Roscoe Arbuckle
Posted: June 7th, 2011, 9:46 am
In the UK we've been enjoying Paul Merton's doc series The Birth Of Hollwood, which concentrates on the Silent Era. In part 2, much of it was about comedy actor Roscoe Arbuckle. Arbuckle at his pk, in the 1910s, seems to have been right up with Chaplin, perhaps even bigger, before that eventful party in 1921, where Virginia Rappe was alleged to have been raped and murdered by Roscoe.
After seeing the James Mason narrated Hollywood, when that tackled the subject, I believed Roscoe was innocent and was treated shamefully by both Hollywood and the U.S Goverment. On seeing the Merton show, which suggests Roscoe was treated even worse than what I imagined. It could be Paul saw the incident through rosie coloured spectacles, but he produced evidence to back it up.
I had always imaged it was a wild party, but a reconstruction of events suggested it was little more than a gathering of friends. Roscoe who had just finished filming a movie, wanted a break and left Hollywood for San Francisco with 2 mates. It appeared all he wanted was a quite night in his hotel room, when he was asked if he knew Virginia. He said yes and she was invited to the party, as was another woman Maude Delmont, who appears to have been the real villian of the piece. Virginia retired to a room where she was violently sick. Roscoe even left the hotel for a while, thinking nothing of it.
Later on Virgiinia died and Delmont accussed Roscoe of her rape and murder. It was claimed Virginia's dying words were Roscoe hurt me, but it was suggested in the doc in trying to help her when she was ill, he may have accidently caused her some pain.
It seems they were able to medically prove there was no sign of any sexual assult and that she may have died as a result of several illegal abortions which damaged her body, yet prosocuter Matthew Brady decided to go after him for the alleged rape and murder. However, it looked like he wanted the scalp of Roscoe to help him with his political career. As for Delmont, the key witness. She wasn't allowed to even take the stand.
There were 3 trials. The first was a mis-trial, because 2 jurors found Roscoe guilty. One, a woman was alleged to be a feminist, who refused to accept under any circumstances Arbuckle's innocence, not even prepared to look at the case files. It was later it was found out her husband was in someway connected to Matthew Brady
In the 2n trial the defence blundered by not allowing Roscoe to take the stand, the result another mis-trial with most of the jurors finding him guilty. In the 3rd trial, he was not only found not guilty, but he recieved an apology from the court.
Though innocent Roscoe was destroyed and black listed from working in Hollywood. It's really sad that in the 30s he was on the verge of a great comeback, he died of a heart attack the same night he made the statement This is the happiest day of my life.
During the trial his best friend Buster Keaton was prepared to give a character referrence in court, but was told he might do more damage to Roscoe's chances, as Hollywood at that time had a bad moral reputation. Chaplin to from London also spoke up for him
It's a wonder there hasn't been a major movie about Roscoe's life
After seeing the James Mason narrated Hollywood, when that tackled the subject, I believed Roscoe was innocent and was treated shamefully by both Hollywood and the U.S Goverment. On seeing the Merton show, which suggests Roscoe was treated even worse than what I imagined. It could be Paul saw the incident through rosie coloured spectacles, but he produced evidence to back it up.
I had always imaged it was a wild party, but a reconstruction of events suggested it was little more than a gathering of friends. Roscoe who had just finished filming a movie, wanted a break and left Hollywood for San Francisco with 2 mates. It appeared all he wanted was a quite night in his hotel room, when he was asked if he knew Virginia. He said yes and she was invited to the party, as was another woman Maude Delmont, who appears to have been the real villian of the piece. Virginia retired to a room where she was violently sick. Roscoe even left the hotel for a while, thinking nothing of it.
Later on Virgiinia died and Delmont accussed Roscoe of her rape and murder. It was claimed Virginia's dying words were Roscoe hurt me, but it was suggested in the doc in trying to help her when she was ill, he may have accidently caused her some pain.
It seems they were able to medically prove there was no sign of any sexual assult and that she may have died as a result of several illegal abortions which damaged her body, yet prosocuter Matthew Brady decided to go after him for the alleged rape and murder. However, it looked like he wanted the scalp of Roscoe to help him with his political career. As for Delmont, the key witness. She wasn't allowed to even take the stand.
There were 3 trials. The first was a mis-trial, because 2 jurors found Roscoe guilty. One, a woman was alleged to be a feminist, who refused to accept under any circumstances Arbuckle's innocence, not even prepared to look at the case files. It was later it was found out her husband was in someway connected to Matthew Brady
In the 2n trial the defence blundered by not allowing Roscoe to take the stand, the result another mis-trial with most of the jurors finding him guilty. In the 3rd trial, he was not only found not guilty, but he recieved an apology from the court.
Though innocent Roscoe was destroyed and black listed from working in Hollywood. It's really sad that in the 30s he was on the verge of a great comeback, he died of a heart attack the same night he made the statement This is the happiest day of my life.
During the trial his best friend Buster Keaton was prepared to give a character referrence in court, but was told he might do more damage to Roscoe's chances, as Hollywood at that time had a bad moral reputation. Chaplin to from London also spoke up for him
It's a wonder there hasn't been a major movie about Roscoe's life