The Gold Ghost (1934)

Now that we’ve finished the Fatty Arbuckle shorts, we’re moving on to the first collection of talking shorts Buster made after leaving MGM.  He made 16 shorts with Educational Films, which I’d initially assumed to mean they’d be “educational,” Buster doing comic reenactments of the Battles of Saratoga or something.  Not so – it’s simply what the company was called, and Buster’s shorts with them are just about comedy.  (Note:  even though Buster’s characters have names in most of these shorts, for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to stick with “Buster.”)

Buster leaves town in despair when he finds out the woman he loves thinks he’s useless.  His car breaks down in an old ghost town left over from the Gold Rush, and, enjoying the solitude, Buster decides to take up residence, appointing himself sheriff of the deserted town.  He’s not alone for long, though.  He’s soon joined by a similarly-waylaid gangster on the run (Because Reasons, I guess – don’t ask me,) and shortly after that, the town is flooded with a host of new prospectors, including the woman he loves.  Buster sets out to prove himself in his new role.

That’s a lot of summary for a 20-minute short, but that’s part of the difference, I think, with the talking shorts.  While of the silent shorts are conspicuously light on plot (especially in the Fatty Arbuckle era,) these sometimes try to have too much story to go with the comedy.  I know that sounds like a weird complaint to make, but the talking shorts can occasionally have a sense of being overly-complicated, like they’re cluttering it up.  In general, I think The Gold Ghost straddles the line all right, although I still don’t know why Buster winds up hanging out with a gangster.  It has a few important “plot” scenes that are filled out with a lot of physical comedy.

Not all the talking shorts are very good, but at least most of them don’t skimp on the slapstick, something I can’t say about most of the MGM films.  This one leaves Buster plenty of room in which to work.  I love his first wander through the ghost town – his skittish walk after smacking himself in the face with a loose board is fantastic – and the climax is wonderful.  There are lots of fun bits of Bustery business, too, like an amusing card-playing gag and a great double-take from Buster when he happens upon a gun.  I’d say the character he plays here is more pathetic than his standard character from his independent stuff, but he’s also more proactive than the MGM characters and ultimately wins the day through the classic Buster one-two punch of quick thinking and fancy footwork, rather than stumbling into by accident.  So, a bit in the middle.

Most of the slapstick-heavy scenes have little to no dialogue, which feels appropriate – no need for people to butt in on Buster doing his thing.  That said, there’s also no music during these scenes (I think it was possible to record music during filming at this time, but all the Educational shorts were made seriously on the cheap, and I’m guessing they just didn’t have the resources.)  As a result, even though the physical comedy is still very funny, there’s a slightly sterile atmosphere to these scenes because you can really feel the sound of the dead air (save the crashes of Buster’s tumbling.)  If some enterprising soul made soundtracks to go with these shorts, I bet a lot of them would automatically feel funnier and more polished.

Warnings

Slapstick violence (including some gunplay) and drinking.