I am just starting to familiarise myself with silent films. This comedy short was on the DVD I purchased, with "Mickey" .<br /><br />I love Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton but I am unfamiliar with comedy from the very early years - apart from Charlie Chaplin and the zany chases from the Keystone Cops. This was quite amazing, almost a sophisticated comedy from Fatty Arbuckle. The subtleties of acting for this 1916 comedy were, I thought, quite advanced.<br /><br />Fatty plays a doctor, who along with his cute wife, Mabel Normand lives in a comfortable home. The whole look of the comedy was, I thought, very real (there were no obvious cheap sets - the house looked real, the roads looked real - nothing looked fake.)<br /><br />Things don't seem to be going too well between them at the start. Mabel seems loving but giddy and when a childhood friend comes for a visit, Mabel and he begin to flirt. Fatty becomes quite jealous and tears up a photo that Mabel had given Jack. They sit down to a lobster dinner, joking that it might give them nightmares.<br /><br />Meanwhile two thieves plan to rob the doctor's house. One, pretending to be lame asks to see the doctor, while the other does the thieving - but the doctor soon discovers the ruse and sends the "cripple" about his business. One of the thieves rings the doctor and gets him out of the house on a bogus house call.<br /><br />When Fatty is out the robber (Al St. John) hides under Mabel's bed. She goes to Jack for protection and there is an extremely funny sequence involving the robber jumping, running, swinging from the chandelier - doing anything he can to dodge the bullets from Jack's badly aimed gun. Fatty returns home to find Mabel and Jack (having sent the robbers fleeing from the house) holding hands and he believes that was why he was called from the house. More gun play ensues and the comedy turns quite black as Fatty decides the world would be a better place with Mabel and Jack not in it!!!<br /><br />I won't spoil the end but the whole comedy (apart from Al St. John's wonderful comedic acrobatics) is one of subtle acting and nuances from Arbuckle. It is a wonderful little film and I can recommend it.