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Reviews
Tars and Stripes (1935)
Service With A Smile
Keaton's winning streak of finely executed talking shorts continues with the service comedy TARS AND STRIPES – (1935). Despite the punning title this is an enjoyable, freewheeling two-reeler. Filmed on location at the U.S. Naval Training Base in San Diego, it plays as a breezy alternative to the many service features being turned out by all of the major studio's at the time to help promote the military. Those features, starring the likes of a Jack Holt, a Jimmy Cagney or a Wallace Berry, always had a credit thanking which ever arm of the service cooperated in the making of this picture. Here it looks like the Navy opened their doors to Keaton's crew and gave him free rein.
The storyline is a series of overlapping running gags as Buster bedevils his commanding officer played by Vernon Dent. What makes this short so satisfying are the amiable qualities that the on-site location filming gives it. As Buster runs around the grounds in his sailor whites ships are moored in the bay acting as witnesses to the various pratfalls into the water. While most of the byplay is between Keaton and Dent the star comic does intermingle with the real sailors stationed at the base - especially the ending during a parade ground formation and Keaton plays it straight, acting as a real sailor would running out to his commanding officer to accept his medal.
The gags on display here all have a rhythmic flow to them as Buster makes frequent trips in and out of the brig while attempting jobs assigned to him by the Chief Gunner's Mate - who gets the brunt of it when Buster fails miserably. Once again Keaton attempts to paint a mast from a shaky scaffolding, tries to tie knots and learn the intricacies of rifle training. The best gags are the variations of Buster constantly late for mess call. Regardless of how or where the line is when seaman Buster arrives he always ends up at the end of it. This is solid sight gag comedy performed without the need for sound. When he is alone watching the other recruits go through their paces he is suddenly able to perform a quick formation rifle routine under the watchful eye of Dent's girl. This was the magic of Keaton - regardless of his constant bumbling and ineptitude there was always boiling, just under the surface, a quick-thinking, agile paragon just beneath that flat hat facade.
Hayseed Romance (1935)
Keaton Hits The Roof
When it comes to the top comedy shorts made in the Thirties the high water mark has always belonged to the works of Laurel & Hardy. Their finely tuned films were the perfect mixture of visual humor in a world of sound. By the time Keaton created the fifth short in his Educational series, HAYSEED ROMANCE – (1935), he had become just as comfortable at mixing his silent style with the needs of sound. The results are an overlooked minor classic. It plays like a prime Laurel & Hardy short with two strong sequences that naturally flow into each other.
Buster answers an ad to work a farm as a potential husband. When he meets the comely blonde miss of the house his interest peaks but of course, she didn't place the ad – that would be her behemoth of an aunt. He immediately settles in to a bucolic existence down on the farm. While Keaton always made comedies in varied surroundings he always seemed at home in rural settings among the cows and chickens. After breaking more dishes than he washed Buster settles in for a quiet evening's peace and contemplation only to be shattered by the Aunt's thunderous recital on the organ that shakes the house like the San Andreas quaking. This is followed by a splendid slapstick episode as Buster attempts to sleep in the attic with a leaky roof on a rainy night. Keaton builds this sequence through incidental gags and mounting mishaps. Needless to say both he and the aunt take quite a few headers through a two story hole and out into a mud puddle.
This short was a revelation for me as it showed that even with the time and money restrictions Keaton was able to turn out quality work that stood out with the best that was being done in the shorts comedy field at that time. It just drives home all the more how MGM squandered his talent.
Thundering Taxis (1933)
A Fun Live Action Cartoon
After the demise of the "The Boyfriends" series Hal Roach hired Mack Sennett's ace director Del Lord to create a new series "The Taxi Boys". THUNDERING TAXIS was the last released in the short-lived series but was actually the first one filmed (according to comedy historian/guru Richard Roberts) and is one of the wilder examples of meshing silent film techniques with sound comedic stylings. Silent comedy veterans Billy Bevan and Clyde Cook are recruited to recreate their glory years. At one point the action stops so Cook can revisit a clam eating routine first performed by Bevan in WANDERING WILLIES (26). Lord goes all out using fast motion, mechanical (these taxis get bent , twisted and turned)and impossible gags (a cabbie's arm stretches to incredible lengths to retrieve an unpaid fare), and even animation (an old silent comedy dodge). In fact, if ever there was a live action cartoon this is it.
