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Editorial Reviews
For Buster Keaton, the era of the talkies was a tumultuous time. As a result of signing with MGM, the quality, the quality of his ambitious, eclectic comedies began to decline and in 1934, he signed a contract with Earle W. Hammons Educational Pictures which, despite its name, specialized in comedy short subjects. Keatons move to Educational was a return to his roots, crafting a stream of two reel comedies in rapid succession, as he had done in the early 1920s, when he first refined his cinematic craft.
The films Buster Keaton made with Educational Pictures (ALL sixteen of which are collected here) pay homage to his earlier work, but at the same time incorporated the element of sound, all while exploring new possibilities for his recurring comic persona, Elmer.
This FIVE HOUR+ collection features all 16 Educational Pictures shorts (14 of which have never been available on DVD until now) including: The Gold Ghost, Allez Oop, Palooka From Paducah, One Run Elmer, Hayseed Romance, Tars and Stripes, The E-Flat Man, The Timid Young Man, Three on a Limb, Grand Slam Opera, Blue Blazes, The Chemist, Mixed Magic, Jail Bait, Ditto and Love Nest on Wheels.
Special Features include a Stills Gallery, Film Notes by David Macleod (author of The Sound of Buster Keaton) and more!
The films Buster Keaton made with Educational Pictures (ALL sixteen of which are collected here) pay homage to his earlier work, but at the same time incorporated the element of sound, all while exploring new possibilities for his recurring comic persona, Elmer.
This FIVE HOUR+ collection features all 16 Educational Pictures shorts (14 of which have never been available on DVD until now) including: The Gold Ghost, Allez Oop, Palooka From Paducah, One Run Elmer, Hayseed Romance, Tars and Stripes, The E-Flat Man, The Timid Young Man, Three on a Limb, Grand Slam Opera, Blue Blazes, The Chemist, Mixed Magic, Jail Bait, Ditto and Love Nest on Wheels.
Special Features include a Stills Gallery, Film Notes by David Macleod (author of The Sound of Buster Keaton) and more!
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
62 of 63 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keaton makes the most of a bad situation and makes some pretty good shorts in the process
May 8, 2010
The sixteen shorts here are:
The Gold Ghost, Allez Oop, Palooka From Paducah, One Run Elmer, Hayseed Romance, Tars and Stripes, The E-Flat Man, The Timid Young Man, Three on a Limb, Grand Slam Opera, Blue Blazes, The Chemist, Mixed Magic, Jail Bait, Ditto and Love Nest on Wheels.The only extra features are some film notes and a photo gallery. These are the two reel comedies Keaton made for Educational Pictures after his fall from grace at MGM.
For those unfamiliar with the background story, Keaton, always an independent filmmaker until 1928, lost the financial backing of his brother-in-law Joe Schenck in late 1927 when Schenck decided to spend his money and time on his holdings at United Artists. He was encouraged to join Joe's brother's outfit - MGM. After finding no financial backing to continue on independently, he reluctantly gave in, and in the long-term this was a complete disaster for Keaton.
MGM was a movie factory - a good one, granted - but still a factory. Also, MGM's great talent was romances not comedy, and certainly not the physical kind in which Buster specialized. Keaton's marriage, long on shakey ground, hit the rocks in 1932, he took to drinking heavily to deal with the loss of his independence and his low-quality MGM scripts, and finally, in 1933, Louis Mayer fired Keaton after the completion of his seventh sound film "What No Beer", which actually made a great deal of money for MGM as all of Keaton's films did. Unable to find work among the big studios due to his bad reputation for being difficult, and also entering into a disastrous second marriage with his nurse, Keaton turned to Educational Pictures. Educational had originally made instructional films, but by 1934 they were a poverty row comedy short outfit, and Keaton was king of the lot.
However, their small budget meant there was no room for Keaton to do anything extravagant, plus you must remember that from 1934 until the end of 1935 Keaton was still drinking heavily. Only after the end of his second marriage at the end of 1935 did he finally conquer his addiction to some degree.
