EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT/THE MASTERS OF CINEMA SERIES PRESENTS: BUSTER KEATON: THE COMPLETE SHORT FILMS 1917-1923. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
I normally sneak the 'pluggy' part
of my film reviews in at the end of the review, real nice 'n'
easy-like, so you guys won't feel that you're being bombarded, haha.
This time around, however, I've got to do it at the start or else
what follows mightn't make much sense, see? 'Course you do. My
readers are smrt. Real smrt. I mean, smart, heh-heh-heh.
So here
goes, anyway! The thing is, EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT are
releasing a Buster Keaton box-set this July (2016) containing the
thirty-two short films that comprise his work output from 1917-1923,
and now I want to tell you exactly why you literally cannot
live
another minute without having this boxset in your life. I've watched
all thirty-two films myself and I can tell you honestly that I don't
know how I even considered myself fully alive
before
I'd seen 'em.
What
do you guys know about Buster Keaton, anyway? Well, you probably know
that he was an actor, director, producer, writer and stuntman and
that he was best known for his silent movies. Between 1920 and 1929,
'he worked without
interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the
greatest actor-director in the history of the movies.' This
last is according to film critic Roger Ebert and, having watched the
box-set, I'm inclined to agree with him.
The
films are all silent comedies, with brilliant music, gorgeous sepia-toned sets and outlandish
plots. His very first appearance in silent films is contained within the very first
film in the set. In THE BUTCHER BOY
(1917),
Keaton co-stars with Roscoe 'Fatty'
Arbuckle,
his friend and colleague since they met in New York City that same
year. The films then take us all the way up to the point at which
Keaton, nicknamed 'The
Great Stone-Face' for
his wonderful deadpan expression, was headlining and directing his
own box office smash hits.
Fatty,
himself an actor, director, comedian and screenwriter, features
heavily (no pun
intended!) in
the first few films on the box-set. He's a marvellous comedy actor
with an expressive face and portly body, both of which he uses to
perfection in films like THE BUTCHER BOY.
In
this particular short film, Fatty dresses up as a woman and gains
illegal entrance to Miss Teachem's School For Girls in order to be
near to his girlfriend Amanda, who's been whisked off there to keep
her out of harm's (and Fatty's!) way.
Naturally,
hilarious shenanigans ensue as the ringleted Fatty, a hefty young
'lady' by
anyone's standards, tries to keep his male identity a secret from the
staff and pupils of the school. Despite his efforts, however, he
still ends up getting a thunderous hairbrush spanking on his
be-frilled heinie from Miss Teachem for being in the wrong place at
the wrong time and boy!
Doesn't
(s)he howl...!
In
CONEY ISLAND
(1917),
Fatty again dons ringlets and a lady's parasol to go blithely
jaunting through a mens' shower room, much to the discomfiture of the
men. Clearly Fatty was very much at home in ladies' clothing! In OH
DOCTOR! (1917),
the womanising Dr. I.O. Dine goes to the races with chaotic results
and in THE ROUGH HOUSE (1917),
a night-shirted Fatty puts out a fire in an extraordinary and not
terribly effective way. Such a brilliant comic actor!
Sadly, however, it's not his contribution to silent movies and comedy
for which Fatty Arbuckle is chiefly remembered. In 1921, he was
accused of the rape and accidental killing of Virginia Rappe at a
party he held in a San Francisco hotel.
Rappe was a young woman who
seemed to have had many physical problems relating to her acute
alcoholism and possible previous abortions. Her death, however it
occurred, sounds like it was agonisingly painful. You wouldn't wish
it on anyone.
After
no fewer than three
trials,
Fatty was cleared of all wrongdoing by a jury who personally
apologised to the chubby star for everything he'd wrongly been put
through. Though Fatty was delighted to have been acquitted, his
career and mental health never recovered from the ordeal.
Some of his films were even destroyed, surely a crime against cinema
history. That's why it's so great to be able to watch an excellent
selection of his work on this box-set. Buster Keaton, incidentally,
was
one of the few people who stood by Fatty during his trial and
believed in his innocence.
On the face of it, he certainly seems
to
have been innocent but, as we weren't actually there at the time, I
guess we'll never really know. No-one will except those who were
there, and they're no longer around to tell their story.
Onto
happier things now. Let's talk about the short films on the box-set in
which Buster Keaton, comic genius extraordinaire, plays the lead himself. In MY
WIFE'S RELATIONS (1922),
an inability to understand spoken Polish leads to the diminutive
little Buster's finding himself accidentally married to a large bossy
woman called Kate who has a number of equally enormous brothers. They
dwarf Buster and fling him about the place willy-nilly as if he
weighed no more than a rag doll. Sure, it could happen to anyone.
In
THE HAUNTED HOUSE
(1921),
Buster runs afoul of a trick staircase in the titular haunted house and directs traffic, whistle
in mouth, for a number of gruesome oddities who seems to be
inhabiting the place.
In COPS
(1922),
an ill-thought-out purchase of a cartload of household furniture
leads to Buster's being unexpectedly pursued through the streets by every policeman from the 5th
Precinct. Laughs and pratfalls abound as the hapless, deadpan-faced
comic star tries to escape the consequence of his actions.
My
favourite film of his on the boxset, however, is CONVICT
13 (1920),
in which a simple game of golf on a lovely day and a case of mistaken
identity leads to Buster's breaking rocks in the nearby prison-yard
and being sentenced to hang on the gallows. That's some day out...!
It's
the sort of farcical situation that might happen to Frank Spencer of
SOME MOTHERS DO
'AVE 'EM and
FAWLTY TOWERS's
Basil
Fawlty. In fact, I bet you anything you like that Michael Crawford,
John Cleese and any other comic actor who ever practised the art of
slapstick comedy studied Buster Keaton's work closely for
inspiration. After all, it's there in spades for anyone who chooses
to go and look for it.
He
was a handsome fellow, this Buster Keaton who, by the way, also made a
cameo appearance in SUNSET
BOULEVARD (1950)
as one of Norma Desmond's so-called 'waxworks.'
With his huge, heavy-lidded eyes and mobile, expressive mouth, he was
every bit as attractive as his contemporary Valentino. I've no doubt that he could have
been a serious matinée
idol
if he'd wanted, but obviously the urge to make people laugh was in
his blood. Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do and all that.
The
films are all ridiculously
violent,
which I suppose is not too surprising considering how old they are.
People are routinely hit on the noggin with hammers, mallets, bricks,
rocks and other implements, and plenty of folk are kicked in the
butt, which is always good for a laugh. The films aren't politically
correct, either. Women hit men and are hit by men in return and it's
all treated as perfectly normal stuff. Ah sure, 'twas a simpler time,
haha.
A
word about the rather special extra features now. As a humble
reviewer, I was only sent the discs to review, but anyone who buys
this luxurious box-set will come in for a load of delectable goodies.
These include a choice of musical scores on selected shorts
(la-di-da!), a
rare audio recording of Buster Keaton at a party in 1962 and a
184-page book containing a roundtable discussion on Keaton by critics
Brad Stevens, Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Dan Sallitt.
I
wasn't sent the book, boo-hoo. I want that book...! Of course, you
guys will get the book and much more when you purchase this gorgeous
box-set. Enjoy it. It's a poignant reminder of a bygone age and, even
more than that, it's proof that comic genius existed long before the
days of high technology. Fatty and Buster, rest in peace and know
that we still remember ye.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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