Bud Jamison leads a ragtag, misfit crew of cabbies who line up each morning for inspection and then promptly get toppled over like bowling pins. When a taxi war breaks (thanks to the lovely Muriel Evans, who once again loses her skirt)out they show what a true cowering, sniveling group they are. Cook and Bevan get pushed to the forefront of the fight but it's all about the gags - a taxis with headlights for eyes peer outside the garage to see if the coast is clear; lethal spits of tobacco juice break windshields, knock over whole cabs and make them spin like a top on the road. This short is not about plot or character development. Our two heroes are just as much props as the taxis are. Dirty tricks abound and when Bevan tries to retaliate he gets a telephone pole crashing upon his car for his troubles. Eventually a chase breaks out but by now all of the cabs on both sides are so damaged that it's more of a junk yard derby featuring bouncing heaps on the road.
All in all this is a fun short for lovers of sight gag comedy.
Skirt Shy (1929)
Mother Macree In Drag
Harry plays the butler of the house but spends the majority of this short masquerading as the lady of the house in a most unlikely manner. Lucky for him the elderly gentleman caller is blind as a bat. Of course, that doesn't explain what the second amorous caller sees in him...uh...her. It's mostly an excuse for the two men to draw pistols at each other and for Harry to be constantly caught up in the cross fire.
What with all of the gun play and running around in the garden it doesn't leave a lot of time for any Langdon routines to be fully developed. We do get to see Harry's mind at work when he and the maid try to hatch a plan to save the house. That is, the maid thinks while Harry keeps striking poses similar to Rodan's 'The Thinker'. He finally decides to sleep on it. Later out in the garden Harry has a private battle with a pair of boxing gloves attached to a tree branch that continually hit him in the face. He brushes them away and they swing right back into his face. Most comedians would wrap up the gag after a couple of smacks but not Langdon. He sits there continually swatting and being smacked. His mind is essentially of one-track and he would still be sitting in that garden being smacked in the face to this very day if it was at all possible. It was these idiosyncrasies that made Langdon so unique to watch.
One Run Elmer (1935)
A Man, A Shack, A Baseball Game
If there was any question as to whether Buster Keaton had regained his creative control after the debacle that was MGM, one needs to look no further than ONE RUN ELMER. It encompasses his two biggest passions in life – baseball and film-making. The opening shot is uniquely Keaton - a vast desert, a ramshackle shack and a lone figure. Buster operates a small gas station. The deep hole that his rocking chair sits in is indicative of his thriving business. He spends his time giving directions to travelers and what business there is gets scared away from Buster leaping out of bushes brandishing his shotgun. Buster's prospects brighten with the arrival of a construction crew. He figures it's a sign of a growing boom town. Fade in to a dour looking Buster staring at the boom - a brand new modern gas station directly across from him. The rivals begin a not so friendly competition involving price wars and fights over customers and the only lone female in the area. Eventually the competition moves to the baseball field.
Keaton continually finds variations for Buster to come out on the short end. He slashes the price of his gas so low that no one wants to buy his 'cheap brand'. His gas hose is either to short to reach the vehicles or so long that it trips him up. When the girl arrives Buster is so intent at cleaning her car (and creating a small dust storm in the process) that he forgets to fill up her tank. Even his poor little shack comes out on the wrong end when the two rivals play a game of warm up and baseballs start to dismantle it's foundation. The baseball game itself quickly degenerates into a series of blackout gags worthy of a Tex Avery cartoon. The rules of fair play are tossed out with the kitchen sink as umps are beaned, bases are moved and bats and balls explode. For years Keaton created the gags for the annual Hollywood charity baseball games and now he had an opportunity to commit those outlandish gags to film. It's nice to be in control.
