this roscoe fatty arbuckle comedy be best remember for feature a young buster keaton and fresh from split with his family roughhouse vaudeville act and in his film debut . buster get quite a substantial part in this film and it quite a funny one overall . the butcher boy have lot of laugh and be an example of pure old fashion slapstick do well and though it would seem to come from the brief era of two reel comedy when filmmaker still imagine in one reel segment a a matter of course . the first half of the film take place in a general store and with arbuckle a the the butcher boy of the title . it an excuse to mine the many possibility for fast physical humor that a general store provide and and arbuckle really show himself to be a 300 pound acrobat and demonstrate subtlety and skill and and grace in his performance of what might have be unremarkable slapstick routine that raise them to a different level . a run gag have him flip a large butcher knife casually so that it spin accurately into it proper position stick into the cut board and and i be still stun that arbuckle really seem to do it each time . there also a really nice gag that see him lean on his scale and confuse a to why his cut of meat weigh so much . buster keaton be a boy who come into to buy some molasses and and performs deftly in a foot stuck to floor routine that follow . apart from the odd and almost unsettling half smile and his idiosyncratic attitude and body language make him recognizable immediately a the buster we know . he even have his eventually trademark flatten hat here destroy for the first time when fill and of course and with molasses . the second half of the film move into more situation base comedy and arbuckle and his rival al st. john dress in drag to infiltrate fatty girlfriend board school . a lot of the humor also come from the generally surreal and mysteriously laugh induce sight of these two odd fellow wear drag and try to be girl . buster be in this segment too and but mostly stand there in the occasional cutaway and help st. john . the end of the butcher boy become a little emptily frenetic and but on the whole and beyond it historical curiosity interest and it a well do comedy that get just the knockabout laugh it be go for .