Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
IF Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle is re membered today, it's probably because of a crime he didn't com mit rather than the many films he starred in and directed.
The Museum of Modern Art is doing its bit to introduce the rotund comedian to a new generation with what MoMA calls "the most comprehensive [Arbuckle] exhibition ever screened in the United States."
From 1914 to 1921, Arbuckle was a slapstick superstar, second only to Chaplin at the box office. But his career went belly up in 1921 as the result of a Labor Day party, co-hosted by Arbuckle, at which a model and wannabe actress named Virginia Rappe died. One report said she had been raped with a Coke bottle.
Arbuckle was charged with manslaughter in the death of the woman, who had a history of prostitution, VD and several abortions.
It took three sensational trials over five months for Arbuckle to be acquitted. But by then his career was a shambles. He eventually made a comeback (sometimes directing under the name William Goodrich), but he never again hit his pre-trial heights. In 1933, he died of a heart attack while sleeping. He was just 46.
MoMA's 54-film jamboree showcases slapstick one-reelers and features that Arbuckle starred in and/or directed.
One is the 20-minute comedy "The Butcher Boy" (1917), directed by Fatty and introducing Buster Keaton, who became one of Arbuckle's best friends and collaborators.
Era notables like Eddie Cantor, William Powell, Mable Norman, Edgar Kennedy and Al St. John appear in other films.
The fest unreels Thursday through May 15 at MoMA, 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Details: moma.org
* Warning: Leave a light burning at home if you venture forth to the Film Forum for its two-week revival (starting Friday) of Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" (1965).
You most certainly won't want to come home to a dark apartment after seeing the diminutive Pole's psychological horror classic.
Polanski's first English-language feature, "Repulsion" is set in a London apartment in which a young manicurist (Catherine Deneuve) has been left alone while her sister goes on vacation.
Deneuve is frighteningly realistic as the beautiful Belgian whose fear of sex drives her to madness and murder. Co-stars include exploding walls and rotting potatoes.
The Forum promises a restored 35mm print made directly from the original camera negative, plus a digitally restored soundtrack of Chico Hamilton's jazz score.
FF is on Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue; filmforum.org
V.A. Musetto is film editor of
The Post. He can be e-mailed at vam@nypost.com
Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
