Pete Smalls Is Dead

2010 comedy

Rating: 12/20

Plot: K.C., a former screenwriter who can't get over the tragedy of losing a loved one, owes ten thousand dollars to a loan shark who has stolen his dog. He's lured back to Los Angeles to attend the funeral of his titular deceased former colleague by another friend who promises to help him out of his financial troubles. They ride on a scooter through a muddy, convoluted mystery plot that I had trouble understanding.

I only popped this in because I wasn't able to finish I Am a Sex Addict and needed another movie with a full sentence for a title. Well, that and the Peter Dinklage, former Billy Curtis Award winner. And then look who shows up to complete my Mark Boone Junior trifecta! Mark Boone Junior, the only man who is capable of completing a Mark Boone Junior trifecta. Gosh, I really wanted to like this one, mostly because it seems like it was made for The Big Lebowski fans. Indeed, there were a few parallels--Dinklage's got Bridges' facial hair, Mark Boone Junior reminds me a bit of Goodman's character, Steve Buscemi makes an appearance in this ridiculous curly blond wig, there's a twisty and barely-or-maybe-not-even-decipherable neo-noir storyline, and a missing rug. Well, it's a dog, not a rug. That's pretty close to the same thing though. Buster Keaton also makes an appearance on a pair of postcards and a book of matches. But even though this was occasionally very funny--a panda costume heist; a funeral with bags on heads and a corpse made of marzipan; the sight of seeing Mark Boone Junior and a football-helmeted Peter Dinklage on a scooter--it's frequently more frustrating. Dinklage is really good as the straight man in this. Tim Roth and Rosie Perez, two performers who have an ability to take something already kind of messy and make an even bigger mess, are also in this. I really wanted to like this, mostly so that I could introduce it as a little sleeper to my 4 1/2 readers and be some kind of hero. Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me.

The Fall

2006 fantasy thing

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A paralyzed stuntman in a 1920's Los Angeles hospital meets a girl with a broken arm and begins telling her a story about five vengeful heroes and a monkey. She enjoys his disjointed tale of a search for the evil Lord Odious, but the storyteller might have ulterior motives.

I had to take a point away from this because the director, Singh, chose to go by a single name, Tarsem, for this production. And then there's the issue of this poster which is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. I've seen The People's Tongue album covers that are easier on the eye than that. But then there was a really nice tribute to silent film stuntmen with Beethoven's 7th Symphony, 2nd Movement that teared me up a bit. Of course, it made me wonder if that particular piece of music, which I plan on dying to some day, is overused these days. It's no "Beyond the Sea" yet, but it's getting there. This is a movie with so much beauty in its individual parts that it's almost overwhelmingly sloppy. The sheer amount of locations the filmmakers would have had to travel to is impressive enough. Tarsem's visuals are often stunning, and the swimming elephants, dazzling colors, butterflies that morph into islands, and human meat chandeliers can remind a person why they watch movies in the first place. Unlike Alexandria, played by Catinca Untaru in a child performance that ranged from touching and with surprising depth to sort of annoying, I didn't care much for the story the guy was telling or its flat characters. But I was enamored with the visuals, these characters traveling to places that movies can usually only take us through the magic of CGI. I'm just going to assume computers weren't involved because it makes me like the movie more. Just as this movie's story and its story-within-a-story are all over the place, this is thematically all over the place as well, touching on dark thematic issues like depression, child labor, immigration, and suicide and happier ones like the powers of imagination. And movies. This doesn't always work and feels a little too long, but when it connects, it's almost magical. Buster makes a few appearances in that stuntman montage, by the way.

Hugo

2011 movie

Rating: 18/20

Plot: An orphan living in a train station tries to repair a robot that his father found in storage at a museum. He befriends the daughter of a crotchety old toy shop owner and tries to avoid being caught by the station inspector while he keeps the train station's clocks running.

