(Next) Next Five Independent Shorts: Buster Keaton

Continuing my tour through Buster Keaton’s classic shorts.  Some of these are later efforts when he was starting to think about features and his interest in shorts was waning, while others are topnotch comic offerings.  Here are shorts 11-15.

Convict 13 (1920)

A tried-and-true premise:  through a case of mistaken identity, the innocent Buster is sent to prison as a crook.  Variously, he tries to escape jail, quell a riot, and woo the warden’s daughter.  We get literal gallows humor, fun with uniformed disguises, and an excellent fight involving a ball and chain – fantastically funny.

The Scarecrow (1920)

The plot here is so thin that it’s hard to describe.  Basically, two farmhands/roomies are fighting over a girl, and there are a lot of scrapes and chases.  More important are the comic sequences.  There’s the famous Rube Goldberg house in which everything serves a double function, an extended scene of Buster being chased by a dog (Fatty Arbuckle’s, actually – the short puts his ladder-climbing skills to good use,) and Buster’s superb imitation of a scarecrow.  Plus, he walks across a river on his hands, just cuz.  How awesome was this guy?

The Goat (1921)

More mistaken identity to facilitate more chases.  Buster accidentally winds up on the wanted poster for a notorious criminal and finds himself beset by police (admittedly a common position for him.)  Buster is hilarious and a boss all throughout – he vaults over a guy to leap out a window, puts an elevator to fabulous use in a chase scene, and is dragged down the street holding onto the back of a moving car.  The word you’re looking for is, “Wow.”

The Blacksmith (1922)

This is a curious entry.  It’s well-regarded as one of Buster’s worst independent shorts; this is on the Buster scale of “worst,” so it’s still funny and entertaining, but it lacks the care and attention put into his best work.  The short, in which Buster causes havoc as an assistant blacksmith, is cheaper and blunter than we typically expect from him.  However, there’s a recently-recovered alternate version that’s wonderfully funny and much more Buster.  The best bit from the original version has Buster fitting a horse with some snazzy new shoes, and the newly discovered print adds great gags involving, among other things, a cardboard cutout of a car, a sly proposal, and some clever pulley tricks.

The Love Nest (1923)

Buster is the newest unfortunate crew member on the seafaring Love Nest, whose captain finds any excuse to throw his men overboard.  I love the running gag of the captain’s endless supply of wreaths to honor his fallen crew, and who doesn’t appreciate a good unintentional mutiny?