The King (1930)
A Royal Pain
Harry Langdon's final short for Hal Roach continues playing with elements of his 'Baby' character that we saw in his previous short THE SHRIMP. His performance here in the title role of THE KING is not the same royalty that he essayed in his Sennett short SOLDIER MAN (26), where he was classic Harry masquerading as a king. In that film a vamp attempts to seduce Harry in the royal bedroom but he is too distracted by a bowl of fruit!!! This king is a far cry from that Harry . He is still confused and distracted and stammers when he speaks but he is also a skirt-chasing, self-absorbed man-child. He spends his days avoiding the company of the Queen (the beauteous Thelma Todd) so that he may dally with the various court maidens. Miss Todd was cast in almost all of the Langdon-Roach shorts and just as curiously was under employed in every one of them. In this, their final appearance together, she was finally given a comedic role that justified her ability to support a great comedian. She plays a shrewish harpy but it doesn't take us long to figure out that more than likely she was turned into that by the antics of her errant husband. Since this womanizer is played by Harry it is not too surprising that he continually gets caught. There is a glorious moment when Thelma spies Harry in the arms of a young maiden and comes storming across the lawn, her royal train billowing into the wind as her bevy of hand maidens frantically try to keep up. The sight of the approaching Queen is enough to send the King's guards scurrying. As usual, Harry is the last to notice and when he finally does he plays tag with his wife as he ducks and dodges her and the mile long train.
Langdon is quite funny as both a flirt and as someone who enjoys his power. All of it is juxtaposed by the singular image he projects in his full regal glory. His Tudor garb of billowing sleeves and baggy white tights accentuates his doughy physique and makes his reputation of a lady killer all the more ridiculous. It is too bad that Langdon and Roach parted company after this film for, just as the other Roach series needed a short adjustment period getting use to sound, they were starting to hit a stride. As it is we are left with this sublimely, farcical film as a fitting tribute to Harry Langdon's year at the Hal Roach studio.
The Shrimp (1930)
Bully For Harry!
THE SHRIMP is more heavily plotted than the previous Langdon-Roach fare but that doesn't keep it from being a surprising change of pace as Langdon is called on to act as two version's of his 'Baby' character and make this a most satisfactory short in the series. The old adage of 'the worm turns' has been a comic staple since the time of the Greeks and Romans took turns beheading each other. That's nothing compared with watching meek, childlike Harry Langdon becoming a golf club-welding dictator. "You! Stop eating candy!"
Harry is the beleaguered renter in a boardinghouse filled with sadistic bullies who, for some reason, all enjoy tormenting Harry at every turn. As he is tripped, kicked and has his chair constantly pulled out from under him at the dinner table, Harry tries to be a good sport about it by laughing along with everyone else. We've seen this side of Harry before; the genial clown who wants to be so liked by the likes of a gruff Vernon Dent that he would skip sideways down the street with him just so he could watch every facial expression of his friend. But not even good-natured Harry would want to be friends with this group of wretched louses. What keeps him there is his girl, who's parents own the boardinghouse. She is always telling him to stand up for himself, but to no avail. It doesn't help that her dad is a lout who works his wife like a slave and joins in with the torturing of Harry. But the two main tormentors in the house are Jim (Jim Mason - who specialized at playing oily snakes. He tried to evict Our Gang's grandma in FLY MY KITE (31)) and his girlfriend (Thelma Todd - in one of her best mean-spirited performances.)
When all of this nastiness becomes almost too much to bear a convenient plot point is introduced that could had made Charley Chase proud. Harry is chosen as a guinea pig for a crazed scientist's (Max Davidson) experiment in personality changes that makes him more assertive and tough - all of which sounds antithetical to being Harry Langdon. He accomplishes this by losing his stammering speech habit and speaking in a lower, monotone cadence. But the rest is still all Harry and the effect is quite funny. When he takes after Thelma she is aghast that he dares speak to her in such a manner so to make his point he begins pushing her backwards into a chair. Whenever he is about to go too far and strike Thelma his girl admonishes him and he stops. It's still Harry 'the Baby' only he has been turned into a demented gentle giant. And so it goes throughout the house righting all wrongs with force. He is even rough with mother by demanding that she stop scrubbing floors by literally picking her up and throwing her into a chair telling her to relax. The climatic fight with Jim has Keaton overtones to it as Harry bites, claws, and wrestles the bully into submission. And being Harry, his final bit of retribution is to chase the house cat down the street for some earlier slight. A Langdon never forgets.
