Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down [Hardcover]

Tom Dardis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1984

A biography of silent film actor Buster Keaton which examines his career as a tragi/comedian alongside contemporaries who included Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Harry Langdon, and features investigation of his personality off-screen. First published in 1989.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 340 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1St Edition edition (February 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684161508
• ISBN-13: 978-0684161501
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,488,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Many Factual Errors, August 3, 2007

By 

Ragtime Bill (Broken Arrow, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down (Limelight) (Paperback)

I have read and own many books on Buster Keaton. This is the worst I have seen. Many "facts" are in error (such as who starred in The Buster Keaton Story, etc.) and that casts suspicion on everything else. Since I already knew a great deal about Keaton, this book offended me in what it got wrong. Make sure this is not the ONLY reference you read of The Great Stone Face, it's pretty much junk.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother..., June 26, 2006

By 

Beth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down (Limelight) (Paperback)

This book has many factual mistakes that are just stupid mistakes such as confusing the order of Keaton's sons. There were only 2 of them so how hard can it be to get the order right?
Also, Dardis writes things that seems rather unlikely to have happened then does not back the "facts" in his notes such as Keaton's second wife prostituting herself at the Biltmore Hotel with his sister's help! What the hell? One shocking thing he writes is some comment about Keaton "may have" lost the tip of his finger in a clothes wringer. What's this "may have"? I don't think there's any question about it. Keaton himself said he crushed it in a clothes wringer and back then something like that was a common occurrence. The one good thing about this book is it has excellent pictures-pictures I've never seen in any other books about Keaton.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother to read this book., June 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down (Limelight) (Paperback)

Don't bother to read this book. It overlooks Buster's artistry, and is strangely obsessed with the finances of each film. A much better book on Keaton is the one by Rudi Blesh, which is unfortunately unavailable now.