I'm waxing long-winded here because if you don't know the background and watch these shorts you may feel let down. You may wonder where is the Keaton of legend, of those great early 20's shorts. He's there, you just have to look a little harder. 1934's "Allez Oop" costars Keaton's one-time girlfriend Dorothy Sebastion, who was just then ending her marriage to Bill Boyd and needed work. She was his costar in "Spite Marriage" and lover during the late 20's. That's one thing you'll notice over and over - whenever anyone was in need, Keaton would always come through with a job when he could. Buster even got work for his parents and sister when they costarred with him in "Palooka From Paducah" about a hillbilly family that deals with the end of Prohibition by making the big brother of the family into a wrestler. "One Run Elmer" combines Keaton comedy with baseball and costars Buster's old friend and costar of "The Cameraman", Harold Goodwin.
The worst of these shorts are mildly amusing, most of them have some genuinely funny moments throughout such as "Blue Blazes" and "The Chemist", and one is just plain brilliant. That brilliant one is probably the one you've seen before - "Grand Slam Opera". This little short makes fun of Fred Astaire, the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, Keaton's own problems with drinking, and includes a pick-up line you'll never forget.
In summary, if you have any love of Keaton's comedy you're sure to like these too. Just come to them in the context of Keaton's situation at the time, and realize that Buster didn't have the budget that he had in the 1920's. How have I seen these before? They actually have all been on DVD before as a set by a little outfit known as Looser than Loose.
The Gold Ghost, Allez Oop, Palooka From Paducah, One Run Elmer, Hayseed Romance, Tars and Stripes, The E-Flat Man, The Timid Young Man, Three on a Limb, Grand Slam Opera, Blue Blazes, The Chemist, Mixed Magic, Jail Bait, Ditto and Love Nest on Wheels.The only extra features are some film notes and a photo gallery. These are the two reel comedies Keaton made for Educational Pictures after his fall from grace at MGM.
For those unfamiliar with the background story, Keaton, always an independent filmmaker until 1928, lost the financial backing of his brother-in-law Joe Schenck in late 1927 when Schenck decided to spend his money and time on his holdings at United Artists. He was encouraged to join Joe's brother's outfit - MGM. After finding no financial backing to continue on independently, he reluctantly gave in, and in the long-term this was a complete disaster for Keaton.
MGM was a movie factory - a good one, granted - but still a factory. Also, MGM's great talent was romances not comedy, and certainly not the physical kind in which Buster specialized. Keaton's marriage, long on shakey ground, hit the rocks in 1932, he took to drinking heavily to deal with the loss of his independence and his low-quality MGM scripts, and finally, in 1933, Louis Mayer fired Keaton after the completion of his seventh sound film "What No Beer", which actually made a great deal of money for MGM as all of Keaton's films did. Unable to find work among the big studios due to his bad reputation for being difficult, and also entering into a disastrous second marriage with his nurse, Keaton turned to Educational Pictures. Educational had originally made instructional films, but by 1934 they were a poverty row comedy short outfit, and Keaton was king of the lot.
However, their small budget meant there was no room for Keaton to do anything extravagant, plus you must remember that from 1934 until the end of 1935 Keaton was still drinking heavily. Only after the end of his second marriage at the end of 1935 did he finally conquer his addiction to some degree.
I'm waxing long-winded here because if you don't know the background and watch these shorts you may feel let down. You may wonder where is the Keaton of legend, of those great early 20's shorts. He's there, you just have to look a little harder. 1934's "Allez Oop" costars Keaton's one-time girlfriend Dorothy Sebastion, who was just then ending her marriage to Bill Boyd and needed work. She was his costar in "Spite Marriage" and lover during the late 20's. That's one thing you'll notice over and over - whenever anyone was in need, Keaton would always come through with a job when he could. Buster even got work for his parents and sister when they costarred with him in "Palooka From Paducah" about a hillbilly family that deals with the end of Prohibition by making the big brother of the family into a wrestler. "One Run Elmer" combines Keaton comedy with baseball and costars Buster's old friend and costar of "The Cameraman", Harold Goodwin.