The Big Kick (1930)
Gasaholics
By this time the Langdon unit at Roach was finding a good mixture of low comedy with room for Langdon's unique comic style. THE BIG KICK gives him ample opportunities to slow down the action for set Langdon moments without bringing the short to a stand still. Harry runs a gas station but seems more interested in sleeping the day away. His girl arrives to rouse him but even then Harry's daily ritual of nodding off standing up continues unabated. Only Langdon could get away with washing up and drying off without using water or a towel and make it look fascinating. Since his girl has been attending to all of the customers Harry finally joins her just as a rattletrap Model T with the world's loudest engine pulls up. Making jokes at the expense of sound was already a staple of the Roach lot but here Langdon takes it to it's extremes. The engine is so loud that nothing else can be heard on the soundtrack, even though Harry and the driver seem to be having a long, extended conversation. At one point Harry even turns to his girlfriend, who is standing quietly by, and he hushes her so he can hear better.
The other main set piece has Harry donning a disguise in order to apprehend some local bootleggers. Considering they don't even know who he is to begin with the disguise is unnecessary but it does give him ample time to flinch and react as a growing gas balloon inflates inside his topcoat. When a gun battle breaks out between the crooks and the cops bullets spray the getaway car and booze begins seeping out in powerful sprays that Harry tries stopping with his hands and eventually with his mouth. Our hero doesn't even get to play hero as his girl helps apprehend the bad guys while Harry deals with a group of headless mannequins in his inebriated state.
Harry's relationship with the world around him makes this a most telling metaphor in this very entertaining short.
The Fighting Parson (1930)
Saved By The Belle
The marriage of styles between Harry Langdon and the Hal Roach studio would seem, on the surface of it, to be a perfect wedding but the reality was that it was a bumpy affair. However, THE FIGHTING PARSON turned out to be a memorable union.
Our first appearance of Harry is inside a stagecoach entertaining the passengers with a charming ditty while strumming a banjo. The great comedians all seemed to had been musically proficient. Groucho played guitar to keep up with his brothers and Keaton played a mean ukulele. When Harry finishes his tune he immediately holds out his hand looking for tips. Since he is wedged between two disinterested people his hand moves from side to side to side looking for a response. It's a hilarious moment. This short plays up the description that only the Gods and fate can save this clown. Through a series of accidents that Harry has no control over he soon has an entire western town believing that he is the notorious fighting Parson. There is not a more implausible sight than a town of western toughs cowering while pasty-faced Harry is busy playing by blowing foam off of his beer mug. Since he has the run of the town he decides to entertain them all by once again taking out his banjo and goes into a spirited rendition of "Frankie and Johnnie". This is followed by an impromptu tap dance and it comes off just as charming as the off-the-cuff musical moments that would appear in the shorts of Charley Chase and Stan & Ollie.
Eventually Harry must face off against the town's bad guy and since this is a western setting we naturally assume guns will be involved. And for that very reason the boys settle their differences with a boxing match. The farcical tones of this short is ratcheted up another notch as Harry acquires two long poles for arms with boxing gloves attached to the ends. This abstract image is matched with Langdon's creative use of his new arms as he pokes, jabs, throws wheel barrel punches and even skips rope with them. It all ends up with this being one of the most entertaining of the Langdon-Roach shorts.
The Head Guy (1930)
Twas A Dark and Stormy Night
Harry Langdon brought his silent screen personae intact to the Roach studio for the 8 talkie shorts he made there. What he added was a rambling, incoherent style of speaking that constantly muddles his every thought. When Edgar Kennedy instructs Harry on the intricacies of running the train station we know that as Harry nods and listens that not a word is comprehending his brain. Throughout the rest of the short whenever anyone asks him anything he replies with a jumbled response to what Kennedy had told him earlier.
