"Buzzin' Around" is the funniest (and most action-packed) of the six Vitaphone shorts which comprise Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's entire talking-picture career. (Of the other five, "Close Relations" and "In the Dough" are only a whisker less funny than "Buzzin' Around".)

More significantly, "Buzzin' Around" features the ONLY team-up of Roscoe Arbuckle and Al St John in a sound film. St John was Arbuckle's nephew, who got into films (at Keystone) with Arbuckle's help. A natural athlete and acrobat, St John did some virtuoso pratfalls and daredevil stuntwork in many silent films for Keystone and other studios ... usually in support of other comedians, but also (with less success) in his own starring series. When Arbuckle starred in his own series of silent comedies at the Comique studio, Al St John came along and did dazzling work as Arbuckle's third banana (seconded by Buster Keaton).

Throughout their silent-film collaborations, Al St John nearly always played Arbuckle's rival ... usually for the affections of the girl. The first time I saw "Buzzin' Around", I expected them to play rivals or enemies here. To my delight, I was wrong. In this movie, Arbuckle and St John are working towards a mutual goal, although mostly in separate scenes. Roscoe plays Cornelius, a hayseed who has invented a varnish which renders pottery unbreakable. He goes off to the big city to demonstrate his invention to some investors, but the varnish has vanished and he accidentally brings along the family's moonshine jug instead of the jug containing his varnish. When St John discovers this, he grabs the proper jug and goes off to rescue Roscoe. But then the two jugs (and the two jugheads) get mixed up with a hive full of bees. Oh, beehive yourself! The precise relationship between the characters played by Roscoe and Al in this film is never explained; they live together in a hillbilly shanty and are apparently brothers, or possibly cousins. Cue the theme from "Deliverance".

It's a joy to see Arbuckle and St John playing allies for once, in their last appearance together. They both do dazzling pratfalls during the climax of this movie, although they appear separately in most of the footage. After this film, alas, Al St John's career dwindled into supporting roles in cheap westerns, and Arbuckle died tragically young.

The "bees" in this movie are actually animation, but they are extremely well drawn and animated, and look quite realistic. Silent-film veteran Arbuckle uses sound quite effectively, especially in a sequence in which Cornelius has swallowed a bee, and weird buzzing sounds replace Arbuckle's voice.

One footnote, or paw-note: In this film, Arbuckle and St John appear alongside a dog named Pete who is a dead ringer for Pete the dog in the 'Our Gang' comedies, including the ring round his left eye. I'm positive that this is NOT the same dog, though he has clearly been made up to look like the original.

IMDb reviewer Ron Oliver has called this film Arbuckle's final curtain call. Not quite. "Buzzin' Around" was the second of Arbuckle's six Vitaphone shorts: it was, however, the last of his films released during Arbuckle's lifetime. The third ("How've You Bean?") was released less than a week after Arbuckle's sudden death. The sixth and last, "Tomalio", is by far the least funny.

"Buzzin' Around" benefits from some interesting location work in a semi-rural section of Brooklyn near Coney Island. "Buzzin' Around" is required viewing for anyone who cares about American film comedy. Rate it ten out of ten: no; let's cheat and rate it an eleven. Make every possible effort to see this hilarious short movie.

Just discovered on YouTube this rare talkie short starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle who had resurfaced on the silver screen after suffering for years his trials, eventually acquitted from, of raping a young woman. In Buzzin' Around, he plays Cornelius, an inventor of a fluid that's supposed to make anything it comes in contact with unbreakable. He accidentally takes some moonshine left by Al St. John instead as his car hits a tree backing up and gets a beehive dumped in the back seat. Those bees annoy Cornelius as he gets out in the middle of the road where a football game is playing nearby. The bees go from him to the players and one of them flies in Cornelius' mouth! He goes to a university lab where the scientist tries to get the bee out of his mouth. I think I'll stop there and tell you there's other funny scenes concerning a car sticking to another one and broken vases. And a nice appearance of a dog who looks a lot like Pete the Pup of the Our Gang shorts and is addressed as such here. Well worth seeing for fans of Arbuckle.

A ROSCOE `FATTY' ARBUCKLE Comedy Short

A farm boy invents a solution that prevents china from breaking. He eagerly heads off to the Big City to show off his discovery. But when a swarm of bees start BUZZIN' AROUND his jalopy, all manner of chaos begins to break loose...

Roscoe Arbuckle (he hated the nickname of `Fatty') was one of the silent era's most beloved comics. At the apex of his fame he rivaled even Chaplin in popularity. But in 1921, Roscoe became the victim of Hollywood's first great scandal. Accused of raping & causing the death of a young harlot starlet in San Francisco, he was forced to endure the hideous ordeal of 3 criminal trials. Even though the final jury fully exonerated him, he was hounded by the media, and his career was all but destroyed.

But Roscoe was not completely finished in films. Sympathetic friends arranged for him to appear in 2 cameos, and from 1925 to 1932, under a pseudonym, he directed 28 comedy shorts. Finally in 1932 he signed with Vitaphone to appear in 6 shorts, under his real name. BUZZIN' AROUND, released in February 1933, was the last of these. It was to be his final film appearance.

In June of 1933, because of the success of the shorts, Roscoe signed with Warners to begin starring in feature films. His long years in the Hollywood Wilderness over, Roscoe was delighted. Tragically, he died in his sleep of a massive heart attack a few hours after signing the contract. He was only 46 years old.

Fortunately, since it was to be his cinematic farewell, BUZZIN' AROUND is quite a funny film. Played like a silent short with sound & dialogue, Roscoe is in his element. Amazingly graceful for a man of his size, he provides solid laughs, along with his sidekick Al St. John & Pete the Dog, from the OUR GANG films. Although amusing, it is an ultimately sad experience to watch, leaving the viewer wondering what was lost to the movies because death, tragedy & scandal intervened.