Moonshine

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The shortest Comique - and quite unlike any other. With its flimsy story, it seems to be more of a parody. But it's not clear what is being parodied. So the “lost” reference results in lost laughs.

Online: Internet Archive

The Setting?

Moving Picture World review of <em>Moonshine</em> (1918-05-18)
Although the titles in this video version do not state the story's location, and most YouTube videos state it is in the "Virginia hills", this 1918 review claims the locale is Kentucky. Not that it matters...
Setting of Arbuckle's <em>Moonshine</em> (1918)
Unlike Out West, the setting was not publicized as authentic, but filmed in San Gabriel Canyon, California...
The Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina (2007)
...not in the densely forested Blue Ridge Mountains most associated with moonshine.

Fatty's New Look

Fatty's look in Good Night Nurse vs Moonshine
Fatty has a new look from the waist up: same shoes and baggy pants - but the plaid shirt is replaced by a solid light shirt with a plaid vest. The bowler hat is replaced by a wide-brimmed prospector's hat. And, like all authentic back country law enforcers, he sometimes dons a monocle.

Unusual Titles

The titles flip between the film's narration/dialog and metatheatrical commentary on the making of the film. While characters in Arbuckle's Keystone and Comique films frequently address the camera with smiles/winks/asides, this is the only one in this collection where the metatheatrics are in the title cards.

The titles also introduce some actors: Al St. John, Alice Lake as “Alice”, and Charles Dudley as “Jud Grew”! (In another video version of this film, “Jud Grew” is the name of Dudley's character). Although cast intros are common in silent dramatic features, they do not appear in any other silent comedy short in this collection.

Titles are commonly rewritten - not only changing over time in theatrical re-releases, changing for different state censors, but also varying among DVD releases. So there is always the question: how closely do these titles match the titles in the original release?

One way to approximate an answer is to read the reviews of that period. This is the only one I found that mentions the titles:

Moving Picture World review of <em>Moonshine</em> (1918-05-25)
"The titles are examples of real wit": not a trait Moving Picture World reviews normally attribute to the slapstick shorts of Keystone and Comique. But this work is viewed as "a complete departure from the usual style of story used for the Arbuckle ribticklers". So the reviewer's response was similar to mine - but not completely: I came up a bit short in the "many mirth-provoking moments" department.

Related:

The Moonshiner

Remember the last time you saw a movie in tribute to a heroic family man (and his gun-totin' wife) who made a clean living producing and selling illegal recreational drugs, until killed in a police raid? Well, if you missed that one, just turn your clock back to pre-Hollywood, and dig this sympathetic look at one of America's outlaw folk heroes (featuring an MMA-style fight scene!)