Just a stunningly beautiful work of art and a lovely ode to silent cinema, especially the work on a director I won't mention even though it doesn't seem to stop anybody else who writes or talks about the movie. Now the big surprise in this was already spoiled for me because I'd read Brian Selznick's beautiful novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Knowing the story's secrets didn't ruin it for me, and I still teared up, probably because of Ben Kingsley's wonderful performance as that director whom I will not mention. This is a touching movie with plenty of humorous bits, mostly provided by Sacha Baron Cohen's station inspector. The movie's got whimsy and heart, and it's also gorgeous. France is France, but I also loved the way the camera maneuvered around the clock gears or the people packing the train station. I also really enjoyed the recreations of the early films, too. This is a great adaptation of a very cool young adult book and a movie seemingly made for fans of movies.

Buster and Chaplin footage is in this, and Django Reinhardt also makes an appearance. Well, an actor playing Django Reinhardt.

Project A: Part 2

1987 sequel

Rating: 13/20

Plot: Dragon Ma is assigned to get rid of some gangsters in town. Meanwhile, some pirates from the last movie are looking for him to get their revenge. Apparently, they understood what was going on in the last movie better than I did and are pissed off about it.

This sequel delivers similar excitement from Part 1 in chunks, but it's not the wall-to-wall action of its predecessor and makes even less sense. There's some cuteness with a pair of handcuffs, an excellent fight scene early in the movie with bruising and flopping that look like outtakes from the first movie, and another 1920s comedy allusion. This time, it's a nod to Keaton and his most famous stunt. Mixed in with all this is a lot of silliness. I did like one line quite a bit: "I'm just wondering what to do with your corpses." That's something I might start saying to my students. The comedy that isn't physical comedy, just like in the first movie, falls completely flat, banging its head even harder than some of these stunt men. I did like this early exchange:

"You can't go around mugging ladies on the street!"
"But we're muggers!"

The motley collective of baddies is fun. There's Fatty, Shades, Stumpy Top Hat, Japanese Alan Thicke, and my personal favorite, Grand Meat Guy who gets all kinds of great one-liners during a Batman-esque "crusher" scene. "How 'bout a little oil?" "You're well lubricated." "I'm going to crush your knob off."

Stick around for the credits or you'll miss Jackie Chan singing a wonderful pop song. Actually, go ahead and miss that. Turn this off right before the credits unless you want to find out the name of the Japanese Alan Thicke.

The Cameraman

1928 comedy

This is already on the blog, and my opinion hasn't really changed. Everybody should see this movie. I think this one is an example of a movie that is actually great rather than being just a great Buster Keaton movie. Apparently, I'm a little biased some times. A couple things:

1) Very few title cards used in this. They did a good job showing the "dialogue" nonverbally.

2) Marceline Day might have been Buster's most attractive love interest, good looking enough that I'm planning on using some of the tips I learned from A Guide for the Married Man and attempting to hook up with her.

3) I'm still convinced that Josephine the Monkey's performance in this is one of the best performances by monkey or human in movie history. Josephine makes Christian Bale look like a hack!

Now, for your review, my ranking of Buster Keaton's silent films:

1) The General
2) Steamboat Bill, Jr.
3) The Cameraman
4) Sherlock Jr.
5) Our Hospitality
6) The Navigator
7) Go West
8) Seven Chances
9) Three Ages
10) Battling Butler
11) College

I haven't seen The Saphead yet. I'm not sure why.

Buster Keaton Saturday: Arbuckle & Keaton Volume One

Comedy shorts from 1917-1919

Rating: n/r

Plot: Five Fatty/Buster shorts. They're bell boys, butchers, bartenders, and candlestick makers who fall down more than the average bell boys, butchers, bartenders, and candlestick makers.

Was Fatty Arbuckle the first Will Ferrell? With Ferrell, it seems like producers just think of a new job for him to do in every movie. "Let's make him a basketball player." "How about we make him a race car driver this time?" "Hey, he hasn't been a weatherman yet!" Seems to be the same with Fatty, an actor I hadn't seen much of until now. He's fine. He's likable enough for me not to be bothered by Buster only getting a supporting role. Arbuckle's mainly funny because he's a fat guy. It just seems too easy at times. I mean, aren't all fat guys funny? Sometimes I just sit on a park bench waiting for a fat guy to come along so that I can point and laugh. Does that mean I should tape him and have Kino release it? What if the fat guy in the park was in a dress like Fatty is in "The Butcher Boy"? These things aren't terribly funny, barely mildly humorous even. The comedy and what passed as a plot in silent nineteen-teen's shorts are both really typical. There are a lot of clever bits and the physical comedy with both of the players is good, but a very small percentage of this made me laugh or even crack a smile. A couple of these use parody with uneven results. "Out West" pokes fun at the Western, and the humor actually gets pretty black. "Moonshine" has the weirdest title cards I've ever seen, ones that break the fourth wall and continually remind the audience that they're watching a movie. John Coogan, father of Chaplin's The Kid's kid Jackie Coogan, plays a policeman in The Hayseed. There probably aren't a lot of people to whom I'd recommend these, but I do have a second volume I'll get around to watching some time.

