Fatty is the head chef at the "Bull Pup" restaurant where Keaton serves as the head waiter. One evening while service is in full flow Keaton and Fatty entertain the crowd with their dancing (despite breaking most of the plates and bottles in the restaurant in the process). The fun is soon spoiled when a vagrant (St. John), referred to as "Holdup Man" in the film's credits, comes in and begins ruining everyone's good time and dancing with the waitress (Alice Lake) against her will. Fatty, Keaton and the manager are no match for Holdup Man but he is subsequently scared off by Luke, Fatty's dog. Later, Fatty and Keaton join a pair of gentlemen in the restaurant for a big plate of spaghetti, not being able to replicate the correct way of eating it they resort to their own methods of eating one string at a time and cutting the pasta with scissors to make it shorter.

The next day Fatty plans a fishing trip with Luke while Keaton simultaneously takes the waitress on a date to the amusement park. Fatty takes a shortcut through the park and knocks several people out with his exceptionally long fishing rod before arriving on the beach. The waitress gets separated from Keaton and is chased around the park by Holdup Man and ends up falling off the top of a roller coaster, falling into the sea. Holdup man is chased off by Luke yet again and Fatty and Keaton attempt to rescue the waitress but find that the key to a flotation device is "in a courthouse one mile east". Acting fast, they grab a rope to throw to the waitress but Keaton falls off the pier still holding the rope and drags Fatty in with him.

The Cook is a 1918 American two-reel silent comedy film written by, directed by, and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and featuring Buster Keaton and Al St. John. The movie is a slapstick comedy and focuses on goings-on at a high-end restaurant with Arbuckle as the Cook and Keaton as the Waiter.

The film is notable for a scene spoofing the 1918 Theda Bara film Salomé, with Arbuckle dancing around with a length of sausage links and pots and pans. It also contains many of Arbuckle's favorite food gags and some well-received work by Keaton.

The movie was believed to be a lost film for several decades before a damaged nitrate print was uncovered in the Norwegian Film Archive in 1998 in an unmarked canister with A Reckless Romeo (1917). Another print, with 600 additional feet of footage (about eight minutes), was found in the EYE Film Institute Netherlands in 2002, and the two were combined, using the synopsis from the Library of Congress as a guide to create the restored version, although there are still missing scenes.

"The Cook" takes place in a cafe, with Arbuckle in the kitchen and Keaton as a waiter. The gags fly at a furious pace, combining Arbuckle's deft and droll knife-wielding; a "magic urn" that seems to produce just about anything wished for, including coffee, milk, gravy, something that looks like stew, and eventually, Arbuckle's jacket; and a game of catch with food orders between Fatty and Buster. We're not talking subtlety here, but the humor emerging from the sheer turmoil is infectious -- I would love to see it in a crowded movie house. Both Fatty and Buster add their own version of grace to their physical humor, but Buster especially is, as always, a joy to behold: no one ever has taken a fall with such precision, and Buster takes numerous high-precision falls in this movie. One also appreciates the effort of Al St. John in "The Cook" (as "the toughest guy in the world"); he blends well into Fatty and Buster's world of chaos as a sort of hybrid between "dumb country rube" and "half-crazed urban punk".

The most famous scene in "The Cook", parts of which have been repeated over the years by either Fatty or Buster alone, is a middle-eastern veil dance, first performed by Buster, then taken over by Fatty. Buster's version is all grace and athleticism; its humor is the result of being an almost spot-on perfect imitation of a perfectly executed female veil dance. Fatty's version, by contrast, is way over-the-top, with kitchen props, a cabbage head representing that of John the Baptist (Fatty imitating Salome here), and a transition into a death-of-Cleopatra scene, with a link of sausages delivering the fatal snake bite.

Next we have this once thought lost, rare Fatty Arbuckle GEM from 1917.....

A RECKLESS ROMEO - Released May 21, 1917

A philandering husband's public flirtation with a beautiful girl—and the resulting brawl with the woman's boyfriend—are captured by a newsreel cameraman. When the husband takes his wife and her mother out to the movies, the footage is shown on-screen. The husband tries to flee the theater, only to be spotted and leaped upon by the woman's boyfriend, treating viewers to two simultaneous fights between the same two men, both on-screen and in the aisle.

