“Pest from the West” (1939)
Buster
plays a wealthy world traveler who falls for a beautiful woman in Mexico. Noteworthy because Buster’s character has one
ridiculously stereotypical outfit for every country he visits, and
circumstances keep forcing him to change into increasingly ill-suited
clothes. Plus, you can’t not love the
scene of Buster trying to dance when he can’t move his feet.
“Mooching Through Georgia” (1939)
My
favorite of the bunch. Buster is one of
two Kentucky brothers who join the army after the outbreak of the Civil
War. Unfortunately, they wind up with
different-colored uniforms, and their attempts to stick together get them on
the bad side of both armies. The gags
build nicely with fantastic payoffs, and Buster hilariously faking his death is
a thing of comic beauty.
“Pardon My Berth Marks” (1940)
Buster,
a lowly copy boy, finally gets his chance to be a real reporter and follows his
scoop, a society dame, onto a train.
There’s some danger, some misunderstandings, and Buster’s imitation of a
parrot. Don’t go in expecting The General or anything, but the train
gags are excellent and Buster has some sublime slapstick sequences. I also love the opening segment of Buster at
the newspaper office. His put-upon but
self-assured character is just like the days of the old shorts.
“The Taming of the Snood” (1940)
This
short, which finds Buster as a maker/purveyor of creative hats who gets tangled
up in the plot of a jewel thief, is admittedly thin on plot. Although it’s not the best, it earns its
place on the list for Buster’s incredible physical comedy. There’s a long comic set-piece of him trying
to help an inadvertently-intoxicated maid that calls to mind the famous scene
from Spite Marriage. No, it’s not as funny as the Spite Marriage routine, but it’s really
its own animal, and I have no idea how Buster pulls off some of his moves
here. There was no one like him.
“So You Won’t Squawk” (1941)
Here,
Buster is a handyman on the wrong end of a case of mistaken identity, one that
makes him the target of a mob boss.
Again, it’s not as good as the first three shorts on the list, but there
are some fine moments here. I like all
the ways Buster heedlessly cheats death, and I love his unconventional means of finding a policeman to give him a
hand.
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