Interesting how many of these movies feature women as an action hero. Also, Fatty Arbuckle in a western? Is it a comedy, or an attempt by Paramount to try him out in a serious film? And, in these early days, there were two kinds of westerns. There were the serious ones, like the one shown here, featuring William S. Hart. Always stoic and no nonsense. Then you had the more entertainment ones that featured ex rodeo stars and Wild West Show riders like Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson. But here, we see an example of when Mix would do a serious story where he's not dressed in his signature bigger than life cowboy style, but in regular work clothes. Showing that Mix would be casted in both types of westerns. Hart, on the other hand, would always be stoic.
The Round-Up was a serious drama. Arbuckle had a secondary part in it as a sheriff, but the ads played him up, because he was the biggest star in it. Wallace Beery was also in it as an outlaw villain.
Reportedly, the studio cast Arbuckle because they already had him under contract (and on the payroll), and it gave him something to do until his next comedy was ready to start production.
5 comments:
You're right, I missed them all. I don't think I was even born when these screened.
I saw them all in an earlier incarnation. Hoot Gibson was my hero.
I would have seen them but we were too poor to afford the 10 cent admission.
Interesting how many of these movies feature women as an action hero. Also, Fatty Arbuckle in a western? Is it a comedy, or an attempt by Paramount to try him out in a serious film? And, in these early days, there were two kinds of westerns. There were the serious ones, like the one shown here, featuring William S. Hart. Always stoic and no nonsense. Then you had the more entertainment ones that featured ex rodeo stars and Wild West Show riders like Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson. But here, we see an example of when Mix would do a serious story where he's not dressed in his signature bigger than life cowboy style, but in regular work clothes. Showing that Mix would be casted in both types of westerns. Hart, on the other hand, would always be stoic.
The Round-Up was a serious drama. Arbuckle had a secondary part in it as a sheriff, but the ads played him up, because he was the biggest star in it. Wallace Beery was also in it as an outlaw villain.
Reportedly, the studio cast Arbuckle because they already had him under contract (and on the payroll), and it gave him something to do until his next comedy was ready to start production.
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