Buster Keaton Saturday: Film

1965 Samuel Beckett film

Rating: n/r

Plot: An old man hides his face from the camera as he runs along a wall, eventually arriving at his nondescript apartment, an apartment as tired and wrinkled as the man. He hides from his mirror, tears up some pictures, and meets a new friend.

Buster Keaton and Samuel Beckett? Damn right I'm in! This is less like Waiting for Godot and more like Waiting for Something to Happen, but it's a fascinating and haunting philosophical short. I wondered how Keaton, just a few years before his death, would do in an experimental film. His face is barely in it, but his movements (especially when we see his hands) are about perfect, and a nearly comedic episode involving the removal of a pair of pets makes it seem like Buster really was the only choice for this thing. It's entirely soundless, creepily soundless if you ask my wife, and the film's got this grainy quality, kind of like everybody's favorite Eraserhead, that makes it all ominous and a bit disturbing. I'm very glad that I stumbled across this. Quite literally actually. I was in the process of falling when I spotted this and grabbed it to keep my balance.

Buster Keaton Saturday: Battling Butler + extras

1926 romantic comedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Alfred Butler, a pampered rich boy, decides to toughen up by living out in the wild with his valet manservant. While there, he's smitten by a wilderness girl. Her brother and uncle (dad and grandfather? cousin and brother?) rightfully suspect that he's nothing more than an effeminate weakling and do not approve. That is until they mistakenly think he's Battling Butler, a champion boxer. Alfred does nothing to convince them otherwise and eventually finds himself in a situation where he meets the real Battling Butler face to face.

This has its moments. The finale is kind of neat and the first half of the film, where Butler and his valet (played by the hilarious Snitz Edwards) "brave the elements" is pretty funny. Once Buster becomes a boxer, however, it's just not as much fun, and it leads up to a climax that is really un-Busterlike. There's a lot stretched into a full-length feature film, and there's nothing resembling a classic Buster Keaton moment here. It does have an interesting story and for the most part is paced fairly well.

I also watched "The Boat" from 1921 (not to be confused with Das Boot) and "The Frozen North" from 1922. "The Boat" is a classic and has a lot of memorable scenes. My step-father laughed uproariously at a scene involving an anchor. It's a funny little movie. "The Frozen North" is not a complete film (at least my version wasn't), but it's an odd little surreal and slightly entertaining story. Keaton is apparently parodying contemporary films with this, and I think a lot of the humor is lost without the context. There are some interesting moments though, including the strangest dogsled you'll ever see. Keaton does play a mean character in this one. He robs and kills. My original plan was to force my parents to watch "The Boat" and The Navigator, but my children turned it into an all-request Buster Keaton Saturday and we ended up watching a bunch of shorts we've previously seen.

Buster Keaton Saturday: Two Shorts and a Twilight Zone episode

"The Scarecrow" from 1920 is a delightful short

where Buster (spoiler alert) has to win the heart of a girl. This one involves an imaginative one-room house, a lengthy scene in which Buster is chased by a dog, another chase scene involving a farmer and a fat guy, and a wedding on a motorcycle. Clever and fun with some amazing acrobatics. In fact, it's delightful! The kids really liked this one.

"The Paleface" is a racially insensitive but delightful short from 1922 about Native Americans (or Indians as we call them in these parts) losing their land. Buster is a butterfly collector who stumbles onto the Indian's land. Unfortunately for him, they had just decided to kill the first white man who walks through their gate. Later, he winds up a part of the tribe and aids them in their fight against the white men. Some good moments (and lots of Indians-chasing-Buster scenes) in this average short. Not as delightful as "The Scarecrow" but still delightful enough.

