Leap Year (1924) Starring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle,
Mary Thurman, Lucien Littlefield, Harriet Hammond, Clarence Geldart. Directed
by Roscoe Arbuckle, James Cruze. Screenplay by Sarah Y. Mason, Walter Woods No Producer Credited. Run time: 56
minutes. Black and White. USA. Silent, Comedy
Though finished in 1921, Leap Year would not get released
in the United States until 1981. This was due to the scandal that would strike
star, Fatty Arbuckle, a few months after he completed this film in connection
with the death of actress Virginia Rappe following a Labor Day party Arbuckle
was hosting at the Hotel St. Francis in
San Francisco.
Charged with rape and manslaughter in connection with
Rappe’s death from a ruptured bladder, Arbuckle had three trials in connection
with the charges. The first two would end in mistrials, but the third would end on April 12, 1922 with a jury acquittal. In addition to
the verdict, the jury released a statement, “Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe
Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done to him … there was not
the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime.
He was manly throughout the case and told a straightforward story which we all
believe. We wish him success and hope that the American people will take the
judgment of fourteen men and women that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent
and free from all blame.”
Despite the jury’s sentiments, by 1923, after most theaters
refused to run his films due to the scandal, Paramount had shelved the film, as well as two
other films he had already finished, The Life of the Party (1921) and Brewster's
Millions (1921) in the US. But the
studio did release Leap Year overseas, the first being Finland on April
27, 1924.
Should a Man Marry, the film’s original title, went
before cameras on Catalina Island in late May, 1921 and had a four-week shoot.
The title changed in August, 1921 to This Is So Sudden, and again in
September to Skirt Shy. Leap Year would be the name it would be released under
in Europe.
Despite the title, Leap Year, has nothing to do with the additional day added to the Georgian calendar every quadrennial.