A Reckless Romeo is a 1917 American short silent comedy film directed by and starring Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle.

The film was released by the Comique Film Corporation when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at the beginning of the 20th century. Some shots were done at Palisades Amusement Park.

The film was originally produced in New Jersey as one of Arbuckle's last Keystone pictures. Filmed between July and September 1916 and later sold to Paramount, it was released as a Comique film on May 21, 1917, after The Butcher Boy and before The Rough House.

Thought to have been lost, a print was discovered in 1998 in the Norwegian Film Archive in an unmarked canister with another lost Arbuckle short, The Cook (1918). The film archive at George Eastman House has a 35 mm positive print.

A RECKLESS ROMEO is typical silent comedy fare with Fatty taking his wife and mother-in-law to the local cinema only to see his earlier flirting in the park shown on the screen with the obvious results. Both of these long lost films were discovered in archives in Norway.  Arbuckle at his creative best here.

And finally, from 1920 is this treasure from HAL ROACH with HAROLD LLOYD...

NUMBER, PLEASE? - Released December 26, 1920

While at an amusement park, trying vainly to forget the girl he has lost, a young man (Lloyd) sees the girl (Mildred Davis) with her new boyfriend (Roy Brooks). When her dog gets loose in the park, both suitors have to help her catch it. The girl's uncle, a balloonist, gives her a pass for two in his balloon, provided that her mother approves. She then offers to take along the first of her admirers who is able to get her mother's consent. The girl's new boyfriend races to her house to get the mother's permission, while the young man tries to telephone her. The young man faces crowded phone booths, gossiping operators, a crying baby and other obstacles in his effort to reach the mother first. Racing back to the girl, the two suitors bump into one another and a pickpocket who has just robbed the girl of her purse. The boy is mistaken for the pickpocket and must elude various policemen on his way back to meet the girl.

Number, Please? is a 1920 American short comedy film directed by Hal Roach and Fred C. Newmeyer featuring Harold Lloyd.

"Number, Please?" is an entertaining short starring Harold Lloyd. Lloyd's character and comic techniques offer an interesting contrast to the Arbuckle/Keaton pairing. "Number, Please?" lacks the pure Keystone-influenced chaos of the other films in this set, and engages in simple and effective story-telling, with more clear character definition. Like other Lloyd films, it also has a freshness and natural feel to it -- one gets a deep sense of the cultural world of 1920 around which Lloyd's "glasses character" lives. Lloyd also has a physical grace and athleticism that offers an interesting contrast to Keaton and Arbuckle. 

This collection marks the release of two films long thought lost by film historians: "The Cook" starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, and "A Reckless Romeo", thought by some to be another lost Arbuckle/Keaton film, but in fact featuring only Arbuckle. The prints were discovered in 1998 in unmarked canisters in the Norwegian Film Institute. "Reckless" seems to be complete, but "The Cook" is missing footage at the end, which is a little disappointing to the viewer; still, fans of Keaton are grateful of the discovery of the film.

The Harold Lloyd short NUMBER PLEASE? included to fill out the disc is not top notch Lloyd but is funny nevertheless. It too is in very good condition but has some rough spots thus 4 stars instead of 5. THE COOK however is the real find here. Milestone Films has done their usual fine job by providing tinted prints with an appropriate piano score. If you're a big fan of Arbuckle and/or Keaton then you'll want to get this DVD.  Makes one wonder how FUN it must have been to watch these cinematic masterpieces on a big screen and with music back in the early 1900's!!  If you never witnessed Fatty Arbuckle, then this is the ideal introduction to the "Prince Of Whales", Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle!! I LOVE all these silent gems!!

HAPPY LAUGHING!!!!!

This DVD is produced by the mighty MILESTONE FILMS, which produces and distributes the highest quality of early Hollywood silent features and shorts. Don't be fooled by the cheap, imitation DVD issues of early silent films. THE MILESTONE COLLECTION has the BEST quality of early HOLLYWOOD CLASSIC films!!

MILESTONE FILMS has upgraded this great DVD Collection...different cover...same GREAT prints!!

This DVD is RARE......difficult to find BRAND NEW!!!

This DVD is BRAND NEW...NEVER OPENED...STILL SEALED!!

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