Also delightful was "Once Upon a Time" from season three of The Twilight Zone (1961) in which Buster plays a janitor in the 1890s. He's disturbed by the rising cost of meat and the clamor. He finds a time travel helmet and travels to the 1950s where meat is more costly and the clamor more clamorous. The first part of the episode is an homage to the silent comedy era complete with the music and the title cards. Really cool. When he gets to the 50s, it turns into a talky. It's delightful for Buster Keaton fans, but I imagine it must be regarded as one of the cheesiest Twilight Zone episodes ever. My kids were pretty bored with it although they did like hearing him talk. This was Jen's first ever Twilight Zone experience, and she has no desire to ever see another episode. And by the way, if you've ever had the urge to see a 60-something-year-old Buster Keaton in his underwear, this is the Twilight Zone episode for you. Old men in their underpants = delightful!

Buster Keaton Saturday: Seven Chances

1925 comedy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Poor Jimmie and his financial broker partner are facing financial and reputational ruins as well as jail time. Luckily, a lawyer pops by to inform Jimmie that he stands to inherit seven million dollars from his grandfather. Unluckily, he can only inherit the fortune if he is married by 7:00 on his 27th birthday which, because this is a movie, is that very day. Jimmie, his partner, and the lawyer rush around to find a willing bride.

The first half of this is very sweet, funny enough, and perfectly ordinary. I like the story just fine and Keaton and (especially) Snitz Edwards who plays the lawyer are great. But Harold Lloyd or really anybody else could have starred in it. It's a good first half of a movie, but it doesn't really seem like a Buster Keaton movie. Then, a scheme of his partner's draws about a thousand potential brides to a church which sets off a more typically Keaton chase scene, reminiscent of the short "Cops" but with blushing (and ticked off) brides taking the place of the po-po. It's always fun to watch quick little Buster dart around, and his athletic prowess is definitely on display during those last twenty minutes. Interestingly enough, I think I was more amused by that first half. The jokes work well although there are way too many title cards.

Because I couldn't find the remote control and was too lazy to get out of bed, I also watched the two shorts on this dvd. "Neighbors" (1920) is a very good and very funny short with sort of a Romeo and Juliet story, kind of like Our Hospitality but in the city. It's stuffed with stunts which makes it one of the more cartoony Keaton shorts. There's also a great gag involving pants, and there's another one of those terrific how's-he-doing-that moments. Keaton's father plays his character's father in this one. "The Balloonatic" (1923) is also worthwhile despite its made-up-as-we-go plotline. The Buster vs. the wild scenario that makes up the bulk of the short is fine, but it probably didn't help I watched it after the superior "Neighbors."

Buster Keaton "Saturday": Steamboat Bill, Jr.

1928 silent comedy

Ratings:

Jen 18/20

Dylan 15/20

Emma 18/20

Abbey 20/20

I watched this recently and have nothing new to add. With Dylan's unusually high rating, however, Steamboat Bill, Jr. gets the highest average rating of any Buster Keaton movie we've seen so far.

Free and Easy

1930 talkie

Rating: 9/20

Plot: American comedy genius Buster Keaton independently made several 1920's silent feature-length comedies and comedic two reelers. He wrote, directed, and starred in the movies. He even did all of his own stunts, some of them very dangerous. In 1928, he made what he later described as the worst business decision of his life and signed a contract with MGM studios. After one great movie and one so-so movie, Keaton was ready to make his first talkie. He liked his voice and was ready to combine his one-of-a-kind physical humor with some dialogue humor. Unfortunately for Keaton, MGM's filmmaking practices were very regimented which conflicted with the more improvisational, on-the-fly style that Keaton was used to. Keaton still had ideas, but none of those ideas got through. They wouldn't even let him do his own stunts, fearing that he would die or seriously injure himself. The movies were still successful enough, at least at the box office if not from a cinematically historical perspective, but they were not Buster Keaton movies. In fact, there would never be another Buster Keaton movie again. Keaton turned to alcohol, and his marriage fell apart. He made a few MGM movies before being relegated to a gag writer for other on-screen comedians including the Marx Brothers. Nearly eighty years after Buster Keaton made his first talking picture, Free and Easy, Shane watched it and was sad for several days afterwards.

