Genre: Biography/Drama
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Lon Charles
Cast: Eric Stonestreet, Rhys Darby, Elizabeth Gillies, Joshua Jackson, Jesse Plemons, Lara Jean Chorostecki, Richard Dreyfuss, Cristin Milioti, Stephen Root, Amelia Warner, Ari Graynor, Clark Gregg
Plot: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (Eric Stonestreet) is the talk of Hollywood. His silent comedies are all huge hits, leading him to sign an unheard of 3 year, $3 million dollar contract with Paramount. In order to fulfill the contract, he signs over controlling interest in his own film company over to his friend Buster Keaton (Rhys Darby).
Arbuckle begins to feel burned out by making so many films over the years. One day while on set, he suffers second-degree burns to both sides of his ass during an on-set accident. Following this, he decides to take a break. He and two friends, Lowell Sherman (Joshua Jackson) and Fred Fishback (Jesse Plemons), hop in Arbuckle's car and drive to San Francisco. They get three adjoining rooms at the St. Francis Hotel, 1219 for Arbuckle and Fishback to share, 1221 for Sherman, and 1220 designated as a party room.
Several women are invited to the suite to party with Arbuckle, still one of the biggest movie stars in the world. One of the women is aspiring actress Virginia Rappe (Eliabeth Gillies), who is very eager to rub elbows with such Hollywood elite. The party is complete blur, with the "party room" getting completely trashed.
Rappe is found unconscious in 1219, and the hotel doctor is called, who concludes her symptoms are caused merely by intoxication and gives her morphine. When she does not get better, her friend Maude Delmont (Lara Jean Chorostecki), demands an ambulance is called to take Rappe to a hospital. At the hospital, Delmont tells the doctor that Rappe was raped. The doctors examine her, but find no evidence of rape. The next day Rappe dies from a ruptured bladder.
After Rappe dies, Delmont tells the police that Rappe was raped by Arbuckle. She tells them that he had used a piece of ice to simulate sex with her and that must have led to her death. The newspapers go crazy with word of the case, even going so far as to say that instead of ice, a champagne bottle was used to rape Rappe. Arbuckle denies any wrongdoing, but his life falls to pieces. Buster Keaton is one of the few to defend him publicly. Nobody will hire him following his arrest and Paramount decides to terminate his contract.
The case lands on the desk San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady (Richard Dreyfuss), who is in the midst of planning a run for governor. Before even looking at the evidence, Brady makes a public pronouncement of Arbuckle's guilt. During the indictment hearing, Brady calls Delmont to the stand as his star witness. Delmont's story continually changes, and Arbuckle's lawyers show the judge (Stephen Root) a letter from Delmont admitting to a plan to extort money from Arbuckle. The judge says there is no evidence of any rape after hearing from Rappe's doctor at the hospital. Zey Prevon (Amelia Warner), one of the guests from the party, testifies that Rappe told her that Arbuckle had hurt her. Following Prevon's testimony, the judge decides that Arbuckle should be charged with manslaughter, disappointing Brady, who wanted to seek the death penalty on a first-degree murder charge.
Arbuckle is taken to jail for three weeks, until he finally arranges bail. Arbuckle hires well-regarded lawyer Gavin McNab (Clark Gregg) to lead his defense. When the trial begins, Arbuckle tells his estranged wife, Minta Durfee (Cristin Milioti), that he did not harm Rappe, she believes him and comes to court to support him. Brady calls Prevon to the stand and she tells the court the same thing she had told the judge during the indictment hearing. Brady calls another party guest, Betty Campbell (Ari Graynor), to the stand, who testifies that she saw Arbuckle with a smile on his face in the hours following the alleged rape. A nurse from the hospital testifies that it was likely Arbuckle raped Rappe, bruising her body in the process. A local criminologist claims that he found Arbuckle's fingerprints smeared with Rappe's blood on the bathroom door in Room 1219. When McNab cross-examines Campbell she admits that Brady had threatened to charge her with perjury if she did not testify against Arbuckle and that she had no idea if Arbuckle raped Rappe or not. McNab calls the hotel maid to the stand, who tells the courts that she had cleaned the hotel room before the investigation even took place and there was not any blood on the bathroom door. McNab is further able to get the nurse to admit that Rappe's heavy jewelry could have easily caused the bruising found on Rappe.
Arbuckle finally takes the stand as the defense's final witness. Arbuckle claims that Rappe came into the party room during the day. Another guest had asked Arbuckle to take them for a drive around town and that Arbuckle had found Rappe vomiting when he went into his room to change his clothes. He and Fishback had then called the hotel manager and doctor.
When Brady cross-examines Arbuckle, he aggressively accuses Arbuckle of not calling a doctor when he found Rappe sick and that he had known of a chronic illness, cystitis, and that Arbuckle had used the opportunity to rape and kill Rappe. Arbuckle remains calm, denying any knowledge of Rappe's illness and maintains that he never physically hurt or sexually assaulted her.
The jury is unable to come to a unanimous decision, coming to a 10 to 2 not guilty verdict. Brady gets the judge to declare a mistrial. A second trial starts just a few months later with the same legal teams and judge, but a new jury. The same evidence is presented by both sides, but this time Zey Prevon testifies tht Brady had forced her to lie. McNab tells the jury that Rappe had a history of promiscuity and heavy drinking. The criminologist takes back his earlier testimony about the fingerprints, testifying that it was faked. McNab is so sure that the case will result in acquittal that he doesn't have Arbuckle testify and makes no closing argument to the jury. Some jurors interpret this as a sign of guilt, and the trial results in another 10-2 not guilty verdict, resulting in another mistrial. The judge sets a date for a third trial.
Arbuckle's films are all banned by movie theaters, and the newspapers continue to publish stories of alleged Hollywood orgies and continue to smear Arbuckle's credibility. Delmont starts touring the country performing one woman shows as the woman who signed the murder charge against Arbuckle.
When the third trial starts, McNab is far more aggressive than in the second trial, completely tearing apart the prosecution's case with long and aggressive examination and cross-examination of each witness. It is revealed that Zey Prevon has fled the country in order to avoid a perjury charge for her testimony in the first trial. The trial is a quick one, and the jury only needs six minutes to return with a unanimous not guilty verdict. Five of those minutes are spent writing a formal apology to Arbuckle for the ordeal he has gone through.
Despite finally being completely cleared of all charges, Arbuckle still can't get an acting job in Hollywood. Six days after his acquittal he is banned by the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America from ever working in US movies again. The ban is soon lifted, but everybody is still afraid to hire Arbuckle. Buster Keaton visits Arbuckle at his home and tells him that he is giving him 35% percent of all future profits from his movie company, and offers him work as a writer for his films. Arbuckle begins drinking more and more.
After several years of not appearing in any movies, but working behind the scenes as a writer and director under pseudonyms, he is finally offered the chance to appear in two shorts for Warner Bros in 1932. Pleased with the work he has done on the shorts, Warners offers Arbuckle a contract to star in a feature-length film. Arbuckle ecstaticly signs the contract and goes out to celebrate with friends and family. That night, Arbuckle dies in his sleep from a heart attack.
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