| A Desert Hero | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card | |
| Directed by | Roscoe Arbuckle |
| Written by | Fatty Arbuckle |
| Starring | Fatty Arbuckle |
Production company | Comique Film Company |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
A Desert Hero is a 1919 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. [1] The film is considered to be lost. [2]
Arbuckle plays a miner who has struck gold. He comes into a frontier town called Carbolic Camp looking for a good time. The town is wild and woolly; anybody who takes the job of sheriff is killed within minutes. Looking to change his gold into cash, Arbuckle enters Hyena Hall, a dancehall run by an enormous bully named Bullneck Bradley. The locals scheme to steal his gold. The star dancing girl refuses to be part of the scheme and is thrown out into the street.
Arbuckle gets into a fight with the town bully; when he wins, he is elected sheriff. He falls in love with the dancing girl, who reforms and joins the Salvation Army. While the Salvation Army is holding a meeting in front of the dancehall, Arbuckle overhears the dancehall owner making disparaging remarks. They fight; Arbuckle wins and makes everyone present join the Salvation Army. [3] [4]
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd as well as with his nephew, Al St. John. He also mentored Charlie Chaplin, Monty Banks and Bob Hope, and brought vaudeville star Buster Keaton into the movie business. Arbuckle was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s and one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, signing a contract in 1920 with Paramount Pictures for $1,000,000 a year.
James Cruze was a silent film actor and film director.
John Hartford Hoxie was an American rodeo performer and motion-picture actor whose career was most prominent in the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1930s. Hoxie is best recalled for his roles in Westerns and rarely strayed from the genre.
Out West is a 1918 American two-reel silent comedy film, a satire on contemporary Westerns, starring Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, and Al St. John. It was the first of Arbuckle's "Comique" films to be filmed on the West Coast, the previous five having been filmed in and around New York City. The idea for the story came from Natalie Talmadge, who was later to become Keaton's first wife.
These are the films of the American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Films marked with a diamond (♦) were directed by and featured Arbuckle. He used the name William Goodrich on the films he directed from 1924 onward.
Back Stage is a 1919 American two-reel silent comedy film directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and featuring Buster Keaton and Al St. John.
The Round-Up is a 1920 American silent Western film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and featuring Wallace Beery. The movie was written by Edmund Day and Tom Forman, directed by George Melford, and based on Day's play that was a huge hit for Roscoe Arbuckle's older cousin Macklyn Arbuckle and Julia Dean on the Broadway stage in 1907. It was Macklyn in the play who created the famous phrase used in advertisements of the film, nobody loves a fat man.
Araminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee was an American silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in Mickey (1918).
Maclyn Arbuckle was an American screen and stage actor. He was the brother of actor Andrew Arbuckle and cousin of comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
Coney Island is a 1917 American two-reel silent comedy film starring, written and directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and featuring Buster Keaton.
Charles Hill Mailes was a Canadian actor of the silent era.
Violet Isabel Malone was an American actress of the silent film era. She appeared in more than 80 films between 1916 and 1929. Her father, Lewis Malone, was a metallurgist for mining companies. Her mother was Violet St. John, born in Nebraska to immigrant parents from England.
George Nichols, sometimes credited in films as George O. Nicholls, was an American actor and film director. He is perhaps best remembered for his work at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios.
Frank Sidney Hagney was an Australian actor. He is known for his work on It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Ride Him, Cowboy (1932) and The Sea Beast (1926).
Love is a 1919 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. Prints of the film survive in collections.
The Hayseed is a 1919 American two-reel silent comedy film directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and featuring Buster Keaton.
The Dollar-a-Year Man is a 1921 American comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle. It is not known whether the film currently survives, which suggests that it is a lost film.
The Traveling Salesman is a 1921 American comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle. It is based on a 1908 play, The Traveling Salesman, by James Grant Forbes. A 1916 film adaptation of the play starred Frank McIntyre, who had also starred in the play. A print of The Traveling Salesman with German intertitles survives at the George Eastman House.
Al St. John (1893–1963) was an American comic actor who appeared in 394 films between 1913 and 1952. Starting at Mack Sennett's Keystone Film Company, St. John rose through the ranks to become one of the major comedy stars of the 1920s, though less than half of his starring roles still survive today. With the advent of sound drastically changing and curtailing the two-reel comedy format, St. John diversified, creating a second career for himself as a comic sidekick in Western films and ultimately developing the character of "Fuzzy Q. Jones", for which he is best known in posterity.
Luke the Dog (1913–1926) was an American Pit Bull Terrier that performed as a recurring character in American silent comedy shorts between 1914 and 1920. Some claim he was a "Staffordshire Bull terrier" or "American Staffordshire bull terrier but neither of these breeds existed until the 1930's, and this is why his name nickname was Luke the pitbull.