The unrelenting rain and darkness of THE HEAD GUY creates a perfect atmosphere to showcase Langdon's otherworldly character. While passengers scamper out of the downpour into the refuge of the station house Harry continually wanders in and out of the rain barely noticing any discomfort. When inside he is still treated as a cipher. A dance troop practices while Harry crawls on the floor practically underneath them and no one notices. There is a charming moment when Harry joins the dance line and reveals his vaudeville training but it is all too brief. And once again Harry attempts to pull a gun on someone and has the same amount of success with it as when he tried it in LONG PANTS (27).
The Cobbler (1923)
Two Movies For The Price of One
Within a scant half dozen of shorts the makers of the Our Gang comedies quickly found their voices that would carry the series for over twenty years. One of the tenets was that the kids were leery of adults and authority figures. The flip side to that was that they usually embraced the elderly. We think of the Rascal's as always being coddled by understanding Grandma's, but by and large that was usually in the talkie era. During the silent era that role generally fell upon kindly Grandpa-types, such as the title character of this film.
Mr. Tuttle runs a small shoe repair shop and the Gang has the run of the place to come and go as they please. Farina's daily excuse for living is to walk in and immediately head to the curtained back room to do battle against a most malicious cat. When he exits covered in flour we know the cat is once again victorious. The silent era Gang could be such a whirlwind of destruction that at times it boggles the mind, but even though the cobbler is constantly yelling at the kids to behave there is still an unspoken affection between all concerned. Fighting seems to be the main occupation between pals Mickey and Jack (and eating nails seems to keep everyone else busy) so when little rich girl Mary arrives to have a heel repaired the rivalry seen in THE CHAMPEEN (1923) continues unabated. She takes leave in a luxurious automobile and the Gang is told by their friend that when his pension check arrives they too will take a glorious automobile trip. No sooner is that title card out of his mouth than a mailman enters with said check. In one of the funnier dissolve gags in the series we fade in on the group all decked out in the finest traveling attire – frock coats, caps and goggles. We then cut to the most modern, up-to-date car of 1923 which immediately drives away revealing the shoemakers dilapidated model A.
From there it's almost as if a new short is starting as the group endures car troubles, tries to repair it on their own after their guardian goes for help, and then do what all kids do – explore their surroundings. The gags are all fine as they correlate to the kids rapidly developing screen personalities – from Farina cavorting in a watermelon patch (which some find racist. I just like to think that he loves watermelon, as emphasized by the final gag of having a swollen belly), to the kids encounter with a disgruntled tramp. A chase ensues but what I find fascinating is the mammoth hay stacks they clamber on. Blocks of hay bales stacked to the sky in a willy-nilly fashion so that tunnels are formed inside the massive structure. It is so large that the tramp was living inside it until the Gang disturbs his peace. And with so many avenues of escape available we know that the Gang is never in danger of ever being caught (not with tunnels available) so instead we marvel at the Gang's world where castles of hay appear and cars can run on wind power.
Saturday Morning (1922)
Chores Are A Bear
It did not take long in the Our Gang series for the screen potential of Mickey Daniels to be realized. His natural leadership abilities would soon shine through as the Gang's greatest idea man. Here the kids are seen trying to avoid their weekend chores from their nagging mothers but the bulk of the footage belongs to freckled-face Mickey. From outsmarting mom over cello practice and washing behind the ears, Mickey's expressive face carries this charming sequence. It also drives home the schizophrenic relationship between kids and their mothers. Mickeys mom is alternatively demanding, proud, wrathful and finally loving towards her wayward son. No wonder he thinks of running away.
Once Mickey meets up with the Gang under the bridge it only takes minutes before the cello is destroyed and the kids decide to sail away as pirates. The glory of Our Gang are these very moments when with just a few scraps of discarded junk the kids are able to create a magical pirate ship. The busted cello comes in handy as a side dinghy for Farina. Like all childhood memories it is short-lived as a bear arrives on the scene to chase the kids and their parents away until the next weekend and new adventures.
Young Sherlocks (1922)
Childhood Dreams
The first Our Gang shorts tended to revolve around young Ernie Morrison - a supporting player at the Roach Studio for years until promoted to a feature role with the Gang. He was also a known commodity to the movie going public at the time, unlike the rest of the troupe. However, it wouldn't take long before the original cast became as well known as Ernie but here they are still getting their feet wet.
