Customer Reviews

Buster Keaton - 65th Anniversary Collection (General Nuisance / His Ex Marks the Spot / Mooching Through Georgia / Nothing but Pleasure / Pardon My Berth Marks / Pest From the West / So You Won't Squawk / The Spook Speaks / The Taming of the Snood / She's Oil Mine)

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Finally somebody recognizes this brilliant comedian's work at Columbia Pictures!

After producing some mildly amusing comedy shorts at Educational Pictures, Buster got his chance to work again for a major studio. Columbia was the haven for comedians in the late 1930's & 1940's, they were #1 in producing comedy shorts at this time! Sure, these don't compete with Buster's classic, self produced, silent comedies of the 1920's. But these are not to be missed by fans. This has been a somewhat lost part of Buster's cinema history. HOOORAY!!!

Here are the 10 Buster Keaton Columbia Pictures comedy shorts that Sony owns:

1939
Pest from the West
Mooching Through Georgia

1940
Nothing But Pleasure
Pardon My Birthmarks
The Taming of the Snood
The Spook Speaks
His Ex Marks the Spot

1941
So You Won't Squawk
General Nuisance
She's Oil Mine

After these enjoyable 17 minute comedies were made, Buster was reduced to being just an extra, the comedy relief, in feature films.

I am glad to see that Sony has finally recognized that the 3 Stooges aren't the only comedy short classics they own.

A treat for Keaton Fans. Not his best work, but some very entertaining moments can be found in these shorts.

Keaton made some of the funniest, most inventive, and witty silent shorts and features of all time. He didn't just come up with a smart sight gag, he played with audience expectations and often found an extra twist. Along the way he experimented with camera tricks, techniques and much more. He wasn't merely a clown, but an artist. Many already know this.

In the late 1920's and early 1930s, Keaton was under contract to MGM. They took away a lot of his creative control and forced him to star in stage adaptations and team up with Jimmy Durante in a couple of movies. Keaton was having some personal problems as well, and his drinking was out of control. The movies weren't funny, weren't popular and he was more and more difficult to work with. His career was at a low point by the mid 1930s. He was let go from MGM.

By the late 1930s he had stopped drinking and his personal life was much happier. Columbia convinced him to do a series of sound shorts under the direction of people like Del Lord and Jules White. The shorts were made between 1939 to 1941 at Columbia Pictures utilizing the same crews and directors as Columbia's 3 Stooges shorts. Keaton fans will find a still very agile 45 year acrobatic Keaton able to create magic moments. The budgets were small and the shooting schedule was usually confined to 3 days. Some of the shorts were not written with Keaton in mind, but there are moments in every single offering where Keaton's skill and experience shine.

Ten shorts have been collected on the two discs (they are not arranged chronologically here-who knows why) among the gems are Pest from the West (a solid abridged remake of the mostly awful feature film he did in the U.K. called: "The Invader " aka "An Old Spanish Custom). He re-stages part of his old vaudeville act in the short "Taming of the Snood". There's a very funny Keaton classic routine (with a slight twist) in "Nothing but Pleasure". A wonderful little bit of dance choreography makes "General Nuisance" enjoyable, "So You Won't Squawk" has several fun sequences and good use of a stock chase scene, and the best of the shorts is the last one he did for Columbia called "She's Oil Mine" which finishes off with one of the best versions he's ever done of his famous `duel scene'.

These were cheap quickly made comedies cranked out by Columbia's short division. The schedule frustrated Keaton who felt with a few more shooting days on each short he could have improved them. They wanted him to make more, but he decided to not re-new his contract. He successfully stopped drinking, found a life partner, and led a modest life behind the scenes (writing gags for other stars-particularly Red Skeleton) for nearly a decade. Then by the 1950s he had been re-discovered and made many appearances on television, did numerous live shows and eventually made industrial films, appeared in small roles in several movies, and was moved by how many people re-discovered and enjoyed his old silent films.

The DVD's include commentaries by a few film scholars and genuine fan club folks that run on each of the shorts. They give you some interesting perspective and some fun trivia notes if you care to listen to them. For the DVD collection a new mini-documentary was created that gives a retrospective of Keaton's transition from silent movies to MGM talkies to the making of these Columbia shorts. The documentary takes the honest view that these films were not nearly as good as the silent shorts and while entertaining, Keaton was not proud of his work on these with the exception of "Pest from the West' and `She's Oil Mine'.

Don't expect the best of Keaton here, but if you are a fan, there's a lot here to enjoy. Good value for the money provided you know what to expect.

