Thanks to Fatty's bungling ineptitude, he nearly burns his house down, ruins ma's wash, and sprays himself with a hose. But that destructive energy can be used for good, too--such as when some meanie dog-catchers try to capture his dog Luke, and Fatty foils them and frees their entire stock of dogs. Or when he finds himself cheated by some con-men on the boardwalk, and he steals back all his lost money. The con-men team up with the dogcatchers to get their revenge (it involves kidnapping Fatty's girlfriend, because why not commit a felony to settle a minor grudge?). Luckily, Fatty's got good intentions, unholy slapstick chaos, and one determined dog on his side.
Fatty's Plucky Pup opens with a gag in which Arbuckle sets his bed on fire, and then lackadaisically tries to douse it, one glass of water at a time. Arbuckle liked this routine so much he reused it several times. In fact, this is not its first appearance--that was in 1913's
Mother's Boy, and he would recycle it again in 1917's
The Rough House.
By David Kalat
