Today Is Buster Keaton's Natal Anniversary!

It's October 4th, so we have no choice but to pay tribute to Buster Keaton on his birthday.



Buster Keaton's half century in movies and TV remains quite remarkable and encompasses everything from Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in ROUGH HOUSE and Chaplin's LIMELIGHT to THE TWILIGHT ZONE.













The diehard film buffs at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog regard Buster Keaton as the greatest movie comedian, filmmaker and gag writer of all, a singular comic genius.



At the turn of the 20th century in The Three Keatons, Buster was a vaudeville star, as the acrobatic little kid who got thrashed repeatedly in crowd-pleasing mayhem onstage.



Buster began his movie career in a series of short subjects for Comique Productions as a supporting player with slapstick comedian Roscoe Arbuckle, the rotund yet extremely agile star of Mack Sennett's Keystone.





After Paramount Pictures signed the aforementioned Roscoe Arbuckle to headline feature films, Buster inherited the big guy's studio and would launch his own starring series.



Buster assembled a staff of top comedy writers, including Jean Havez and Clyde Bruckman.



The Buster Keaton Productions team would go on to produce short subjects, followed by features.































The transition from independent producer to star for MGM in 1928 would be disastrous, but at first, in silents, such good movies as The Cameraman resulted, even with a Buster Keaton who was no longer directing and producing.



Buster would end up more as an MGM contract player than the comedy creator he was in silents.



While Buster's MGM talkies were not masterpieces as his silent features were, some were at least decent enough and entertaining.











Buster enters this excerpt from the 1932 MGM feature The Passionate Plumber at 6:29.



Even the worst of the MGM features, What! No Beer? (1933), has its moments, regardless of how baked Buster looks throughout.





Buster transitioned to starring in 2-reelers for Educational Pictures in 1934.



In Educational Pictures' 1920's heydey, such comedians as Al St. John, Lupino Lane and Lloyd Hamilton starred in series.



While Harry Langdon made very good Educational Pictures sound comedies in 1932-1934, by the time Buster arrived there, the company was on the downside.



That said, there is something impressive about Buster making very entertaining comedy shorts on miniscule budgets and extremely tight shooting schedules.















After starring in 16 short subjects for Educational, Buster moved on to the Columbia Shorts Department.



In general, the less said about the Buster Columbias, the better.

The best of the lot, The Pest From The West, presents a condensed version of his 1934 feature Le roi des Champs-Élysées and enthusiastic work by the stock company.



While Buster's performances and physical comedy are very good and some of the 2-reelers are okay, the only comics who fit Jules White's slam-bang slapstick format at Columbia remain The Three Stooges.




We'll close this tribute with a respectful hat tip to The International Buster Keaton Society - and two outstanding documentaries about Buster.