Arthur Ripley, whose screenwriting style combined the unlikely elements of gag writing and literary erudition, was born in the Bronx, New York. At fifteen he began his film career, cleaning negatives for the Kalem company. In 1912 he became a film cutter at Vitagraph and later went to California to work as a film editor, first for the Metro Company, then for Universal and Fox.

By 1924 he was established as a writer at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studio and there collaborated with other writers on gags and stories for many two-and three-reel comedies. He worked mostly with Frank Capra on projects for comedian Harry Langdon, and was soon writing feature-length comedies for Langdon; he also directed short films starring Robert Benchley, W. C. Fields, Langdon, and Edgar Kennedy. Capra and Ripley had differing views of Langdon: Capra saw him as an innocent protected by God; Ripley saw him as man...