The Bell Boy
About The Bell Boy
At the Elk's Head Hotel, bellboys Fatty and Buster mishandle the guests and a horse-powered elevator. Fatty, working as the barber, shaves a guest who looks like Rasputin until the man resembles Grant, then Lincoln, then Kaiser Wilhelm. Both bellboys chase the manicurist Cutie Cuticle. Fatty stages a fake bank robbery so he can look heroic in front of her, but real thieves are already inside. A horse-drawn trolley breaks loose, crashes back into the lobby, and the thieves are arrested.
Cast & crew
More about The Bell Boy
Joseph M. Schenck produced the Comique two-reeler. Paramount released it on March 18, 1918. Roscoe Arbuckle wrote and directed it. Elgin Lessley and George Peters photographed it, and Herbert Warren edited it.
Themes
Background
The barber routine ends with the guest looking like Kaiser Wilhelm. The short opened on March 18, 1918, during the war with Germany.
Look
Elgin Lessley and George Peters photographed the hotel set and the trolley chase.
Preservation
A digital copy runs 25 minutes and 53 seconds. The published running time is 33 minutes.
Notes
- Alice Lake plays Cutie Cuticle. Al St. John is the desk clerk. Joe Keaton, Buster's father, and Charles Dudley play guests.
- Keaton reused much of the material in Love Nest on Wheels (1937), and a mop gag later turned up in The Scribe (1966).
- Trying to free Keaton from the elevator, Arbuckle sends Cutie onto a moose head mounted on the wall.
Scenes
- Fatty shaves the Rasputin-like guest into Grant, Lincoln, and then Kaiser Wilhelm.
- Cutie is flung onto a moose head while the men fight over the stuck elevator.
- The unhooked trolley rolls back down the hill and into the hotel lobby.
Influenced
- Love Nest on Wheels (1937)
- The Scribe (1966)
Also available
- Internet Archive (bellboy)
