comedy films