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.
He would end up more as an MGM contract player than the exceptional comedy creator and director he was in silents.
The Cameraman is the one Keaton starring vehicle that combines the big budget gloss of MGM with Buster's inventive ideas and storytelling prowess.
Buster ultimately transitioned from one of his best films, The Cameraman to a series in which he was teamed with wisecracking Jimmy Durante. While we love both Buster and Schnozzola, the teaming doesn't do justice to either comedian.
While Buster's MGM talkies were not masterpieces as his silent features were, some were at least decent enough and entertaining.
For some reason, the powers that were at MGM had the notion that presenting Buster as an idiot, rather than the low-key yet resourceful fellow from such silents as The General, meant surefire laughs.
Would assume from this inexplicable approach that Irving Thalberg, a man with frequently extremely accurate instincts about entertainment, was not involved directly with Buster's MGM features other than The Cameraman.
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 (The Big Flash, Knight Duty) in 1932-1933, 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 Buster's 1934 feature Le roi des Champs-Élysées.
There are very funny bits throughout and excellent work by the Columbia Shorts Department stock company (Lorna Gray in particular).
While Buster's performances and physical comedy are very good and some of the 2-reelers are okay, the only comics who truly 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.
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