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DVD Buster Keaton Collection
The Buster Keaton Collection presents three of the first films (one, The Cameraman, a near masterpiece) Keaton made for MGM beginning in 1928, an arrangement that gradually ushered the great comic actor and director into the sound era but ultimately deprived him of creative control. The Cameraman, considered by many to be Keaton's last important silent work, is an unusual story about a tintype portrait photographer (Keaton) who becomes a newsreel cameraman in order to win the heart of a secretary (Marceline Day). After flubbing an assignment by double-exposing some action footage, the hapless hero tries to prove himself in several memorable sequences of Keatonesque knockabout comedy (including a Chinatown street battle). There are also a couple of grace notes, such as a scene set in Yankee Stadium in which a solo Keaton exquisitely mimes the moves and attitudes of a pitcher. But The Cameraman's strange, almost subconscious power is in its variation on an old Keaton refrain: The hero's conflict over different kinds of authenticity, represented here on either side of a motion picture lens--the difference between capturing something real and living it.
The Cameraman shows obvious and unfortunate signs of MGM's insistence that Keaton, long accustomed to improvising scenes, conform to prepared shooting scripts. But it is less stifling than the second feature (Keaton's last silent movie) in this set, the 1929 Spite Marriage, a slight farce about a pants-presser (Keaton) who borrows his customers' fine threads to attend the theatre every night. There he worships an actress (Dorothy Sebastian) so furious with her caddish lover and co-star (Edward Earle) that she asks Keaton to marry her. The predictable results are unworthy of a Keaton film, but he does shine in several hilarious sequences, such as a disastrous turn as a bit player in his soon-to-be-wife's stage dramas. Finally, 1930's Free and Easy, Keaton's talkie debut, is a garish MGM valentine to itself, trotting out celebrity actors and directors (Lionel Barrymore, Cecil B. DeMille, Fred Niblo) in a wooden story set on a movie lot. But while Keaton struggles with dialogue and a script that frequently sidelines him, he has many good moments causing havoc on film sets. --Tom Keogh
The bests of silent cinema (including one herein) are among the best films ever made.
Movie magic: Does this term have any significance to you? No doubt, it does, because you're here reading up a bit on Buster Keaton; one of a score of now legendary performers whose work (collectively speaking) was responsible for putting the "magic" in movies. No doubt, many folks go to the cinema to kill time, see what others are talking about, or simply to be entertained. All power to such I say, but films' attraction and longevity has another element as well. And even if it was done only last year, it often bears the fingerprints of the likes of John Ford, Frank Capra, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Alfred Hitchcock, Harold lloyd, Buster Keaton, and so on. I'm not saying all film is terrible today in comparison, mind you. (The case could even be made, I suppose, that just as many quality films are made annually now as were in the 1930s---the heyday of great filmmaking, just that now most of these are art house gems who suffer from the lack of wide exposure. Remember that in the 1920-30s folks went to the movies a lot more often than people do now---it's a fact; look it up if you like. Hence we have a few blockbusters anually now instead of a slew of popular films that were widely seen.) But, what I am saying is that many films from the 1920-30s were absolute treasures; films that really conveyed emotion, that reminded folks---whether they needed it or not---what a joy life can be sometimes. Watching "The Cameraman," I couldn't help but thinking how neat Buster Keaton & Co. clarified this. In the film Buster is doing what he can to make ends meet when he chances on a captivating woman (played fabulously by Marceline Day). But they get separated before he can give her the tintype photo he has taken of her. So he goes-a-looking for her. She's flattered. He expresses interest in the world of her job, a film news agency; thinking maybe he could do something like that, but gets short shrift from the higher-ups there. Then she begins to advise him a bit. It's the old notion of there's a good woman behind every successful man. And it's played out with such simple grace and whimsy in this film that you cannot not like this film. It's an emotive, human, gem. Buster Keaton didn't smile in his films; didn't laugh; didn't cry; wasn't outwardly expressive facially, but nevertheless was wonderfully transparent. You know exactly what he is thinking, how he is feeling at all times. They called him "stoneface," but that's not as contradictory as it sounds. Our true feeling, after all, are more often than not conveyed by mere subtleties. Keaton, Chaplin, & Lillian Gish, I'd offer, were masters of this; in effect, conveying 5 pages of dialogue for each silent scene they acted through. See "Sherlock Jr.," "City Lights"/"The Kid"/"The Gold Rush" & "Way Down East" in addition to "The Cameraman." P.S. The Keaton talkie "Free & Easy" in this collection is almost a waste of time; and Keaton's talents. "Spite Marriage" is enjoyable, but it's no classic; and the (sparse) audio commentary on it is mundane. P.P.S. If you have never seen a silent film (or have seen few) check out my Amazon guide on this subject; accessible by clicking on my name, thence to my "So You'd Like to" guides. Cheers!
