Frame-Up!: The Untold Story of Roscoe ""Fatty"" Arbuckle

Edmonds ( Hot Toddy ) here adds a sympathetic, if sensationalized and poorly written account to the many published versions of the escapades of Arbuckle, comic star of silent movies who in 1921 gave a party in a San Francisco hotel that was to cost him his career and his wealth. Among the drunken revelers at the bash was Virginia Rappe; Arbuckle, accused of her rape-murder, was exonerated only after three trials, the first two juries unable to determine whether Rappe had been killed or, as the defense argued, had died of a ruptured bladder and acute peritonitis. But before the ``bad boy of Hollywood'' was able to make a successful comeback, he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1933, at age 46. From interviews, Edmonds speculates that producer Adolph Zukor, ``out to get Arbuckle'' in retribution for having been forced to sign a hefty contract, organized the actor's blacklisting and helped keep the scandal alive. Photos not seen by PW . (Feb.)