Coney Island (1917)

Why it's here:
We were looking to include something from the Fatty Arbuckle/Buster Keaton comedy team. This was a good choice because it contains incredible shots of Coney Island in 1917. Actually, this movie manages to kill several birds with one stone as it also allows you to introduce your kids to the Keystone Cops (Kops?).

Specs:
About 25 minutes, black and white, silent, and easy to find on Youtube.

Our family's average rating (on a scale of 1-10):

7.0

More about the film and our reaction to it:
I gotta 'fess up. I stuck this film into the list at a later date. When I first put our festival together I didn't really care about Buster Keaton or Fatty Arbuckle, nor did I have any reason to want to see them together. It wasn't until after we watched Sherlock Jr. (1924) and were blown away by the talent of Keaton, that it seemed an important to beef up on his career.

By discovering Keaton, I also discovered Arbuckle -- his talent, his role in giving Keaton a start, and the true story behind Arbuckle having been falsely accused of a crime (see that story in another post). Speaking of Keaton's start in films, it came in 1917, when he visited Arbuckle's New York film studio and was given the opportunity for a small part in the Butcher Boy. Keaton was a natural. Arbuckle immediately put him on his comedy team where they made about a dozen short films together before going their separate ways (cinamatographically) though remaining close friends for life.

Coney Island, one of their earlier collaborations, is enjoyable for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is being able to see Keaton smiling, laughing, and clapping in an animated way, before he adopted his famous deadpan style. Fatty is very funny in this as well, beginning with an opening scene where he's playing with sand on the beach in such a childish way that my kids felt sure that the woman next to him must be his mom (rather than his wife.) I'd have been happy to let them persist in that belief since he subsequently ditches her and runs around after a young woman, but the screen titles told the truth.

Anyway, their onscreen pairing is charming and the whole thing fun in a juvenile way. This is s a film that you probably won't need to pull teeth, or explain the importance of, in order to get your kids to watch it with you.

Iconic shot: