The Cook (1918)

Arbuckle is the cook, Keaton is the waiter. The restaurant? Well that's a glorified café with a limited menu but some customers who clearly think they're in the Waldorf. That's not an accusation that could be levelled against the two staff members who spend much of their time mucking about causing quite a bit of wreckage and mayhem as they go. With the floor now bestrewn with crockery, an hoodlum arrives with designs on the gal and so the two men must team up with the maître-d' and their dog "Luke" and chase him away! There's a great deal of energy in this charming short feature from a very natural looking Arbuckle. He has an agility and nimbleness as he dances around the kitchen, cracking eggs whilst indulging in some knife throwing. Keaton, too, is clearly having some fun as they invent the world's first spaghetti laundry but I suppose it has to be the ladder-climbing dog that steals the story! "A restful afternoon"? Well maybe not for the carriage-pulling goats - and, of course, there just had to be a roller-coaster and a damsel in distress to rescue too!