There are numerous reasons why this is a bad film. Two scenes, however, are all anybody needs to know about.

Scene number one: Buster's character (named Elmer just like in the last movie) is escorting an aspiring actress to Hollywood. He holds the train tickets for her, her mother, and himself. Suddenly, the train begins to pull away without him. "Alright," you say, "this will something good." You rub your hands together as you imagine him hopping aboard a moving train. The scene ends with Buster holding onto his hat and running to catch up with the train. It immediately cuts to Buster standing on the back of the caboose with the brakeman. They have a conversation about how Buster can't enter the train. "Ok," you say to yourself, "now he's going to outsmart the brakeman and probably end up on top of the train somehow! Then, following some death-defying stunts, he'll find the girl and his mother and get them their tickets! This will be great!" Instead, Buster takes a seat next to the brakeman and looks disappointed. Sort of how I must have looked.

Scene number two: Buster has trespassed on a studio's backlot, hoping to find the actress. He snuck into the studios in a very uninteresting manner, by the way. Suddenly, the security guard spots him. "Finally!" you say to yourself. "We'll get one of those famous Buster Keaton chase sequences! This will be great!" He hides behind some rocks of an Old West set. He messes up the scene, in a very uninteresting manner, and then has to run from the security guard and the cast and crew of the Old West picture. "Oh, man!" you hear yourself say, audibly because when you're talking to yourself, you at least feel like you have a friend. "Now we're cooking!" But there is no cooking. Buster's character winds up in another scene, nothing funny happens, and then he winds up in another scene. By then, you've completely lost interest.

Free and Easy is an awkward and depressing movie experience. I hate this movie.

Buster Keaton Saturday: Spite Marriage

1929 silent comedy with sound

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Elmer's a lonely presser of pants. Completely obsessed with the leading actress in a Civil War play, he attends the performance every night and has every line memorized. Unfortunately for the poor pants presser, her man happens to be the male lead in the play. While hanging around backstage, Elmer finds himself filling in for an actor with some sort of legal problems. He doesn't do well, but afterwards, when his love interest's boyfriend starts devoting too much of his time to a pretty blond, the actress marries him out of spite. A bunch of things happen, and they eventually wind up on a boat.

This isn't really a silent movie since there are numerous sound effects throughout. Keaton actually wanted it to be a talkie as he, unlike Chaplin, was ready to embrace the new era of motion pictures. MGM didn't have the studio space apparently. This is a charming little romantic comedy (as expected) even though it's not up there with the independently-produced Keaton feature films. I laughed hardest at a scene involving a fake beard (actually, that was the only laugh), but there are some other good moments as well--a classic "putting the drunk wife to bed" scene and some fisticuffs on the boat where Buster takes on an entire gang of baddies. Stunts are again low key, and a lot of the movie just seems like it could have been made with any leading comedy actor. Keaton's talents were wasted here, so this lacks the magic of most of the rest of his 20's output. I did like the girl (Dorothy Sebastian) in this one. She flops around nearly as much as Keaton.

Buster Keaton Saturday: The Cameraman

1928 romantic comedy with a monkey

Rating: 18/20 (Jen: 16/20 [stayed awake!]; Dylan 13/20 [3-point bonus for the monkey who he claims is the best actor he's ever seen in a movie, human or animal); Emma: 19/20; Abbey: 20/20)

Plot: Buster's a street portrait tintype photographer who falls for a gal working in an MGM news office he spots and photographs during a ticker tape parade. He unloads his camera for a barely-working, used motion picture camera in order to impress the girl, but his attempts to win a job only prove how inept he is. So, he gets a monkey!

It's entirely possible that this is Keaton's best acting performance and definitely his most charming. He wasn't fond of close-ups, but it seems the new studio (his father-in-law convinced him to sell everything to MGM in what would turn out to be the sad beginning of the end of his career) demanded them. Ironically, the close-ups allow you to see how expressive Buster's inexpressive face really is. Also ironically, Buster Keaton is upstaged for perhaps the only time in his career. By a monkey! Seriously, Josephine the Monkey (same monkey, by the way, who molests Charlie Chaplin's face in The Circus) can act! I love the interaction between the star and the monkey; it reminds me of the rapport he has with the cow in Go West actually. The stunt work in The Cameraman is toned down a bit--just a couple pratfalls here and there, some vehicle hijinks, a falling scaffold--ostensibly an MGM decision made to protect their new star. But the physical comedy is still very good, favorites being a scene in a dressing room and a rainy ride home. All of Keaton's comedies are romantic ones, but the romance in this one seems less like a device to build the comedy around than in some of his other films. This is a great movie.