The worst of these shorts are mildly amusing, most of them have some genuinely funny moments throughout such as "Blue Blazes" and "The Chemist", and one is just plain brilliant. That brilliant one is probably the one you've seen before - "Grand Slam Opera". This little short makes fun of Fred Astaire, the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, Keaton's own problems with drinking, and includes a pick-up line you'll never forget.
In summary, if you have any love of Keaton's comedy you're sure to like these too. Just come to them in the context of Keaton's situation at the time, and realize that Buster didn't have the budget that he had in the 1920's. How have I seen these before? They actually have all been on DVD before as a set by a little outfit known as Looser than Loose.
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Educational Pictures was originally established by Earle Hammons as a producer of instructional films, but Hammons soon found that comedies were more lucrative. From the early 1920s through 1939, Educational was a major supplier of short comedies. By 1934 Educational's biggest stars, Andy Clyde and Harry Langdon, had been signed by Columbia, and Hammons needed a big "star" name to replace them. Enter Buster Keaton.
Keaton's 16 Educational comedies are included in this new set. Most of them were filmed on low budgets and, incredibly enough considering the quickie schedules, they are more leisurely paced than his later slam-bang Columbia shorts, with Buster indulging in pantomime to a much greater extent. ALLEZ OOP, with Buster competing romantically with an aerialist; THE GOLD GHOST, with Buster lost in a ghost town; and ONE-RUN ELMER, with Keaton running a desolate gas station in the first reel and playing baseball in the second, are filled with silent Keaton bits.
Some of the shorts are good by Educational standards but run-of-the-mill for Buster, with the humor more evident in the premise than in the gags themselves. These are pleasant but uninspired: TARS AND STRIPES has Buster on a naval base, with two-reeler perennial Vernon Dent as his foil; PALOOKA FROM PADUCAH has hillbilly Buster refereeing a wrestling match; HAYSEED ROMANCE has Buster as a farmhand on big Jane Jones's ramshackle ranch. But there are some real gems here that will not disappoint Buster's admirers. GRAND SLAM OPERA is a wonderful sendup of Major Bowes's Amateur Hour, with Buster practicing dancing and juggling (for the radio audience!). BLUE BLAZES has Buster as an inept fireman from the city, transferred to a suburban station and becoming a one-man rescue squad. JAIL BAIT is a very funny short with Buster being falsely convicted, and then trying to catch the real criminal. LOVE NEST ON WHEELS, the last of the series, has Buster and his family (his real mother, brother, and sister) running a hillbilly hotel, with his old crony Al St. John in his familiar "Fuzzy" makeup. All 16 shorts have worthwhile Keaton routines; his antics are still clever and his gags are still inventive.
The Keaton shorts were extremely successful in theaters, with Educational proudly promoting the best ones in full-page magazine ads. He might have continued with Educational, but financial pressures forced Hammons to close his California studio. I'm willing to bet that Hammons tried to relocate Keaton to his New York studio: BLUE BLAZES, THE CHEMIST, and MIXED MAGIC were filmed at Educational East and actually staged by Keaton himself.
Unlike the flawless restorations of Keaton's Columbia shorts, the Educational prints are in variable physical condition. That's no surprise, given the films' scattered availability since Educational's demise. Some of the shorts are in excellent shape; splices and wear do show up in the lesser prints. (MIXED MAGIC is noticeably damaged in its opening scenes and the spliced frames have been removed digitally.) The good news is that the pictorial quality is fine, at least one generation better than prints that have been circulating for years. (Kino has a sampling of the quality on its website.)
For decades this body of Buster Keaton's work was difficult to see, so it's great to have the entire collection in one set. If you like Buster Keaton you can't go wrong.
Keaton's 16 Educational comedies are included in this new set. Most of them were filmed on low budgets and, incredibly enough considering the quickie schedules, they are more leisurely paced than his later slam-bang Columbia shorts, with Buster indulging in pantomime to a much greater extent. ALLEZ OOP, with Buster competing romantically with an aerialist; THE GOLD GHOST, with Buster lost in a ghost town; and ONE-RUN ELMER, with Keaton running a desolate gas station in the first reel and playing baseball in the second, are filled with silent Keaton bits.
