(Next) Next Four Educational Shorts: Buster Keaton

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.