The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia

243 Pages·2010·3.786 MB·English

by  James L. Neibaur

The Fall
of Buster Keaton
His Films for M-G-M, Educational
Pictures, and Columbia
James L. Neibaur
THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Lanham (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
2010
Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.scarecrowpress.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2010 by James L. Neibaur
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Neibaur, James L., 1958–
The fall of Buster Keaton : his films for M-G-M, educational pictures, and Columbia /
James L. Neibaur.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8108-7682-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-7683-5 (ebook)
1. Keaton, Buster, 1895–1966—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PN2287.K4N45 2010
791.4302’8092—dc22 2010005126
(cid:2) ™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
To
The Damfinos (The International Buster Keaton Society),
for all they have done and continue to do
in honoring Buster Keaton’s work

Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
1 The Rise of Buster Keaton 1
2 M-G-M 11
The Cameraman 12
Spite Marriage 20
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 25
Free and Easy 28
Doughboys 35
Parlor, Bedroom and Bath 45
Sidewalks of New York 52
The Passionate Plumber 58
Speak Easily 63
What! No Beer? 69
3 The Florida Project 75
4 Educational Pictures 79
The Gold Ghost 82
Allez Oop 85
Palooka from Paducah 90
One Run Elmer 93
Hayseed Romance 96
Tars and Stripes 99
The E-Flat Man 101
The Timid Young Man 104
Three on a Limb 107
v
vi Contents
Grand Slam Opera 109
Blue Blazes 113
The Chemist 116
Mixed Magic 119
Jail Bait 122
Ditto 125
Love Nest on Wheels 127
5 Back at M-G-M 129
6 Columbia Pictures 135
Pest from the West 139
Mooching through Georgia 143
Nothing but Pleasure 147
Pardon My Berth Marks 150
The Taming of the Snood 153
The Spook Speaks 156
His Ex Marks the Spot 159
So You Won’t Squawk 163
General Nuisance 166
She’s Oil Mine 170
7 Supporting Appearances in the 1940s and ’50s 175
8 Buster Keaton on Television 183
9 The Industrial Films 191
10 Keaton in the 1960s: The Beach Pictures and the Final Films 195
Afterword 207
Appendix 211
Bibliography 213
Index 217
About the Author 227
Acknowledgments
M
y deep and heartfelt thanks to Ted Okuda, Dave Maska, Lisa Bradberry,
Paul Gierucki, David Pearson, Patricia Eliot Tobias, Beth Pederson, Ed Watz,
David Macleod, Dave Stevenson, Ali Stevenson, Brent Walker, Rob Farr,
Steve Massa, Gary Crowdus, Bill Cappello, Gail Trottier, Bruce S. Springs-
teen, Adrian Booth Brian (Lorna Gray), the late Jules White, the late Edward
Bernds, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Paul Petersen, Irene Tsu, Frankie
Avalon, the late Dorothy Appleby, Cineaste, Kino on Video, Milestone Film
and Video, Blackhawk Films, the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater
Research, Senses of Cinema, Film Quarterly, Films in Review, Classic Images,
the Racine Public Library, and SilentComedians.com.
vii

Introduction
J
oseph Frank “Buster” Keaton was perhaps the greatest technical craftsman
in the history of screen comedy. He grew up onstage, and his subsequent
tenure, while he was still in his early twenties, with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle
helped him to quickly learn the rudiments of performing comedy for the
intimate motion-picture camera. Further exploration allowed Keaton to find
out more about the staging and filming of comedy sequences to obtain the
desired effect. When Arbuckle left his comedy unit to make features, the
production company was handed over to Keaton, who established himself as
one of cinema’s most brilliant comedians, with such impressive short films as
One Week (1920) and Cops (1922), as well as such outstanding feature-length
films as Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928).
These films most clearly and accurately represent Buster Keaton’s true cin-
ematic legacy.
As the silent era drew to a close, Keaton accepted an offer to make films
for the prestigious Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. His first film for M-G-M,
The Cameraman (1928), was a good, solid comedy feature. His second, Spite
Marriage (1929), was considered still reasonably good, despite some studio
limitations.
However, once the sound era eclipsed silent cinema, Keaton’s talents
were woefully misused. His sound M-G-M features, including Free and Easy
(1930), Doughboys (1930), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931), Speak Easily (1932),
The Passionate Plumber (1932), and What! No Beer? (1933), are often considered
to be among the very worst feature-length films made by a top-tier comedian
at a major studio.
The artistic problem with these first talkies was Keaton’s lack of creative
input. He still had the same fertile imagination that had been responsible for his
ix