Some of the shorts are good by Educational standards but run-of-the-mill for Buster, with the humor more evident in the premise than in the gags themselves. These are pleasant but uninspired: TARS AND STRIPES has Buster on a naval base, with two-reeler perennial Vernon Dent as his foil; PALOOKA FROM PADUCAH has hillbilly Buster refereeing a wrestling match; HAYSEED ROMANCE has Buster as a farmhand on big Jane Jones's ramshackle ranch. But there are some real gems here that will not disappoint Buster's admirers. GRAND SLAM OPERA is a wonderful sendup of Major Bowes's Amateur Hour, with Buster practicing dancing and juggling (for the radio audience!). BLUE BLAZES has Buster as an inept fireman from the city, transferred to a suburban station and becoming a one-man rescue squad. JAIL BAIT is a very funny short with Buster being falsely convicted, and then trying to catch the real criminal. LOVE NEST ON WHEELS, the last of the series, has Buster and his family (his real mother, brother, and sister) running a hillbilly hotel, with his old crony Al St. John in his familiar "Fuzzy" makeup. All 16 shorts have worthwhile Keaton routines; his antics are still clever and his gags are still inventive.
The Keaton shorts were extremely successful in theaters, with Educational proudly promoting the best ones in full-page magazine ads. He might have continued with Educational, but financial pressures forced Hammons to close his California studio. I'm willing to bet that Hammons tried to relocate Keaton to his New York studio: BLUE BLAZES, THE CHEMIST, and MIXED MAGIC were filmed at Educational East and actually staged by Keaton himself.
Unlike the flawless restorations of Keaton's Columbia shorts, the Educational prints are in variable physical condition. That's no surprise, given the films' scattered availability since Educational's demise. Some of the shorts are in excellent shape; splices and wear do show up in the lesser prints. (MIXED MAGIC is noticeably damaged in its opening scenes and the spliced frames have been removed digitally.) The good news is that the pictorial quality is fine, at least one generation better than prints that have been circulating for years. (Kino has a sampling of the quality on its website.)
For decades this body of Buster Keaton's work was difficult to see, so it's great to have the entire collection in one set. If you like Buster Keaton you can't go wrong.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Having been in the dumps for about a year both personally and career-wise his fortunes were starting to pick up again when in 1934 he approached Earle Hammons of Educational Pictures and asked him to give him a chance doing comedy shorts.Educational was a very low budget/rung of the ladder studio and shorts is what they did best.Hammons was intrigued enough by their meeting that he gave Buster the go ahead and what we have in this collection are the result.Some of the best writers on the subject of Keaton have said over and over how terrible it was for Buster to have had to stoop to such a degrading extent and how bad most of these films were.The truth is Buster wanted/needed to get back to what he knew best and if he had to suffer short term pain for long term gain,then he was willing to do what it took.No sob sister here folks,Keaton was a pro in many,many respects.
Well after careful examination of each of these shorts it is my humble opinion that they are,in general,good and some even quite excellent.The weakest of the bunch is Palooka From Paducah.If its' terribly slow pace isn't bad enough his father seems terribly self conscious and wooden in front of the camera.The best thing about it is his mother who gives a boffo performance(as she would later in Love Nest on Wheels).ALL the films show the Buster Keaton of old and the personal touches of brilliance he was so very capable of exhibiting at a moments notice.He was taking falls and executing gags in some of these shorts as if it was 1922 again.Never mind those that say Buster was washed up and out of it,he still had it;the fact is it never left him,he always had it.He was one of the most brilliant gag men ever to come out of Hollywood,arguably THE best.
The shorts start with The Gold Ghost(released March 16/34) to the last one Love Nest on Wheels(released March26/37).The last is especially endearing as it has all of the Keaton clan in it(with the exception of his father Joe)and his old pal from the Arbuckle days Al St John.Also along the way in these films you will spot people like Tiny Sandford from the Roach studios who was a common nemesis for Laurel and Hardy,Bud Jamison and Vernon Dent from the Keystone studios who moved on to better pastures at Columbia and Harold Goodwin who had been with Buster on and off since his silent days and would remain with him well into the 50s.
