The Red Mill is a 1927 film directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, credited as William Goodrich.
The film is set in a sort of Hollywood version of The Netherlands where windmills are everywhere and everybody wears wooden shoes. Marion Davies stars as Tina, a scullery maid and quasi-slave at the Red Mill Tavern, subject to a cruel boss named Willem who beats her. Dennis Wheat (Owen Moore), an Irish tourist, visits the village and sees Tina participating in a skating race. Tina is instantly smitten with the handsome stranger, but he leaves town.
Come the next spring, Dennis is back, and Tina is delighted to see her crush again. Meanwhile, the village burgomaster has pledged his daughter Gretchen in marriage to the governor. Gretchen however is in love with one Capt. Jacop Van Goop. Tina agrees to dress up as Gretchen while Gretchen puts on Tina's scullery maid clothes to go meet her boyfriend Jacop. Dennis sees lovely Tina, dressed up as the burgomaster's daughter, and is enchanted—but he thinks she's a rich girl named Gretchen. Many comic misunderstandings ensue.
The Red Mill was one of several films that Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle directed in the latter half of the 1920s after his acting career was destroyed by scandal. Although he was credited under a pseudonym, it was an open secret, as he was identified by name in the press.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: The first shot shows villagers skating on the frozen stream in the middle of the village. Tina is first shown apparently skating—but the next shot shows that she is wearing two brushes on her feet, and she is actually cleaning the floor at the Red Mill Tavern.
- Balcony Wooing Scene: Two balconies, as the balcony of Dennis's hotel room is directly across the street from the balcony of Gretchen's room, where Tina has dressed in Gretchen's clothes. Dennis throws down a ladder, climbs down, climbs up to Tina's balcony—then gets pushed off of Tina's balcony and back across the street to his own.
- Cobweb of Disuse: The haunted Red Mill is shown to be festooned with cobwebs.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: Tina is seeking to disrupt the wedding of Gretchen and the governor. She lets Ignatz the mouse loose from her wooden shoe, in the middle of church. Ignatz climbs up a lady's skirt, cue the lady freaking out, cue the entire congregation fleeing the church in a panic at the thought of a mouse.
- Gaussian Girl: Played for a gag. Tina, a scullery maid, is Marion Davies de-glammed, with almost no makeup and freckles showing. Tina sees a jar of Mud Massage Face Beautifier, and smears the mud massage on her face. When she takes it off she is gleaming, gorgeous Marion Davies, with a soft-focus Gaussian Girl effect.
- Imagine Spot: The Happy Ending has Dennis promising to marry Tina and make her an "Irish princess" (in the Irish Republic?). Cut to a scene where Tina is a princess, being attended to by a royal court—before a cut back to reality, and Tina and Dennis kissing in the rain.
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Dennis comes rushing in and thinks Jacop is kissing his girlfriend. He kicks Jacop in the butt, only to discover that Jacop is kissing Gretchen, not Tina.
- Medium Awareness: A long comic sequence has Tina trying, and failing, to put together an ironing board. Finally, Tina gives up and says "If only I could call you in English what I'm thinking in Dutch!", seemingly indicating that she knows she's in a movie where the Translation Convention is in effect.
- Mistaken Identity: Tina the scullery maid, and Gretchen the daughter of the rich burgomaster, switch clothes so that Gretchen can sneak out and meet with her lover Jacob. A series of comic misunderstandings ensue, as Dennis comes to believe that the beautiful girl he's fallen for is the burgomaster's daughter, while Tina comes to believe that Dennis is a Gold Digger who wants to marry her for the money that she doesn't have.
- Ominous Owl: A scary owl with glowing eyes makes things that much creepier as Tina finds herself stuck in the haunted mill at the climax.
- Percussive Maintenance: A long comic sequence has Tina trying to set up a folding ironing board, and failing. Finally, in a fit of rage she throws it across the room—and after the ironing board hits the wall it folds together perfectly.
- The Place: The Red Mill, being the abandoned, spooky mill that everyone thinks is haunted.
- Rake Take:
- As Tina is stumbling around the dark, abandoned mill, she back into a rake, which flips up and smacks her in the butt.
- Willem chases Tina into the mill, stumbles into the same rake, and gets smacked in the chest, by the same rake.
- Scary Skeleton: As Tina runs around in the creepy, haunted mill, she blunders into a skeleton. Why is there a skeleton in an abandoned mill? Who knows?
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: Tina goes plunging through a fishing hole in the frozen river, which provides for a chance to Marion Davies to climb up out of the hole with a dress plastered to her body, but also sets up a gag in which Tina has a face covered with ice.
- Taxidermy Is Creepy: The abandoned Red Mill where Tina is stuck at the climax is pretty creepy. How to make it creepier? Have Tina stumble across a stuffed fox.
