More
Educational shorts! Today’s installment
is notable for including two shorts with multiple Keatons – not multiple
Busters via camera trickery, a la The
Playhouse (although that would’ve been better,) but multiple members of the
Keaton family. In general, though, we’re
getting down to the films that demonstrate why Buster didn’t like working for
Educational.
Palooka
from Paducah (1935)
First
Keaton family sighting – in this short, Buster is joined by his father Joe,
mother Myra, and sister Louise. They
play a hillbilly family looking to strike it rich by entering one of their sons
(the non-Buster one, and the only
non-Keaton in the bunch) in a wrestling match.
Buster is enlisted to serve as the referee, and it’s no surprise that he’s
not fully equipped for the task. Shades
of Battling Butler.
The
Timid Young Man (1935)
This is
an odd little film, but I kind of like it.
Buster plays a man on the run from a would-be bride. He picks up a comely hitchhiker on the way,
and they set up camp in the wilderness together. Buster has a fun dynamic with his leading
lady, and there are some good “roughing it” gags. Oh, and a terrific
stunt in which the folding chair Buster’s leaning on snaps shut and he
faceplants stupendously.
Ditto (1937)
Buster,
an ice delivery man, is in a fix when he meets and falls for twin sisters who
live next door to each other. Some great
double/mistaken identity stuff, because Buster of course has no idea he’s
interacting with two different women and gets himself into all sorts of
trouble. It’s not as funny as the twin
stuff in The Playhouse, but still
pretty amusing.
Love
Nest on Wheels (1937)
Here’s
the other Keaton family short – no Joe this time, but Buster’s brother Harry
gets in on the action. Once again, they’re
playing a family of country bumpkins trying to play the bills. Here, they’re running a dead-end hotel – when
a honeymooning couple can’t stomach their accommodations, Buster still attempts
to get a little cash from them by selling an old camper. The only problem is that a cow has taken up
residence there, and no one can get it out.
It recycles a number of gags directly from Fatty Arbuckle’s The Bell Boy, and frequent Arbuckle
collaborator Al St. John also plays a small role.
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