Technically speaking the films are a mixed bag.Some are in only fair shape while others are very good.Some will exhibit jumps and unexpected cuts and others will have the voice and lips slightly out of sync(which with todays technology should have been very easy to correct).In all fairness though Kino does provide a kind of disclaimer on the back cover and here it is verbatim:"These DVDs were transfered from 35mm negatives and fine grain masters culled from Keaton's personal collection and other archival sources by Raymond Rohauer.Some films exist in less than perfect condition,which is not atypical for low budget"orphan" films such as these".That pretty much says it all,doesn't it? "Orphan" is right as Educational films folded in 1939 and the films and film stock were picked up by Astor pictures.Educational's silent product was mostly destroyed by fire in 1937.Astor survived until 1963 when they in turn folded.Where the films reside now and what condition they are in is a big question mark.They usually surface,like these,from private collectors.
Some big names got their start at Educational such as Shirley Temple,Bing Crosby,Bob Hope,Roy Rogers,Danny Kaye to name just a few.It was a cheap outfit from the brick and mortar right down to the film stock but served its purpose in more ways than one.
In my way of thinking we have three people to thank for these films,Kino notwithstanding.First is Educational Pictures,specifically Earle Hammons for giving Buster a needed break.Next is Buster himself with enough personal intestinal fortitude to do what it took to get himself back on track despite his career,personal and financial troubles.Lastly we MUST thank a man as important to Keaton's overall career as Arbuckle was to his early one;Raymond Rohauer.Without his relentless dedication to Keaton and his films we may never have had the film product to examine to the extent we have it today.
If I have any kind of problem with this set(besides the aforementioned sound-sync problem)it is the plastic holder of the first disc in the snap case.It is on a "floating" platform(you can move it like a page on a book)and I have a devil of a time getting the disc off and out without scuffing the surface.It is a minor thing to be sure but I thought you should be aware of it when you are attempting to handle it.The second disc sits tight on the inside back cover-no problems there.
All in all this set is a must have edition for any Keaton fan or fan of good comedy.They are historically quite important and it is wonderful to have all of these shorts together in one collection.While the films' comedy quality certainly varies,I guarantee ALL of them still show a brilliant comedian on top of his game and executing gags beautifully.I think the history books need a re-write.
Well after careful examination of each of these shorts it is my humble opinion that they are,in general,good and some even quite excellent.The weakest of the bunch is Palooka From Paducah.If its' terribly slow pace isn't bad enough his father seems terribly self conscious and wooden in front of the camera.The best thing about it is his mother who gives a boffo performance(as she would later in Love Nest on Wheels).ALL the films show the Buster Keaton of old and the personal touches of brilliance he was so very capable of exhibiting at a moments notice.He was taking falls and executing gags in some of these shorts as if it was 1922 again.Never mind those that say Buster was washed up and out of it,he still had it;the fact is it never left him,he always had it.He was one of the most brilliant gag men ever to come out of Hollywood,arguably THE best.
The shorts start with The Gold Ghost(released March 16/34) to the last one Love Nest on Wheels(released March26/37).The last is especially endearing as it has all of the Keaton clan in it(with the exception of his father Joe)and his old pal from the Arbuckle days Al St John.Also along the way in these films you will spot people like Tiny Sandford from the Roach studios who was a common nemesis for Laurel and Hardy,Bud Jamison and Vernon Dent from the Keystone studios who moved on to better pastures at Columbia and Harold Goodwin who had been with Buster on and off since his silent days and would remain with him well into the 50s.
