Product Details

• Actors: Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, Ruth Selwyn, Thelma Todd, Hedda Hopper
• Directors: Edward Sedgwick
• Writers: Clarence Budington Kelland, Laurence E. Johnson, Ralph Spence
• Producers: Buster Keaton
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: January 27, 1993
• Run Time: 82 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302641837
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,067 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Keaton Comedy "Easy" To Enjoy, July 20, 2004

By 

Alex Udvary (chicago, il United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Speak Easily [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Boy! Am I in the minority opinion here or what?

I have often heard the complaints that when Buster started making sound pictures and signed with MGM his career was over. And I even believe Buster made remarks to that effect as well. But, I don't know, I don't mind Buster's sound pictures. Granted I have only seen a few of them, I think of them as light diversions. I also don't mind the films Laurel & Hardy made in the 40s.

"Speak Easily" has Buster Keaton playing Professor Post, a lonely man who never gets a chance to go out and lead a social life. He has no friends, no love in his life and only his butler to tell his worries to. One day Buster finds out he has inherited 750,000. He sets off and plans to go out a live life. Do all the things he's always wanted to do.

"Speak Easily" works best in the early moments and then struggles trying to find the correct tone. Maybe this is because Keaton and Durante had such different comedy styles.

But I still don't think of this as a bad movie and wouldn't mind watching it again. It may not be as good as some of Buster's silent films such as "Sherlock, Jr.", "The General", and "Our Hospitality".

The movie was directed by Edward Sedgwick, who directed several of Keaton's later films starting with in order of preference; "The Cameraman", "Spite Marriage", "Doughboys", and "The Passionate Plumber" (Also with Durante), though I prefer "Plumber" over this movie.

But "Speak Easily" has some good slapstick moments, particulary at the end of the film. I also liked a scene between Keaton and Thelma Todd, as an actress trying to get into Buster's good graces. And a gag dealing with a train in the beginning I found funny.

I'm sorry, surprised, and slightly embarrassed to find I'm the only one who likes this movie, but contrary to what you've heard I'd recommend Keaton fans take a look at this one.

Bottom-line: Enjoyable, light Keaton "talkie" that offers laughs but does have its problems. Has enough moments that made me laugh to suggest the movie to fans. Or maybe I'm a pushover for Keaton?

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Underrated Keaton Gem, August 2, 1999

By 

Scott T. Rivers (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Speak Easily [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Despite his personal troubles during the early 1930s, Buster Keaton reveals another dimension of his comic talent in "Speak Easily." He gives a splendid performance as Timolean Zanders Post, an isolated professor who believes he has inherited $750,000. With this mistaken financial security, he manages a struggling vaudeville troupe that he takes to Broadway. "Speak Easily" was the second MGM film to pair Keaton with Jimmy Durante. Though an unusual combination, they work remarkably well in this enjoyable musical-comedy - one of the few movies that displays Keaton's flair for verbal humor. The result is the best of Keaton's MGM talkies.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK early talkie that didn't really need Keaton as part of its formula, August 8, 2007

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Speak Easily (DVD)

If you're a Keaton fan your eyeballs will not melt in their sockets if you watch this - it really is not bad. It would be a rather enjoyable early talkie if it were not for the fact that Buster Keaton's talents are being wasted in this film. Since I know that by this time (1932) MGM gave him no creative control and treated him just as a performer, I can only wonder what the film would have been like if someone had listened to his ideas. However, at least there are no moments in which you must look away in embarrassment at what MGM is doing to the man, as there are in Free and Easy.

The good:
a. Unlike Free and Easy (a real embarrassment of a film), Buster does get the girl in the end.
b. Buster shows a real penchant for dialogue and verbal comedy, demonstrating that he was not outside his element in talking pictures.
c. The seduction/morning after scenes with Buster and Thelma Todd. Todd gave the best supporting performance in the cast. What a shame she died so young.
d. The ending where Keaton disrupts the show but scores a hit with the audience. It's not the most clever stuff he ever did, but it is funny.

The bad:
a. Buster being made to play a straight man to Jimmy Durante.
b. Buster's expressive eyes being hidden behind his pince-nez spectacles.
c. Buster bungling into a happy ending. In his years as an independent filmmaker his character would often start out lost and fumbling around, but he figured things out in the end and came up with resourceful and deliberate solutions.

The ugly:
Why did this film need Buster Keaton anyway? Lots of comics less talented than Keaton could have been employed to recite the dialogue that was written for this script and take a few pratfalls. I'm sure in 1943 you could have dressed up Orson Welles in a gorilla suit and he would have been an effective and convincing gorilla in just about any film you put him in - but why on earth would you want to?

As far as video and audio quality, this film is in very good shape for being a public domain copy of a 75 year old film. There's no hissing in the audio and the video has no scratches in it and is quite clear.