After years of trying and pleading with his superiors, SONY V.P. of repertory Michael Schlessinger has finally persuaded the powers that be to release on DVD, the TEN Keaton shorts the Great Stone Face made at Columbia Pictures. With careful attention to detail, the chief restorationist, Grover Crisp has made the negs as clean as possible and have transferred these long neglected treasures to a quality they never knew in original release.

Who cares is some of the material is not up to Buster's best work. There are moments of brilliance in these comedies that rival anything Keaton did in the sound era. His "The Pest From The West" is his Columbia masterpiece and worth the price of this DVD set alone. There are also some wonderful comedies here that never get to see the light of day anymore. "The Spook Speaks" is a riot as Buster and Elsie Ames are caretakers in a house that is supposed to be haunted complete with moving furniture and a penguin that enjoys a good stiff drink now and then. "She's Oil Mine", has Buster in a duel for the girl he loves. Several of these films contain some reworking of Keaton's earlier silent films and they are fun and interesting to see. There is commentary from Keaton experts / fans and even a note from Keaton's granddaughter.

Kudos to SONY for making the complete set available and to Mr. Schlessinger for spearheading the campaign to get them released. Now if this set sells well, perhaps Columbia can be persuaded into releasing other shorts from some of the other series they made....like Charley Chase, Andy Clyde and the musical novelties that are never seen anymore.

As a fan of BUSTER KEATON I have always wanted a collection of all of his works, and not just the 19 shorts and 11 feature length films he starred in during the silent era, even if they were his best. In the past I have bought Laserdisc box sets of all his MGM sound movies as well as his earlier work on the Arbuckle shorts. I am still waiting for his foreign work to become available in this country as well as his Educational shorts and 50's Television series. I was thrilled to see that Columbia was finally releasing all of his sound shorts he made for their studio.

While both his Educational and Columbia shorts have always had a reputation as being nothing but crap, that was not the case upon viewing them for the first time. The films offer the same quality of material that can bee seen in their Three Stooges shorts, and Keaton himself was still a talented screen comedian able to sell even the simplest joke. There are laughs in these movies, but just don't expect the quality of his earlier work.

The Columbia shorts had little budget and were shot on a three day schedule. Keaton himself thought that if they had allowed him more time on each short then he could have made them masterpieces. Some of the shorts were remakes of his feature films, and one of them, "The Pest From The West", was not only a remake of "The Invader" but the only one of the Columbia shorts that Buster was happy with. [ "The Invader" itself, one of the last feature films that Buster was given creative control over, was plagued with a disastrously low budget and turned out to be a misfire for Keaton. "Pest From The West" gave him a chance to finally get that film right, even if 40 minutes shorter. ]

The discs themselves do not offer the movies in chronological order, but it seems as if someone decided to have the less appealing movies first then build to the movies with the most laughs. They are quality prints but in at least one film, "His Ex Marks The Spot", there is some question to if some footage is missing or if the strange edits were on the final release prints as seen in the theaters. As these films were made cheap and fast I would not expect there to be any existing material for any extras. Columbia has, however, provided their own documentary made exclusively for the DVD which talks about Keaton's transition from silent to sound films. Surprisingly the documentary admits that these films were no where as good as the silent shorts and were considered a low point artistically for Buster. The documentary's only shortcoming is that there are very few behind the scene details about the Columbia shorts. Each short also has its own commentary track by various film historians.

This brings us to the packaging. There have been many complaints by Keaton fans that the packaging is misleading. The cover shows a picture of Keaton from the 1920's and the back cover has a cartoon image of Keaton from "The Cameraman". Only in very small pictures on the back do we see a 45 year old Keaton in stills from the shorts. True this is misleading, but to whom? Non Keaton fans would not realize the difference and would probably get a kick out of the movies without knowing that there are better silent shorts out there. Keaton fans would already own all the existing silent era movies and would certainly know in a moment from reading the description and movies listed on the back that these are the later Columbia shorts. In fact the packaging itself could probably drive off potential buyers who mistake it for another re-release of the silent films they already own. More likely the reason why these pictures were used in the first place was that they were public domain. None of the publicity stills I have seen for the Columbia shorts has a typical image of Buster that could be used on the box's cover. And then there is a question as to who owns the rights to Buster Keaton's image. I know that in the case of Laurel & Hardy, Larry Harmon owns those rights which is why Image was limited to the same picture for most of their DVD and Laserdisc releases while other L&H movies had B&W plublicity photos repainted or colorized for the boxes cover. Any new image of Laurel & Hardy could not be done without Harmon's permission. I don't know if the same kind of rules play into Keaton's, but if such rules exist then it could legally limit what Columbia can put on their box.

