The art of Buster Keaton [videorecording].
- Additional Titles
- Buster Keaton
- Published
- New York, NY : Kino International Corp., [2001]
- Copyright Date
- ©2001
- Physical Description
- 11 videodiscs (1,298 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in.
- Additional Creators
- Keaton, Buster, 1895-1966 and Kino International Corporation
- Contents
- [pt. 1]: Our hospitality ; Sherlock, Jr. -- [pt. 2]: The navigator ; The boat ; The love nest -- [pt. 3]: Seven chances ; Neighbors ; The balloonatic -- [pt. 4]: Battling butler ; The haunted house ; The frozen North -- [pt. 5]: College ; Hard luck ; The electric house ; The blacksmith -- [pt. 6]: The general ; The playhouse ; Cops -- [pt. 7]: Go West ; The scarecrow ; The paleface -- [pt. 8]: The saphead ; The high sign ; One week -- [pt. 9]: Steamboat Bill, Jr. ; Convict 13 ; Daydreams -- [pt. 10]: Three ages ; The goat ; My wife's relations -- [pt. 11]: Keaton plus.
- Summary
- [pt. 1] Our hospitality stars Keaton as a New York man who returns to his southern antebellum homeland to find himself embroiled in a longstanding feud between his family and the woman he loves. Sherlock Jr. dramatizes the uproarious exploits of a meek theater projectionist turned amateur sleuth, and blends knockabout physical comedy with more subtly crafted moments of humor -- such as the sequence in which Keaton leaps through the silver screen and lands in the midst of the action.
[pt. 2] Classic Golden Age comedy centered on and about a single extraordinary prop: an immense five hundred-foot yacht. In a return to the "pampered youth" role he had played in The Saphead (and would return to in Battling Butler), Keaton stars as Rollo Treadway, an inexperienced lad of extraordinary wealth -- and surprisingly little sense -- who finds himself adrift on "The Navigator" with no one else on board except an equally naive girl (Kathryn McGuire). After discovering each other's presence in an ingenious ballet of unintentional hide-and-seek, the couple resourcefully fashion a home for themselves aboard the derelict boat, in spite of their unfamiliarity with the tools of domesticity. They then embark on a series of misadventures on the ocean floor, and on the high seas, where the film reaches its explosively funny climax with the aid of a crate of rocket flares. DVD also includes two additional films that demonstrate Keaton's penchant for maritime mayhem. In The Boat (1921, 22 min.) Buster and family set sail aboard the homemade "Damfino," while in The Love Nest (1923, 20 min.) -- for decades a lost film until its recent rediscovery and restoration -- he trades sailboat for U-boat to plumb new depths of hilarity.
[pt. 3] Jimmie Shannon, a romantically jinxed young man, must marry by 7:00 pm to inherit seven million dollars. While fate seems to thwart his efforts to woo the object of his affection (Ruth Dwyer), public announcement of his strange predicament provides him with a throng of would-be brides who are aggressive in their pursuit of a husband, to say the least. Comedic courtship is further pursued in Neighbors (1920, 18 min.), a short film in which Buster tries to woo his tenement sweetheart in spite of the barriers that stand between them. In The Baloonatic (1923, 22 min.) Keaton is carried by hot air from a cityside amusement park to the rustic country where he ineptly struggles for survival and again somehow manages to stumble into romance.
[pt. 4] Battling butler, the greatest box-office success of all his independent comedies, this rarely-seen gem mingles Keaton's deadpan demeanor and awesome physical agility with a particularly dramatic storyline. Keaton stars as Alfred Butler, a fragile young man whose father sends him into the country where he hopes masculinity will blossom. There he is mistaken for "Battling" Butler, a renowned prizefighter of fiery temperament. To impress a young lady (Sally O'Neill), Alfred carries on the ruse by engaging in a laughingly inept training regimen, but his harmless charade is soon complicated by the untimely arrival of the true contender (Francis McDonald). In addition, the DVD includes two rarely-seen Keaton short films: A Yukon metropolis is the snowbound setting of The Frozen North (1922, 17 min.) wherein Buster parodies movie legends William S. Hart and Erich von Stroheim, and The Haunted House (1921, 20 min.), an astounding collection of sight gags and illusions, with Buster taking refuge in a mansion rigged with a series of frightening booby traps.
[pt. 5] Keaton stars as Ronald, an idealistic freshman who attends Clayton College in pursuit of higher learning, but finds himself instead embroiled in a war of athletics as he fights for the heart of his beloved coed (Anne Cornwall). More than any other feature, Keaton stretched the boundaries of solo physical comedy. In a series of unforgettable vignettes, stone-faced Ronald tries his hand as a basketball player, soda-jerk, waiter, coxswain, and track star, performing each task with a steady determination but with consistently disastrous results. These scenes are especially amazing because in demonstrating Ronald's athletic inadequacies, Keaton reveals a surprising degree of physical prowess and finesse. In addition, this DVD also includes three Keaton short films. In The Electric House (1922, 23 min.) Keaton turns an ordinary dwelling into an automated funhouse, whose modern conveniences go hilariously haywire at the hands of a jealous rival. Mechanical mayhem is also wrought in the shop of The Blacksmith (1922, 21 min.), while in Hard Luck, which Keaton named as his favorite short work, a suicidal Buster makes one final effort at fitting in with society at a swank country club.