The Cameraman is great; the other films will make you sad
Keaton still had a hold on his career when he made "The Cameraman" and there is much in the film that makes it essential for any Keaton fan. The other two films show what interference from MGM was beginning to do: shred the Keaton character and talent to bits. "Free and Easy" is especially painful to watch - Keaton is plays a tragic romantic figure. We barely recognize our stoical pal with the porkpie hat anymore. The film is still worth watching to catch a glimpse of Keaton dancing. The documentary gives some good background on Keaton's horrible personal life during the 1930's: He lost his children in a divorce, lost autonomy as a filmmaker, lost his health with booze, lost one of his best friends when Fatty Arbuckle died, and lost his film contract. I always thought that Keaton was far superior to Chaplin - more of his silent films haved aged better, Keaton's direction was so sure and certain that it seemed effortless, and Keaton's gags are still brilliant almost one hundred years later while many of Chaplin's gags seem to be merely quaint today.
Necessary Addition To Your Library
Boy, how I used to hate Ted Turner. Yes, hate. It wasn't too strong of a word. When Turner Classic Movies first began broadcasting, they were intent on colorizing everything. Don't remember colorization? Good! A handful of executives felt that for a classic black and white film to find an audience in the MTV age everything had to be colored in with day glow artificial colors, giving a number of films the look of a bad water color, everyone had the same skin color, making them unwatchable. At one point, Turner even wanted to colorize the early black and white episodes of "Gilligan's Island". I'm not sure (nor do I care) if that ever happened.
Now, Turner Classic Movies is an invaluable resource for anyone who loves or studies films. Using the MGM vault as their toy chest, and later adding libraries of other studios, they show a remarkable number of hard to find films that are not available on DVD or even video. In the last few years, MGM and Warner Bros. have begun releasing a large number of these films on DVD, using pristine prints, restoring films and creating a host of attractive extras. What a difference a decade makes.
Turner Classic Movies has released "The Buster Keaton Collection", a two disc set including "The Cameraman" (1928), "Spite Marriage" (1929) and "Free and Easy" (1930), Buster's first talkie. There is also a short documentary called "Buster Keaton: So Funny It Hurt" about his brief tenure at MGM. The documentary premiered on Turner Classic Movies.
Buster Keaton is one of my favorite film comedians, creating some of the funniest films I have ever seen. During much of his career, Keaton was his own boss. He produced the films he wanted to create and worked on them until he was happy with their content and then released them through distribution deals his partner, Joe Schenck, put together. Sound familiar? This is essentially what Chaplin and Harold Lloyd did as well. But Chaplin was savvier when it came to business. He extracted larger contracts, made more money and retained ownership of all of his films.
Because he was his own boss, Keaton had free reign while he worked helping him create such classics as "The General". Widely acknowledged as Keaton's masterpiece, the film follows the exploits of a lone Southern engineer as he tries to thwart the plans of the Northern soldiers he comes across. If you have never seen "The General", you should. It is a great film and contains many classic comedy moments including an amazing sequence set on two trains speeding down the tracks.
"The General" is not my favorite Keaton film. That would have to be "Sherlock Jr." Keaton plays a young man who imagines he is in a film. Amazingly, all of the special effects were created in the camera. When you watch, you will understand what I mean and why it is so amazing.
In "Seven Chances", Keaton's character has just one day to find a bride and get married to inherit a fortune. Botching the proposal to his girlfriend, his best buddy helps him find a mate and they ask several women, all of whom refuse. Rejected by everyone, Buster goes to the church and falls asleep, waiting for his buddy and lawyer to bring someone to the church. While he is asleep, a newspaper story reveals Keaton is looking for a bride and will inherit a large sum of money upon marriage. When he wakes up, the church is filled with women of all sizes, ages, races and appearances. When they realize Buster is sitting in front of them, they stampede, leading to one of the funniest sequences ever filmed. This films was, unfortunately, remade a few years ago starring Chris O'Donnell and Renee Zellweger.
Or "The Navigator", or "Steamboat Bill, Jr", or "Go West". There are many more classics, too many to list and discuss.
What does any of this have to do with "The Buster Keaton Collection"? It is important to have a brief history to understand why this new DVD set is so important.
Even though "The General" is acknowledged as Keaton's classic film, this is a development that happened many, many years after the film's release. The film was a major financial disappointment for Keaton. His next film "College" earned more money, but the financial pressures experienced after "The General" led Schenck to look for a more powerful partner to produce and distribute Keaton's films.
Watching "The Buster Keaton Collection" is a necessary evil for anyone who is interested in film or silent film history. Containing three films, it represents a good, a bad and one of the lowest points in Keaton's career.