I've got to wonder though--do my children just pretend to love these movies to spare my feelings or do they really like them? I guess I should just be thrilled that Jen stayed awake for a Buster Keaton Saturday.

Buster Keaton Saturday: Three Ages

1923 comedy

Rating: 14/20 (Dylan: 11/20; Emma: 16/20; Abbey: 20/20)

Plot: Parallel stories about romance and and rivalry from the Stone Age, the Roman Empire, and modern times. Buster falls in love with the girl, courts the girl, confronts a rival, has some kind of challenge, and overcomes obstacles to eventually win over the girl.

Dylan: "The chariot race in this movie is the greatest chariot race in the history of cinema."

Emma: "I still didn't get my spot on the couch."

Abbey: "I liked all the funny parts. My favorite part was when Buster used the [spear] to [pole vault] up to save the girl."

Buster's first independently produced movie!

Buster Keaton Saturday: Sherlock Jr.

1924 romantic action-comedy

Rating: 17/20 (Emma: 17/20; Jen: zzzzz)

Plot: Our protagonist dreams of becoming a detective which could be detrimental to his real job as a projectionist. When accused of stealing and pawning a watch belonging to the father of the love of his life, he is booted from their home.

A novella of a movie? At a bit under fifty minutes, this is too long to be a short and too short to be feature length. Emma and I picked it because we'd all already seen it and the other two members of the household who are able to remain waking participants of Buster Keaton Saturday have come up missing. Sherlock Jr. sort of takes a while to get going, but it would be a great introduction to Keaton's work since it's got a little taste of everything he's known for. Creativity/invention in the denouement of the motorcycle and car chase and (especially) in a scene involving Buster walking into a movie. There are sight gags, including a tricky safe and Buster's attempt to "shadow" the culprit. There are a few stunts and pratfalls. There's a train. There's a fantastic chase scene. There are clever bits of "dialogue" ("It's your dollar? Describe it.") and romance. There's a down-on-his-luck protagonist who is easy to root for. And there are wonderful "How's he even doing that?" moments. I love a scene where he plays pool with an explosive ball, and this has one of my favorite Buster Keaton moments when he appears to actually leap through both a suitcase and a human being. His buddy Houdini probably taught him that one. My only gripe is that the music used for my dvd copy (composed in the 90's, I believe) is awful.

Trivia: This is the movie in which Buster actually fractured his neck during what looks to be a prosaic stunt and didn't even realize it until years later. This is also the movie that contains the only time Buster Keaton used a stunt double when he was needed to perform the stunt of another actor in the same scene.

Helpful hint: If interested in renting a Buster Keaton dvd, Sherlock Jr. and Our Hospitality are paired together. Since they're both good ones, it might be a great place to start. You'll have to put up with that terrible music though.

Limelight

1952 talkie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Calvero, a washed-up theatrical clown, saves the life of fellow tenant Terry the ballerina following her suicide attempt. He helps nurse her back to health, teaches her to walk again (she couldn't psychologically), and gives her the confidence to dance. Meanwhile, he dreams of a triumphant return to the stage for one final bow. Terry mistakes her feelings for Calvero as romantic love, but the old clown knows better.

Well, I certainly expected to like this one more. Muddled by dialogue, philosophically hokey and dippily sentimental, this one just seems so talky and dated at times. Thing is, based on story and sentiment alone, this would have been a fantastic movie to end a career on for Chaplin, but he should have insisted on making it a silent movie. It could have been a beautiful farewell, and the melodrama would have been a lot easier to swallow. Chaplin won a belated Oscar for his score, but the music is actually a little too much at times. This is not to say that there aren't some good moments and some very well-written lines. "Life is wonderful if you're not afraid of it" is a terrific line. This is, by the way, the only feature film with both Chaplin and Buster Keaton, but the latter's role is very very small and you really wouldn't even know it was him unless you knew it was him.

