The Round-Up

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Nick M The production crew chose a gorgeous location for the picture, and the cinematographer took full advantage of the scenery at every opportunity. Unfortunately, that's the nicest thing I can say about The Round-Up. My first gripe is that too many characters were introduced rapid fire at the beginning without letting us get to know or care about them. My second, more major issue, is that the motivations of many of them make very little sense. At one point a side character named Bud starts palling around with the stereotypical villain, Buck, and main character Jack has the chance to show him actual proof of Buck's evil doings in the form of a letter. Instead, he tries to get him to stop hanging around him by threatening him with an ultimatum. That's a natural 1 on your Intimidation roll there, buddy. My third problem is that Roscoe Arbuckle, by far the best known actor in the entire picture, is treated like garbage. He's the town's sheriff, and right away we see that he is competent and a great man to have around in a pinch. Despite this, he becomes the film's comic relief punching bag. They'd have been hard-pressed to stuff this with any more cheap fat jokes. One of the young women, Polly, seems to take a genuine shine to Arbuckle's character, Slim, but half the time it just seems like she's toying with the poor man to no effect. In the end, Slim is shown to be a great hero, while Polly's other interest, Bud, is a feckless coward, but she chooses Bud because he isn't portly. In the very final frames of the picture Slim utters: "Aw, what's the use! Nobody loves a fat man." That's the ending. Awful. Ultimately, it's a schmaltzy, contrived melodrama with little to recommend or redeem it. It's a perfect half-baked example of the concept many people have of silent films as a whole that gives the rest of them a bad name. There were two other minor things I liked about it. There's a character named Parenthesis because he is particularly bow-legged. That's a gold star from me! Also, Buster Keaton makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance as one of the Apaches in the absurd gunfight at the end. I only recognized him because he takes a very dangerous fall that has a distinctly neck-breaking look to it that I have seen him perform in many of his previous films. According to Robert Osborne he made the appearance just for fun, earning only $7.50. He framed it, and had it hanging in his office for years. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 11/21/24 Full Review Read all reviews

The Round-Up

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