Keaton signed with MGM in 1928. As I watched "The Cameraman", the first film produced at MGM, I listened to the commentary provided by Glenn Mitchell, author of "A - Z of Silent Film Comedy" and I learned a very telling fact. Both Chaplin and Lloyd advised Keaton against signing with MGM. As mentioned, Keaton had a tremendous amount of creative freedom when he worked for himself. At MGM, he became part of a factory and the fit wasn't a good one and would ultimately lead to the end of his career as a filmmaker. MGM insisted that he work from tightly plotted screenplays and he was no longer allowed to work out gags on the set, with the camera rolling. Despite all of these problems, "The Cameraman" is quite good. It was also very successful and, according to Mitchell, used as a template for all of the studio's future comedies, including many of the Marx Brothers films.
Keaton plays Luke, a tintype operator in New York City. During a large parade, he bumps into Sally (Marceline Day), the receptionist at MGM Newsreels. Pitying him, she agrees to let him take her picture. At the time, tintypes were already ancient. He follows her to the office to return the picture. In an attempt to impress her, he buys an old camera and waits for an assignment. In an effort to encourage him, and thwart the pushy office bully, she sends him on an assignment, which he botches. Later, he goes to cover a parade in Chinatown. At the parade, rival Tong gangs decide to start a war, and Keaton finds he is in the middle of the action.
"The Cameraman" is recognized as Keaton's last great film and it is very good; there is a lot of "funny business". Keaton's efforts to photograph the Tong War are especially funny and inventive. Constantly racing around, he has to fend of the warring gang members as he tries to get as close to the action as possible. At one point, a gun shot hits one of the legs of his tripod making it useless. He then decides to put the other two legs in harms way and sure enough, they are soon the same size. Standing on a platform, with a great view of the action, he doesn't realize that the scaffolding is about to give way and the platform swings gracefully to the ground, giving him a great shot.
The story is a little awkward and the third act seems sloppy. It was necessary to reestablish Sally's feelings for Keaton and take the bully out of the picture. To do this, an elaborate set piece was created. But if you look at the story, the connection between the main plot and this bit was tenuous at best and detracts from the film.
"The Cameraman" was very successful and only served to re-affirm MGM's belief that Keaton's films should be more tightly scripted. Because the film made money, they felt they were right and Keaton was wrong. 1929's "Spite Marriage" is one of those `hybrid' films from the late twenties. Created after the invention of sound, it isn't a `talkie'. MGM wasn't ready to put Keaton in a talkie. Instead, the film contains synced sound effects and music. Much like a laugh track on a television comedy, these sound effects were intended to cue the viewers' feelings and emotions. Watching a silent film with synced sound effects is like watching a foreign film with dubbed voices. It detracts from the film, taking you out of the story.
Keaton plays Elmer, a dry cleaner, infatuated with stage actress Trilby Drew (Dorothy Sebastian). He attends every performance of her play wearing a different suit borrowed from his customers. He also waits outside the stage door every night, for some indication that she is aware of his existence. One night, after fighting with her leading man, Trilby talks to Elmer, trying to make the leading man jealous. Elmer knows nothing of this spat and soon agrees to marry her. As the sham marriage progresses, he realizes that she doesn't love him, but will always continue to love her.
"Spite Marriage" contains three memorable sequences. Early in the film, Elmer winds up backstage playing an extra in Trilby's play. The extra has a significant scene in which he holds Trilby after her character has fainted. Naturally, he is so nervous the play becomes a disaster. After they are married, Trilby insists that they go to the same nightclub frequented by her leading man and his new girlfriend. Trilby proceeds to get stinking drunk. Returning to their hotel room, she passes out. Elmer attempts to move her unwieldy body and put her to bed, but she doesn't cooperate and he struggles, in truly comedic fashion, to get her into the bed. The finale, set aboard a steamship involves a band of rumrunners who try to take over the nearly deserted ship. Elmer saves the day. My problem with this sequence is that it seems a retread of a superior sequence in "The Navigator", one of Keaton's earlier films. It is different, but doesn't seem to stretch the envelope enough.
The less said about "Free and Easy" the better. Keaton's first talkie, he essentially becomes a supporting character to Elvira (Anita Page) and Larry (Robert Montgomery), two budding lovers. Elvira wins a small town beauty contest and earns a trip to Hollywood, her mother and Elmer (Keaton) in tow. On the train, they meet Larry, a famous actor. The mother is overbearing. The jokes are completely wrong for Keaton. It is a mess.
MGM proceeded to cast Keaton in a series of talkies reliant on jokes and verbal puns, not physical humor, Keaton's trademark. Unable to use his creative skills, Keaton's personal life soon deteriorated and his drinking became excessive. MGM soon paired Keaton with an up and coming comedian, Jimmy Durante. Durante quickly became the headliner and Keaton's contract was not renewed. He managed to eke out a living writing gags for people like the Marx Brothers, acting in two-reelers and industrial training films and appearing on television. A few years later, he began appearing in films like "In the Good Old Summertime", "Sunset Boulevard", "Limelight" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum".
