Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland

Dreamland.

There was a song by that name, which may (or may not!) be about the actual Coney Island attraction.

But silent films are the realm of dreams: travels through time and space , floating across your eyes. Imagined voices, always in your heart.

Which brings us to the two-reeler Coney Island, 1917, Comique. Starring Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, Al St. John, Alice Mann, and—-Buster.

(Because we all know Joseph Frank Keaton by his famed nickname.)

My foray into Busterology began when I took a series of film classes, way back in The Beforetimes, which led me to buy an eight-millimeter copy of The General, 1926, from Blackhawk Films.

A few second-hand Busterbooks followed, notably Buster Keaton by David Robinson, and Buster Keaton by J. P. Lebel, both now out of print. I painted a couple of Busterpics from his feature Go West (1925).

After that, other concerns took me elsewhere.

Then came a series of fortunate events, including the innerwebz, where there were Busterfilms you could view on that tubey thing, or even purchase on Amazon! Which I did, in short order.

Right around this time, Tumblr, being right up my short-attention-span alley, came nudging me in a Buster kind of way. The rest is history. Sort of.

As for Buster’s two-reelers…. I had never seen any before, and nothing else even came close. They were dazzling.

Buster’s Comique days with Roscoe Arbuckle and Luke the Wonder Dog were a second revelation. Slapstick, I told myself, was too lowbrow, not at all my kind of humor.

Never had I been so mistaken. Never had I laughed so hard.

Of the many Buster/Roscoe Comique films, Coney Island is a favorite for its special significance; I was at Coney Island a few times (just not, y’know, when Comique was filming.)

Coney Island may or may not have been named for the rabbits (coneys) inhabiting the locale. And by the time Coney Island was filmed there, it was a major attraction. You have priceless beauty shots of a Mardi Gras parade, and Luna Park at night.

https://carouselhistory.com/coney-islands-dreamland-park-history/

Buster is at his most bombastic, laughing, bawling, backflipping, stunting for a couple of players.

But let’s not give short shrift to Roscoe, Alice, and Al. Roscoe’s interplay with all-out daredevil Al St. John always cracks me up, and Adorable Alice Mann matches their mugging face for face. Just behold her in the infamous Witching Waves seasick scene, where she accurately emulates a cat trying to eject a hairball.

As for Roscoe, he is always bombastic. He cannot be anything else, unless you include cheerful, engaging, and fourth wall-busting, which he does here in coy good humor, winking at us as he urges the camera upward in the changing room scene. And he drop-kicks like Captain Kirk.

The plot is simple enough: an animated, enthusiastic (but broke) Buster takes Alice to Coney Island, but she soon ditches him for Al St. John and his wad of dough, then ditches Al in turn for Roscoe.

As for Roscoe, he’s been dragged to the beach by his nagging wife (Agnes Neilson), and he’s looking for a bit of fun, which soon materializes in the lissome form of Alice. Already soaked from a boat ride gone bad, she wants to go swimming, so Roscoe steals a fat lady’s swimming outfit and dons a wig. Buster snags a life guard job, and while Al and Roscoe ‘flirt,’ Buster reveals to Mrs. Roscoe, who is sitting on the bench next to the pair, that, ‘He ain’t no lady. She’s a man.’

Mayhem ensues, with beach battles, mistaken identities, and police action galore (one of whom is Buster in a push-broom mustache).

Luke the Wonder Dog gets a cameo, and I suspect so does Buster, possibly as a gate cop who’s swatted down by the formidable Mrs. Roscoe.

But Buster gets the girl in the end, while Roscoe and Al declare their eternal brotherhood, and swear off girls—-until the next beauty ankles by.

It’s a comedy. A travelogue. A silent, magical world where you laugh with delight, and all ends well. That is the power of Dreamland.

Many thanks to Crystal of In The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood https://crystalkalyana.wordpress.com

for hosting this Silent Films blogathon,

and Lea S. of Silent-ology https://silentology.wordpress.com/2021/07/29/announcement-the-silent-movie-day-blogathon/?replytocom=21562#respond for bringing it to my attention.

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7 Responses to Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland

  1. Pingback: The Silent Movie Day Blogathon | Silent-ology

  2. Fun? Wow! If you can’t have fun with that gang on Coney Island, your funny bone needs an x-ray.
    Wonderful review, and I enjoyed your journey with the movies of Buster, Fatty, et al.

  3. Edna Hernandez says:

    Busterology. Tubey Thing. 😆 Loved this review.

  4. Lea S. says:

    Thanks for covering this classic for our blogathon! I love all the Comiques and CONEY ISLAND ranks high on the list. It’s so light and silly and Coney Island looks so charming. And I really love how surreal it is to see Buster double as a cop in one shot and be a main character again in the next 😀

  5. Beautiful review and tribute to the dreamy world of silent film. I need to check this one out. Thank you for the introduction to Coney Island!

  6. Ack! Can’t believe I haven’t seen this yet. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this film – and your foray into Busterology.

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