Technically speaking the films are a mixed bag.Some are in only fair shape while others are very good.Some will exhibit jumps and unexpected cuts and others will have the voice and lips slightly out of sync(which with todays technology should have been very easy to correct).In all fairness though Kino does provide a kind of disclaimer on the back cover and here it is verbatim:"These DVDs were transfered from 35mm negatives and fine grain masters culled from Keaton's personal collection and other archival sources by Raymond Rohauer.Some films exist in less than perfect condition,which is not atypical for low budget"orphan" films such as these".That pretty much says it all,doesn't it? "Orphan" is right as Educational films folded in 1939 and the films and film stock were picked up by Astor pictures.Educational's silent product was mostly destroyed by fire in 1937.Astor survived until 1963 when they in turn folded.Where the films reside now and what condition they are in is a big question mark.They usually surface,like these,from private collectors.
Some big names got their start at Educational such as Shirley Temple,Bing Crosby,Bob Hope,Roy Rogers,Danny Kaye to name just a few.It was a cheap outfit from the brick and mortar right down to the film stock but served its purpose in more ways than one.
In my way of thinking we have three people to thank for these films,Kino notwithstanding.First is Educational Pictures,specifically Earle Hammons for giving Buster a needed break.Next is Buster himself with enough personal intestinal fortitude to do what it took to get himself back on track despite his career,personal and financial troubles.Lastly we MUST thank a man as important to Keaton's overall career as Arbuckle was to his early one;Raymond Rohauer.Without his relentless dedication to Keaton and his films we may never have had the film product to examine to the extent we have it today.
If I have any kind of problem with this set(besides the aforementioned sound-sync problem)it is the plastic holder of the first disc in the snap case.It is on a "floating" platform(you can move it like a page on a book)and I have a devil of a time getting the disc off and out without scuffing the surface.It is a minor thing to be sure but I thought you should be aware of it when you are attempting to handle it.The second disc sits tight on the inside back cover-no problems there.
All in all this set is a must have edition for any Keaton fan or fan of good comedy.They are historically quite important and it is wonderful to have all of these shorts together in one collection.While the films' comedy quality certainly varies,I guarantee ALL of them still show a brilliant comedian on top of his game and executing gags beautifully.I think the history books need a re-write.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keaton Still Shines.
These sound shorts for poverty row Educational Pictures ("The Spice of the Program") was Keaton climbing out of the abyss of being dropped by MGM and a decent into... Read more
Published 5 days ago by M BATEMAN-GRAHAM
4.0 out of 5 stars
As good as can be hoped
Educational Pictures was the cheapest production house in town, so Buster Keaton had to make do with very limited resources when he made these sixteen shorts. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Arthur J. Munson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Son loved it
This was for my son for Christmas. He was ver happy to get it. Keaton is one of his favorites
Published 3 months ago by L. M. Lowes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keaton: Lost AND found
Much has already been written about Buster Keaton's "decline" during the talkie era. What usually isn't mentioned is that while this tumultuous period chronicled Keaton's career... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Randy E. Halford
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, but not exactly the Spice of the Program.
I'm glad they finally put Buster's "Educational Pictures" on DVD. I've seen some really poor quality copies in the past. But these are much better, though not exactly perfect. Read more
Published 18 months ago by G. M. Ende
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of the sound films
Imagine Busters silent films with sound, this is what you get! Some like One Run Elmer are practically silent through the whole film, Buster at his best
Published 19 months ago by Cinophile
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worthy of any Buster Keaton Collection
While there's no Cops, The Goat or Neighbors in this "shorts" collection, I found Buster to be his usual comical self. Read more
Published on January 25, 2011 by KG74
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fourteen Lost Comedy Shorts
I did a review years ago for the big Kino box set, the bonus disc of which includes "Allez Oop" and "Jail Bait. Read more
Published on January 15, 2011 by D. Junius
3.0 out of 5 stars
Keaton, Wildly Uneven
To dispense with the technical elements first, these are probably the best prints of these shorts we're ever going to see, since all the negatives were apparently lost in a fire... Read more
Published on January 3, 2011 by Pilsner Panther
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious, enjoyable and Keaton talkies that are worth having in your...
their lead actor getting hurt) and Buster Keaton continued his downward slope in his career and also his life as an alcoholic. Read more
Published on November 5, 2010 by Dennis A. Amith (kndy)
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