When rich girl Peggy is kidnapped Ernie and moppet-headed Jackie ride to the rescue, with Jackie bouncing on the back of the horse like a ping pong ball. The kids ingenuity at getting by in life has always been apparent from the very beginning, such as Ernie supplying baby Farina with morning milk using a goat and a bicycle pump hose. So vanquishing a group of thugs is a piece of cake if one has a mule and an endless supply of cannon balls to launch.
Ernie wraps everything up by spinning a tale about going to Freetown, where everything is free for kids. While this film is more fanciful than the other Gang shorts with more grounded visions of childhood, the ending is still an apt description of this series ability to project the dreams of children through humor.
Palooka from Paducah (1935)
Hillbilly Heaven
On the face of it a hillbilly comedy featuring a comic icon sounds like the nadir of the bottom rung for all concerned but that comes nowhere near describing the delightful PALOOKA FROM PADUCAH. Buster Keaton's third short for Educational is a major change of pace from what one thinks of as a Keaton comedy until the absurdest humor of it all comes rolling home. Everyone speaks in a parody of a country dialect while Buster and his Pa sport the most ridiculous fake beards similar to the makeshift version Buster slaps together backstage in SPITE MARRIAGE (1929). Keaton gives the production an extra twist by casting his entire real life Keaton clan in it. (Well...all except brother Harry. I guess he didn't like to work much). The former vaudeville performers fit right in with the storyline. They look like an Al Capp drawing come to life.
This unbridled, fast pace short mixes slapstick with off-the-wall gags such as Buster's attempts to teach his behemoth of a brother how to wrestle to the nightly sleeping arrangements of the family The best of Keaton's film work tends to have a biographical feel to it and this short is no exception; the dinner scene evokes memories of the on-stage horseplay of the Three Keatons while Louise proves she can be just as deadpan as her brother when an errant stick of dynamite goes off causing her to appear out of nowhere and then scatter like the wind.
As many have noted before the presence of his family seems to energize Busters' performance but I contend that he was getting comfortable in the production schedules of these shorts and was in the throes of creating a string of top grade comedies - of which this is one of them.
Allez Oop (1934)
The Frying Trapeze
Buster is lovestruck. And when he falls he falls hard.
Love at first sight was a common plot point in his silent shorts so why not carry the tradition over into his sound shorts? Keaton adds a visual joke to the first encounter by seeing the girl of his dreams through a distorted lens. The motif also allows Keaton to perform his tried and true looks of romantic longing - the droopy, dreamy eyes as he gazes at his beloved, the fluttery hand motions and his over eagerness to please. He's like a damaged puppy. Stop licking me!!
But in Keaton's world view love is fickle so in the time it takes for Buster to win her hand he loses it even quicker to a circus trapeze artist. Keaton's love of gadgetry comes into play as he creates his own makeshift high wire set in the back yard in an attempt to re-win his girl back. One of the key components missing from Keaton's film persona while at MGM was his penchant to pratfall. The studio was afraid he would get hurt and made him scale back his tumbles to the point where he would mostly just slip and slide around. The Educationals' freed him from that constraint. He could fall all he wanted as long as the films were released on time. And fall he does in the best sequence of this leisurely paced short.
The Gold Ghost (1934)
Back From the Dead
In his first Educational comedy Buster Keaton touches and mannerisms are back in abundance after years of the creative straitjacket that was MGM. I find his Educational shorts liberating despite the low budgets that were imposed upon the brilliant comedian. After five years of being told what was funny by studio executives Keaton is back in charge and calling the shots as evident by the delightful first reel of THE GOLD GHOST, which is played basically silent. Buster roams around a deserted, ram-shackled ghost town where chairs and tables collapse, doors fall off their hinges and wooden walkways disintegrate when used. Warren Hymer eventually turns up so Buster has someone to play cards with in a rising cloud of dust.
None of these gags are truly ingenious on their own but they are all engaging as a whole as Keaton gets his feet wet returning to the two reel format that he began his film career in supporting Roscoe Arbuckle. Who else but Keaton would throw a deck of cards at a gang of assailants and then stand and watch as the cards scattered with the wind?
It's nice to have Buster back.