It's a great time for Keaton fans. For some reason all the stuff that has been lost and hard to see is being released in the last year (particularly recommended is the "Industrial Strength Keaton" from Laughsmith Ent. for later commercials and ephemera).

Keaton's "classic" silent era only really lasted 8 years but he worked well into the 60s after that. After the debacle of the MGM talkies, he got drunk, dried out, got married again, and toiled at Educational for a series of very low low budget shorts in the late 30s (which I would love to see more of) and then moved on to the more "respectable" Columbia for these 10 shorts presented here.

A couple of the Educationals are tantilizingly glimpsed on the Kino "Keaton Plus" disc issued a couple of years ago. They were cheap, but spirited and BK managed to do his own thing, albeit with very limited resources. Columbia, the home of many aging comics and of the Three Stooges, had higher production values, but a more regimented way to write and shoot films, so Keaton was not able to go all out to explore his field.

Frankly, most of these shorts aren't so good, but they are very interesting for two reasons - 1) they have Keaton in them, and it's great to see him able to do falls, play straight man to gags that don't really deserve him, and to see some of his old bits (many recycled by Clyde Bruckman, who wrote for Columbia, and was notorious for stealing old gags, often from himself!) redone;

- 2) this set gives viewers a complete and remastered picture of what BK was doing these years, and is lovingly presented, with audio commentaries on EACH short as well as having a short docu on their making.

Unfortunately they've put these shorts in alphabetical order on the 2 disks, so you should watch them as they were made (the correct list is elsewhere in these reviews) and see how Buster started with high hopes but eventually began to recycle gags. (Beautifully, he uses much of his old vaudeville act from the teens in "Taming of The Snood," the only documentation of his bit with a table, one partner and incredible agile acrobatics. Likewise, I found "Nothing But Pleasure" quite enjoyable, with a classic Buster set-up and payoff with physical comedy involving a drunken woman.).

"Pest from the West," the first one, is interesting because it's a virtual remake of his earlier UK feature, "An Old Spanish Custom" shortened to 17 minutes, and playing better at the shorter lenght. I also enjoyed "General Nuisance" in which Buster and Elsie Ames do a great (almost silent) dance routine with pans and great choreography. This doesn't seem to come from director Jules White, who usually directed the Stooges for Columbia.

By the last film, "She's Oil Mine," Buster's tone has become more aggressive; he's less eager to please and is almost combative. ("What's wrong with you?!") He redoes a duel scene he had done previously for MGM. And indeed he defiantly left Columbia after that short - he just couldn't stand doing them.

The commentaries, by a myriad list of experts and fans, are fair to fascinating. Patty Tobias, president of the International Keaton Fan Club, doesn't seem to have as much to say as the other talkers, who at least read original scripts, or had done more homework before talking.

I enjoyed this disc immensely. But I wouldn't recommend it to someone new to Buster. I've seen the classic silents many times, and was always curious as to how he faired later at Columbia, doing shorts in an age when they were less appreciated. Glimpses of Buster's genius and physical dexterity (as well as iconic little gestures, like his stiff wave "goodbye," or falls backwards or onto his neck), pepper the shorts - just enough to keep a fan interested. Also, there are at least two sightings of the phrase, "How about a little dinner and a show?"

Be forewarned, and enjoy the pleasures that are there to discover.

Yes, you will basically buy this collection to watch it once. But then, NO Buster Keaton fan has any excuse to avoid this set, which contains many fine moments interpersed with the crummy overall quality of these films.

First, let's deal with the quality of this set, seperate from the quality of the content.

These films have been pretty well mastered, are clean, and have that typical crummy Columbia sound and sound effects. These were not carefully filmed or recorded, but were done well enough to be acceptable. The transfers are well done, and the commentaries are pretty good.

The package is rather wierd. It's as if we aren't supposed to know what we are really getting. No mention is made of the Columbia Studio on the outside of the box at all, and the era these films were made is only apparent if you look really closely. The front picture is of a Buster who is MUCH younger than he was when he made these films, and the drawing on the back appears to not be Buster as much as James Dean. The shooting script may be the most pointless of bonus materials ever included in a set.

That said, these films have been regularly crucified by various reviewers over the years. It's hard to say whether they really deserve this treatment. Sure, these are pretty weak stuff compared to Buster in his heyday, but there are some absolutely brilliant moments when Buster gets to really have some fun. "General Nuisance" has a particularly funny moment when Buster is doing a dance routine with a visitor, and steps into two brass spittoons. He completes his tap routine incredibly wel using the spittoons as taps! I'm not sure how many other comedians could have done this. "Pest from the West" is a relief from some of his worse work, and "The Taming of the Snood" is a rather bizarre piece that works rather well.