[pt. 6] Rejected by the Confederate army as unfit and taken for a coward by his beloved Annabelle Lee (Marian Mack), young Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton) sets out to single-handedly win the war with the help of the General, his cherished locomotive. DVD also includes two Keaton short films: The Playhouse (1921, 23 min.), in which Keaton plays every member of a stage company, the entire audience, and an undisciplined chimp (in one scene appearing simultaneously as nine characters) and Cops (1922, 18 min.) with Buster tumbling into a series of mishaps while fleeing hundreds of uniformed policemen.
[pt. 7] Heeding the expansionist call of Horace Greeley, a hapless young man (Keaton) idealistically hops a freight train westward to meet his destiny, travelling first to a teeming metropolis, and then into the ranchlands of Arizona where he finds himself enamored with Brown Eyes, a particularly affectionate bovine beauty from whose hoof he removed a painful pebble. In addition, this DVD includes two short films by Buster Keaton: The Scarecrow (1920, 19 min.) which follows two roommates vying for the attention of a young lady, and The Paleface (1921, 20 min.) in which Buster helps a Native American tribe defend their land from greedy developers.
[pt. 8] Keaton stars as Bertie Van Alstyne, the spoiled son of a powerful Wall Street financier. Unable to escape the wealth and comfort that are foisted upon him, he pursues individuality in a series of comic misadventures in the speakeasies of New York, at the altar of matrimony, and even on the floor of the American stock exchange. Established Keaton as a bona fide star and greatly influenced his formulation of the Buster Keaton persona: a lonely, stone-faced soul thwarted by circumstance yet undauntedly resourceful and indefatigable in his struggle for love and survival within a chaotic world. Also featured are two short films which Keaton not only acted in but wrote and directed (with his usual collaborator, Eddie Cline), and which exemplify the complexity and sublimity of his unique filmmaking style. The High Sign (1921, 21 min.) finds Keaton unwittingly involved in a radical secret society known as "The Blinking Buzzards." Dreams of domesticity are satirized in One Week (1921, 19 min.), Keaton's bittersweet parable of one couple's determination to build a prefabricated honeymoon cottage.
[pt. 9] Keaton's final independent production before joining MGM, this comic masterpiece represents the full breadth of its maker's remarkable talents. Set on the Mississippi River, it follows the adventures of a spoiled young man who is forced by his crusty father (Ernest Torrence) to learn the ropes of riverboating. Highlighted by special effects, it includes the legendary stunt in which the front of a building collapses over Junior, who passes unharmed through an open window. DVD also includes two other Keaton films: the surprisingly dark yet wickedly funny Convict 13 (1920, 20 min.) which combines gallows humor with rapid-fire slapstick as Keaton struggles to survive within, and escape from, prison walls, and a carefully reconstructed print of Daydreams (1922, 22 min.) in which Keaton tries to establish himself in a profession -- from veterinary assistant to street-sweeper to actor -- and, in one of his most cleverly staged chases, is pursued by a herd of New York City "bulls."
[pt. 10] Three ages, a parody of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, follows Keaton's hard-luck romantic misadventures throughout world history: from the dawn of man in the Stone Age, through the gladiatorial arenas of Ancient Rome to the city streets of the American Jazz Era. The Goat (1921, 23 minutes) with Buster mistaken for nefarious gunslinger Dead Eye Dan and caught up in a prolonged slapstick-filled chase, and My Wife's Relations (1922, 25 minutes) a comedy of domestic turmoil that seems to reflect some of the tensions between Keaton and the Talmadges, his real-life in-laws at the time.
[pt. 11] The lesser-known works of Buster Keaton are showcased in this compilation which includes scenes from the never-completed Cinemascope musical Ten Girls Ago; a restoration of his 1921 short film Hard Luck; restored portions of Daydreams and The Love Nest; the educational shorts Allez-Oop! and Jail Bait; excerpts from the rare TV series "Life With Buster Keaton"; his first dramatic role, Gogol's The Awakening; commercials for Phillips 66, Shamrock Oil, Kodak, and Simon Pure Beer; silent home movies; tributes to Keaton; and a photo gallery. - Subject(s)
- Related Titles
- Our hospitality
Sherlock, Jr.
Navigator
Boat
Love nest
Seven chances
Neighbors
Balloonatic
Battling butler
Haunted house
Frozen North
College
Hard luck
Electric house
Blacksmith
General
Playhouse
Cops
Go West
Scarecrow
Paleface
Saphead
High sign
One week
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Convict 13.
Daydreams
Three ages
Goat
My wife's relations
Keaton plus - Note
- "11 full-length comedies, 19 short films and a bonus disc with 3+ hours of archival rarities"--container.
- Participant/Performer Note
- Buster Keaton.
- Technical Details
- DVD; NTSC.
- Terms of Use and Reproduction
- No public performance rights. Classroom instruction and home use permitted.
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