I agree with you guys about the chloroform. Since only a kiss is involved, let's just call this a PG version of date rape. Fatty's character was also engaged when performing this act and also had to knock out his future father in law before performing this act on the girl, so this is not really in good taste, to say the least. Also not a fan of the racial gag. Look, I'm no politically correct social justice warrior safe space pansy, Dudley Dickerson and Mantan Moreland types are funny to me because I can accept funny and black without considering it insulting like some people do in these old films. The woman in this short, however, is just a normal customer who happens to be black, and Fatty makes a joke out of her and is freaked out by her for no other reason. It's simply stupid, nothing more, nothing less. Speaking of stupid, Al St. John's character when getting rejected by the girl first turns into tears, then into biting her! This is a product of crazy immature humor somewhat common in the teens that would be abandoned in the twenties. You would never see that kind of thing in a pure Keaton film, for example. Keaton and Arbuckle had a disagreement, according to Keaton. Arbuckle thought to make films for 12 year olds, while Keaton thought the audience more intelligent. I like Keaton's thinking better, and some of that 12 year old humor shows up in this short.
For the good, when it's Arbuckle just being himself and playing with props in the beginning, he's very likable. Keaton is by far the highlight. I usually don't like drag comedy, but here I'll make an exception. The situation Keaton is in the dress in the first place is wonderfully bizarre. The bride, instead of trying on the dress herself, asks Keaton to try it on for her, and he just goes along with it! Also, instead of acting like a woman, Keaton gets kidnapped and takes all these wonderful falls in a wedding dress. Keaton is simply put in a bizarre situation and goes with it, not creating the bizarre situations like Arbuckle and St. John mentioned above. A big difference in comic styles this early on. The overall pacing of this short i more logical than the last two, it's just that some of the humor is unfortunate, but yeah, chalk this one up to Keaton being the highlight.
6/10
