The Rough House

Featured image

Highlights:

  • Demonstrates the benefit of a calm, composed, and emotionally disengaged response to unexpected events.
  • With two forks stuck into two bread rolls, Roscoe performs a dance using the rolls as feet: in the same way that Chaplin years later made famous in the “Oceana Roll Dance” of The Gold Rush
  • The acrobatic teamwork of The Rough Boys
  • Fatty's kitchen skills
  • Reveals one possible origin of the thuggish character of US police
Let's be clear: if you're looking for any hint of a story, other than what is given in the title, then too bad. If you can't stand the heat, then stay out of the Rough kitchen.

Online: Wikimedia

Related:

Fatty's Plucky Pup

Starts with a clever sketch that was reused two years later in an extended, and even funnier, form in The Rough House. Then moves on to a dull rework of the 1895 The Sprayer Sprayed, and we're forced to wait 7 minutes before the pup in the title appears and shows off his speed, agility, and acting skills. Midway in the film, with no lead-in or link, the Rescued By Rover adventure finally begins, and the star shines with his dope speed, jumps/climbing, and enthusiasm. No doubt about it: Luke was The Dog. In addition, we get “special” effects that add the cartoonish touch that later characterized the Comique works.