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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) Posters
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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) DVD
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Rating:  -
The Columbia shorts are much maligned, yet this set proves that this is unfair for the most part. Out of the 10 two-reelers Buster did for Columbia, at least seven are quite good. Sure, they do not reach the heights of his silent classics, and they were made on the (very) cheap. But they are very energetic and fast-moving, and even in his forties (and after a gruelling battle with alcohol and depression) Buster still busts out some very impressive physical skills. Plots don't make sense, slapstick is everywhere, and the influence of director/producer Jules White, who was the man behind the Three Stooges shorts, is very noticeable. Yet he still allows Buster to be Buster, in most cases (not giving him too much dialogue, allowing him to rework some of his older routines in a creative way). Buster is at his worst when handling dialogue: he never sounds comfortable, his voice is scratchy and monotonous and he has a tendency to bob his head with every word he utters. Yet when he is silent, the magic is still there.
Some of the shorts use Harold Lloyd-style gags, others have scenes clearly inspired by Laurel and Hardy, and several times Buster adapts the plot of earlier (talkie) films he was in. Most successfully so in the delightful Pest from the West, a far shorter remake of his British film The Invader. It's probably the only film here which equals Buster's silent material for inventiveness and surreal humor. But there is much fun to be had with almost every film in this collection.
Buster has an appealing leading lady in Dorothy Appleby, and a more... special one in Elsie Ames, who is so raucous she makes Betty Hutton seem demure. On the other hand, she has some very impressive physical skills which makes her the only female performer who could (almost) match Buster on the acrobatic front. Another recurring player is Monty Collins, who is another broad comedian with far less talent than Keaton. But in some of the shorts, they play off each other quite well (especially Mooching In Georgia, a Civil War farce).
The extras are nice: informed commentaries by film historians and a good documentary on Keaton's work in the thirties, and, most impressively, a facsimile of an original script, including the hand-written notes of the director.
Highly recommended for anyone who loves old-school slapstick comedy, not only for Keaton fanatics.
Rating: -
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.
Rating:  -
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.
Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
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.
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