While
not all that substantial and more than a bit of a farce, this one is
amusing. A few strong Bustery touches in
the form of some good sight gags.
Buster,
an ice delivery man, is instantly besotted with a lovely young customer. However, his eagerness to get to know her
better is thwarted by a major complicating factor that he’s unaware of: she’s an identical twin who lives next door
to her sister in what appears to be adjoining houses (so adjoined that Buster
thinks he’s seeing two entrances for a single residence.) I’m sure you can imagine the hijinks that
follow as Buster tries to woo his new customer, totally oblivious to the fact
that he’s interacting with two different women in different homes.
While
the premise of twins being mistaken for one another is as old as comic
misunderstandings and mistaken identity, this particular plot ratchets up the
silliness by taking the coincidences to extreme lengths, with Buster spending
so long in such close proximity to both women without running into both at the
same time. As such, the timing is
crucial, and the short does a nice job pacing everyone’s entrances and exits
just right, with all the doors opening and closing at the precise moments they
need to in order to maintain the confusion.
I know
Buster wasn’t a big fan of farce (he complained about the absurdity of the
genre’s plot contrivances in reference to films like Parlor, Bedroom and Bath,) but like most types of comedy he tried
his hand at throughout his career, he did well with the style all the same. Again, his timing is impeccable, and even
though the circumstances of the story are pretty farfetched, the actual
interactions between Buster and the two women keep things just within the realm
of plausibility. For instance, his
scenes with the second sister move along at a good clip, with Buster so hyper-focused
on what he’s doing that there isn’t time for so much as a, “Who are you,
strange man, and why are you in my house?”, which keeps the game from being
given away sooner.
But as
I said at the top of the post, my favorite parts of these proceedings are the
little touches that just feel so Buster.
I love the cozy setup of his ice-delivery wagon, in which he lets the
horse do all the work while he sits in the box seat with a radio and a
well-stocked bookcase at his elbow. And
his meetcute with the first sister is a lot of fun, with him helping her ease
the pain of a burn on her hand. No one
did “lovestruck” quite like Buster, and his dreamy-eyed, smitten look as he
tenderly butters her arm is a riot.
Warnings
A bit
of slapstick violence.
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