Life with Buster Keaton: Unknown Episode Title 3 (1951)

I’d remembered that at least one of Buster’s TV shows in the ‘50s featured a community theatre, and in going through the episodes again, this is the first one to bring it up.  Buster doesn’t run it like I’d thought (maybe that crops up in one of the episodes I haven’t rewatched yet?  Neither show is a particular bastion of continuity) – instead, he’s brought in woefully unprepared at the last minute, which is how most theatrical endeavors for Buster’s onscreen characters tend to start.

The sporting goods store is beset by impending catastrophe:  one of their creditors has shown up and is threatening to shutter the store.  The owner’s daughter (from what I can tell, she was an addition for Life with Buster Keaton – she was in a previous episode as well, but I didn’t see her in any of the Buster Keaton Show episodes) argues that they’ll be able to pay their bills once the community theatre production she’s in opens.  Unfortunately, the leading actor quits in a fit of pique after a mishap involving an arrow (because of course that’s what happens.)  Buster is tapped to fill in, but he quickly proves he might not be the best basket to put all your theatrical eggs in.

This, along with the exercise one, is probably one of my favorite episodes from either show.  Buster’s theatre gags are always reliable, and this story is no exception.  The show-within-a-show starts off with a great sequence of Buster struggling to read the cheat sheet for his lines as he’s hit with an onslaught of fake snow, and his hapless stage business throughout makes for good fun.  There’s the usual stuff – ill-timed entrances, wrecking havoc on the set and props – as well as a number of amusing bits that are more directly incorporated into the action.  My favorites include Buster trying to slip a ring on the daughter’s finger while she’s wearing oven mitts and, of course, trying to pull taffy on a telephone.  The play itself also gets in a few good bits; I like the stilted, incredibly obvious exposition the daughter feeds to the audience.

I also want to mention a little thing that comes up here that totally cracks me up.  I really like how people – such as Buster’s boss and the customers in the store – treat him like he’s basically still his “little fellow” character from the days of his silent shorts, or even further back to the Fatty Arbuckle days.  Buster would’ve been in his mid 50s at this time (and looks it,) but people still call him “boy” and act like he’s a young whippersnapper.  This is done without a hint of irony, and besides really amusing me, it gives the show a kind of timeless quality, like we’re being transported back to those days.  These episodes, naturally, are a far cry from the work Buster was doing back then, both for pure comedy and sheer physicality, but I do like that sense of being brought a little bit out of time while watching them.