Pardon My Berth Marks (1940)

By Columbia standards, this short is pretty enjoyable.  Amusing gags, some decent slapstick, and and a showcase for one of Buster’s lesser-known talents:  his fairly spot-on parrot impersonation!  What’s not to like?

Buster plays a long-suffering copy boy who, when his editor is in a time-sensitive bind, gets his first chance at a real reporting job.  He’s tasked with following a society lady on a train trip to Reno, and this being Buster, the chaos-to-news-reporting ratio is pretty stark.  Between accidentally getting himself and the lady mistaken for a pair of newlyweds and ending up in the world’s most-untenable-to-sleep sleeping car, he even manages to attract the rage of the lady’s husband, whose temper is a lot more hair-trigger than one would first assume.

A lot of nice recurring gags and comic sequences here.  The opening scenes of Buster at the newspaper office definitely remind me of his “little fellow” character from his independent shorts, bristling with confidence and spunk that belies his actual position.  One moment here that wonderfully encapsulates this character (and proves that those days weren’t over for Buster) comes when a pushy interloper shows up at the office; after tripping Buster once as he passes through the editor’s doorway, the guy sticks his leg out to pull the same trick again, but Buster nimbly, seamlessly, jumps over his leg without breaking stride.  I love it!

The “newlywed” case of mistaken identity is also a good feature of the short.  In addition to getting a bit naughty with the other passengers taking a lot of half-overheard dialogue the wrong way, it just adds a fun air to the short with everyone on the train winking at Buster and being cheeky with him over his “young bride” (who of course in truth doesn’t actually know him and wants nothing to do with him.)  It provides some good laughs and helps to move the plot along by creating complications that build on one another. 

Buster’s pet parrot, brought along for the journey, also gets in on the action, and like I said, when Buster is forced to impersonate it (it sort-of makes sense in context,) he does an impressively-good job.  The parrot also plagues him as he tries to settle into an upper berth inconveniently piled with other people’s luggage.  In what’s probably the short’s funniest scene, Buster gets himself hopelessly tangled up in his clothes as he tries to undress in his tight space while the parrot literally nips at his heels.  Buster had a number of excellent gags over the years involving clothes being donned or removed (the nightshirt scene in Steamboat Bill Jr., the dressing room scene in The Cameraman, and the physical exam scene in General Nuisance come to mind,) and they’re all winners – this one is no exception.

Warnings

Slapstick violence, gunplay, and (very) mild sexual references.