Moonshine (1918)
More of an Reckless Experiment Than a Finished Film
8 August 2020
This one's actually an incomplete print, pieced together from various damaged sources, so I won't give it a rating. I'm not even sure it was meant to see the light of day, frankly; it doesn't exactly feel cohesive. The narrative is all over the place, mixing straight storytelling beats with surreal fourth-wall breaks and puzzling director's notes in lieu of title cards. Arbuckle and Keaton play an aggressive, clumsy pair of revenue agents in search of an underground moonshine operation somewhere in the Virginia hills. During these adventures, they slip in a few good, fresh bits - a clown car exercise involving thirty-odd armed men and a literal cliffhanger that leaves Arbuckle pantsed on a precipice - but otherwise it's a lumpy, awkward production and the ending doesn't make a lick of sense. Which, I gather, was half the point.
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