THE BUSTER KEATON COLLECTION
GENERAL NUISANCE (1941)
HIS EX MARKS THE SPOT (1940)
MOOCHING THROUGH GEORGIA (1939)
NOTHING BUT PLEASURE (1940)
PARDON MY BERTH MARKS (1940)
PEST FROM THE WEST (1939)
SO YOU WON'T SQUAWK (1941)
THE TAMING OF THE SNOOD (1940)
THE SPOOK SPEAKS (1940)
SHE'S OIL MINE (1941)
DVD Features: Commentary by Edward Watz, Patricia Eliott Tobias, Joe Adamson & David Weddle. "Buster Keaton: From Silents to Shorts" featurette. Reproduction of an annotated script with a foreword from Keaton's granddaughter. English subtitles.

Gone is the grace and subtlety of Buster Keaton’s 1920s classic comedies. In these two-reelers from 1939-1941, knock-about slapstick wreaks havoc. Keaton, then in his early forties, could still perform a pratfall with ease, but this collection of Columbia shorts are more in line with the Three Stooges, who worked on the same lot sharing the same director, Jules White. With one gag rapidly following another, the broad humor will appeal mostly to boys. In fact, Keaton borrows from the trio, throwing anything and everything into a soup in “Nothing but Pleasure.” A few other gags are knocked off from Keaton’s earlier work, but without the impeccable timing. Gags aren’t so much integrated into the flimsy stories, they are the stories. It’s an uphill battle for Keaton, surrounded by the over-the-top antics of a supporting cast whose vocabulary does not include subtlety. The viewer is also hit over the head with sound effects accentuating a slip, kick or punch.

He’s still the Great Stone Face, but now with sound, his gosh-golly-wow demeanor is like Jack Benny’s older brother. His characters would be at home in Mayberry. The low-budget shorts are also like Harold Lloyd’s thrill comedies of the ‘20s, especially when Keaton plays an office boy or a meek millionaire – roles that were Lloyd’s forte.

The collection offers a rare and blunt commentary for “The Spook Speaks,” in which Edward Watz, author of The Columbia Comedy Shorts, admits the short is fascinating because it is so bad. He notes that the material is hopelessly against Keaton, as well as how much of the physical humor is directed at women (the butt is an easy target). The commentaries for the other shorts are less critical, but Patricia Eliott Tobias, president of the International Buster Keaton Society, does give an informative mini-history lesson for the Civil War-set “Mooching through Georgia.” Likewise, the 25-minute bio is a great introduction for those new to the comedian, and even for those already familiar with his work – who knew Keaton’s vaudevillian mother was the first saxophone player in the US? Kent Turner
March 14, 2006