Some other films are merely terrible. "His Ex Marks the Spot" probably should be on a list of films to allow to burn if the archives catch fire. "Pardon My Berth Marks" has a title that by itself should be shot.

The other actors are pretty terrible, and Buster is often just marking time, but those good moments shine through and make it worthwhile, until you think about the actual effort it would take to watch this set and find them again. I suggest that you take good notes about what you like, and store them with the discs, so that if you ever do mistakenly watch this set again, you will be able to watch al the really good parts, and then, 20 minutes later, watch something better.

4 stars for guts in releasing this.

Some will argue that the Columbia shorts consist of some of the worst films in Keaton's career. Buster himself may even chime in on that one. But the year is 2006, and the true legends of comedy are being forgotten at an alarming rate. Today when Jackie Chan tells reporters that his hero was Buster Keaton; he sometimes has to explain who Buster was. Thanks to folks like Keno video, we have many of Keaton's silent masters in wonderful condition to view anytime we want. But I don't think it should be stopped there.
Not when the very worst of Keaton still has scenes that out shine any comic of today. I would rather see Buster sit in a chair and talk, than watch some new comic try his best to copy Mr. Keaton and call himself original.
I'm sure Davinci had works he was not proud of. But I would hate to put a cap on his works and only show the "good stuff."
Like Davinci, Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy; Buster Keaton was a master of the craft. Even when he didn't want to be.

Having never seen any of these Columbia Shorts before purchasing this set I relied entirely on other's comments, some were not so favourable and others were. I am glad I listened to the favourable comments as this is a set that I am very glad to own.

I know that Buster was not necessarily proud of his work at Columbia (he called the Columbia shorts "Cheaters") and that was due to a couple of reasons. They would not give him the time to develop storylines and they would not give him the money. The director on 8 of the 10 shorts was Jules White(of 3 Stooges fame), who was not sympathic to Buster's form of comedy, but Buster needed the money. Having said that I have to add that within all these shorts are moments of Keaton's magic and that is why they are worth watching and owning.

A couple of stand outs here in my opinion are "Pest from the West" (which was his first Columbia short) and "Mooching Through Georgia". There is excellent and informative commentary on all these shorts and a very interesting documentary to show how Buster came to be making these shorts. I would not recommend these to new Buster fans, I would say get his classics first, including his Arbuckle Shorts.

Lastly on a Region note I live in Australia and I had no trouble playing this DVD on my multi region DVD player.

This Buster Keaton DVD is well put together, reasonably priced and showcases some rarely seen Columbia shorts. The prints are great quality and Keaton's work is timeless. My kids love him. Very pleased with this collection. It takes pride of place on my DVD shelf. Buy it!

After making short films for a studio called Educational, Buster Keaton signed on with Columbia to make short films. He would make 10 from 1939 to 1941. Most were directed by Jules White, best known for his work with the Three Stooges. Del Lord, who worked for Mack Sennet in the 1920's directed two. Clyde Bruckman, who worked with Buster in the 20's and who would also write and direct films for such stars as Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges. The films are no where near as good as the films Buster made in the 1920's. However, if you take this films on their own merit, they are fun and entertaing to watch. Buster, despite the sometimes weak material, always did his best. Highlights of this set are;
1. Mooching through Geogria. From 1939, Buster Plays a confedrate soldier in the Civil War, and gets invoved with a plot to steal a Union battle map. The basic plot of this film would be remade by the Three Stooges in 1946 as Uncivil Warbirds. The scene where Buster is "shot" as a spy is almost repeated word for word.
2. Pest from the West. The first short, from 1939 has Buster as a traveler in Mexico who falls for a local woman, and has to fight a duel for her. The best film here.
3. Nothing but Pleasure. Here Buster and his wife take a bus to Detroit to buy a new car. They figure they can save money and have a good trip. Of course the trip is anything but pleasure. The bus trip is miserable with screaming kids and all. While staying in a motel, a drunk woman wanders into Buster,s room, and he tries to put her to bed in a bed that goes up into the wall, a very funny sequence.
The rest of the films are not as good, but all have funny moments. The prints used look just fabulous, and the sound is excellent. A short documentary is included which is an overview of Buster's career with focus on the Columbia years. Also, a reproduction of a shooting script is included, which is interesting to read.
Jules White once said there was so much more Columbia material above the Three Stooges, and he did'nt understand why Columbia did'nt put it out. Thanks to Sony for putting these films out, and hopefully more Columbia shorts, such as Andy Clyde, Charley Chase, and Shemp Howard will come to DVD.