An early scene in which an extremely overweight man apparently kills a much younger woman during sex is a reference to an encounter between Virginia Rappe and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in September 1921. Rappe's bladder ruptured during sex, resulting in a fatal infection. In the period between the injury and her death, Rappe and her friend Maude Delmont accused Arbuckle of rape. William Randolph Hearst created a moral panic by running a series of completely fictionalized stories in his newspapers, accusing Arbuckle of a variety of crimes, and sensationalizing the details of Rappe's assault. Arbuckle's films were banned, and he was tried three times in 1921-1922. The first two trials ended in hung juries, and the third ended in acquittal. Delmont later admitted that the sex was consensual, and said she and Rappe would have recanted their accusations in exchange for a sizable payment. Arbuckle died eleven years later in 1933, at the age of 46, just as he was starting to find film work again.

Film

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