Buster Keaton Saturday: "One Week" and "The High Sign"

Shorts from 1920 and 1921

Plot: "One Week" is about the week following the wedding of Buster and his blushing bride. They receive property and a house as a wedding gift. When they arrive, much to the chagrin of the man his bride turned down, they find out they have to assemble their house. It doesn't go very well. In "The High Sign," our hero gets himself a job in a shooting gallery at a carnival and joins a gang of criminals called the Blinking Buzzards. Eventually, Buster stumbles into a situation where he is hired to kill the man who just hired him as his bodyguard. Oh, snap!

Abbey: "I vote it a 20 because I liked it when Buster Keaton pulled a rope and the guy was on top of the hole and he fell down. I also liked when he kept going through the walls while the guy was chasing him. That house was funny."

Emma: "Dylan took my space on the couch. He's mean."

Dylan: "The chase scene was my favorite part. The first movie wasn't as good. Both of these movies had trains in them."

Jen: "Zzzzzzzzzzzzz."

Shane: "I believe I saw a nipple in "One Week"! These were both good, and both coincidentally had to do with houses and showed off Buster's engineering skills. Keaton had some kind of engineering degree, probably contributing to the zaniness of the houses in both of these shorts. Great sight gags and gadgets and slapstick with some funky little touches to fill in the gaps. "One Week" impresses with the relentless amount of comedy stuffed into 19 minutes. There was easily a feature-length film's worth of material and ideas in that one, but instead, it was rapid fire comedy that I really hated to see end. The physical comedy, as always, is great in both of these. There's a great chase/fight scene in "The High Sign" when the camera shows all four rooms of a house in which Buster darts around like a Warner Brothers' cartoon character and ingeniously disposes of the The Blinking Buzzards. Two very imaginative and mad shorts. And there was a nipple!"

Buster Keaton Saturday: "The Play House"

1921 short

Rating: n/a

Plot: Buster works as a stagehand for a play house.

"This fellow Keaton seems to be the whole show."

Not as uproariously funny as a lot of Keaton's stuff, but this is worth watching for the craftsmanship and invention alone. This is a very fragmented "story," and again, the story is more of an excuse just to showcase the physical and visual humor. The special effects during the first sequence in which Keaton plays multiple roles (stagehands, minstrel performers [including two in blackface], a conductor, every member of the band, audience members, even some women) are great, and if one Buster Keaton is funny, twenty of them are probably even funnier. The second bit in which Keaton plays a monkey is entertaining, and there are some strange and imaginative visual gags when Buster must recruit some acrobatic soldiers (two of them midgets!) to replace the ones who quit. One of those includes two one-armed men collaborating on their clapping in the audience.

In case you're keeping score, Jennifer dozed off and couldn't make it through 2 minutes of this 22 minute short. She's not seen an entire Buster Keaton feature-length or short movie yet.

Buster Keaton Saturday on Wednesday: Two Shorts

Buster shorts from 1921 and 1922

Rating: n/a

Plots: In "The Haunted House," Keaton plays a bank clerk who gets accused of trying to hold up his employer and winds up mixed in with some real bank robbers and the cast of a terrible production of Faust. Goofballery escalates as they all wind up in a supposedly haunted house. In "Cops," Buster must evade the po-po after accidentally stealing all the possessions of a police officer and his family and then crashing a policemen parade.

A good but not great Buster Keaton Saturday (on Wednesday). Both have a few laughs, but "Cops" is clearly the better, and more coherent, of the two shorts. Most of what happens in "The Haunted House" is just an excuse for the sight gags, some very clever. The running gag involving the stairs, the glue mix-up, and the encounter with the devil are funny, but I really like the subtle stuff more. "Cops" has some terrific acrobatics (especially in the incredible ladder scene), and while it's always fun to watch Buster being chased in his movies (by cattle or policemen or just one guy he's ticked off), watching him being chased by hundreds of policemen is even better. Rapid action and great slapstick. What else could a family* want on a Buster Keaton Saturday on Wednesday? This also served as a great way to cleanse my mind of 4.

*Jennifer was working on homework and unable to fall asleep during these shorts.