"Buster Keaton: So Funny It Hurt" is a short documentary, produced by Kevin Brownlow for Turner Classic Movies. Hosted by actor James Karen, the film follows Keaton's short-lived career at MGM and, essentially, the end of his career. Why Karen? He met Keaton at MGM and they became friends. The documentary is interesting, but far too short to go into any interesting depth. Karen does discuss how Keaton met Eleanor, a young showgirl at MGM. They fell in love and married, the longest of Keaton's marriages, lasting until he died. Eleanor was instrumental in reestablishing interest in her husband's work, getting it shown at museums and repertory houses, leading to people writing about it, which lead to more people watching the films for the first time, which would ultimately lead to people remembering Keaton's place in film history. If you consider how many silent film actors have been virtually wiped off the face of the Earth because their films have all but disappeared, we should all be grateful that Keaton's memory and films live on.
Far more interesting is "Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow", also produced by Kevin Brownlow and his then partner David Gill. A multi-part documentary produced in the 80s for PBS, it follows Keaton throughout his life. His loves, life and work are all discussed in great detail. Try to catch this on VHS or TV, because it is not yet available on DVD.
"The Buster Keaton Collection" is an essential addition to the library of any film scholar and any fan of the great comedians.
This collection of vintage Harold Lloyd comedies is worth the price just for Grandma's Boy, a splendid hourlong feature from 1922. Lloyd plays a small-town fellow who lives with his frisky grandmother; convinced of his own cowardice, he yearns to compete for the hand of a pretty girl. His courtly call to the girl's home is the occasion for battle with a ridiculous "formal" suit, mothballs, and a litter of kittens attracted by the goose grease on his shoes. There's also a long (and quite funny) flashback to Lloyd's ancestor, tangled in a Civil War fracas. Lloyd, whose aquiline features were rounded off by horn-rimmed glasses, was more handsome and less clownish than many of his slapstick brethren, which made his acrobatic outbursts all the more surprising. That talent is... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harold Lloyd - Mildred Davis Director(s): Hal Roach DVD Release Date: Released the 03 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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For a knock-out combination of timeless entertainment and vintage studio history, you can't do much better than The Warner Brothers Gangsters Collection. In the 1930s and '40s, Paramount specialized in glossy comedies, MGM popularized lavish musicals, Universal produced signature horror classics, and Fox scored hits with sophisticated dramas. But it was Warner Bros. that generated controversy--if not always box-office profits--with so-called "social problem" films, and that meant gangsters. When viewed in their pre- and post-Prohibition context and in chronological order (Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, 1931; The Petrified Forest, 1936; Angels With Dirty Faces, 1938; The Roaring Twenties, 1939; White Heat, 1949), these six films... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Cagney - Humphrey Bogart - Edward G. Robinson DVD Release Date: Released the 25 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Silent films and silent-film personnel always have an uphill fight when it comes to breaking through to modern-day audiences. Even in the best of circumstances, legend often gets in the way of direct experience. Roscoe Arbuckle presents perhaps the most extreme case. Few people now alive have seen him at work on screen. However, the most casual browser of film history knows that "Fatty" Arbuckle figured in one of the movies' early scandals: a 1921 wild party that resulted in the death of a bit player named Virginia Rappé, whom the famously oversized comedian is alleged to have raped (her very name reinforces the legend). Tried for murder, Arbuckle was acquitted; the jury even apologized to him for the ordeal he'd been subjected to by the overzealous prosecution and news media. Yet... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Roscoe Arbuckle DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Fans of classic movie musicals will be in heaven with Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 1, featuring the DVD debut of five films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the quintessential dancing duo. The two gems of the set are Top Hat (1935), generally considered their definitive movie, and Swing Time (1936), which many consider their most enjoyable. Follow the Fleet (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) fill out the set, each with its own charms.
Screwball comedy was practically invented by this classic Howard Hawks picture, a breathless farce with not an ounce of sentimentality. John Barrymore, in magnificent form, plays egomaniacal Broadway producer Oscar Jaffe, who molds his latest protégé, Mildred Plotka, into elegant thee-a-tuh star Lily Garland (Carole Lombard). The last hour of the picture has Oscar and Lily, now on the outs, battling each other on the Chicago-to-New York train. These two marvelous creatures are quintessential Hawks characters, figures of pure style who can't exist without the adrenaline and spark so amply supplied by the Hecht-MacArthur script. Hawks's giddyup pacing anticipates Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday, and his deployment of character actors (notably Walter Connolly and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Barrymore - Carole Lombard Director(s): Howard Hawks DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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