The Misadventures of Buster Keaton (1950)

Now, this is technically a film, since it was put together for release in British theaters, but in actuality, it’s chunks from several episodes of The Buster Keaton Show/Life with Buster Keaton strung together into a yarn that might not tell a cohesive story but offers some decent laughs.

Since these sequences are taken from a few different episodes, there’s no central plot to speak of, just the general idea of Buster running the community theatre (I knew I remembered something about him running it, even though that’s never made clear in the extant episodes of either show) while also working at the sporting goods store.  There are a couple good scenes at the store with customers, a few extended theatrical sequences, a bit of farcical misunderstanding, and Buster getting up to some of his usual trouble trying to run the theatre with limited means.

The film is made from three or four different episodes, only one of which I recognize from available episodes of the show(s).  It includes the disastrous play from this episode, the one involving Buster haplessly trying to pull taffy on a telephone (side note:  I didn’t mention it in my review of the earlier episode, but I love Buster’s trick for pawning off yarn-holding duties on another one of his girl’s several suitors.)  That’s the only footage repeated from others I’ve seen, but as usual, there are also some recycled gags.  The sequence does a variation on the “impossibly-small diamond” bit from Sherlock Jr., another scene in the theatre recreates the falling-set image from Back Stage that Buster of course perfected in Steamboat Bill Jr., and he does the same piggy-bank-in-the-wall sequence that he performs in Paradise for Buster, although it looks like this one would’ve come first (overall, I’d say it’s better in Paradise for Buster – the capper is better, and it’s more effective with the jaunty musical accompaniment.)

Of the bits I haven’t seen elsewhere, my favorites include both scenes of Buster in the shop with customers, especially a scene of him giving a quick ‘n’ dirty golf lesson (I love all the little bits of baseball business he does with the club,) and an extended sequence of Buster and another guy from the theatre utterly failing to put up large posters for their new play.  The latter has some fun, clever gags in it, and it’s paired with music, which I think always helps prime you a little better for watching slapstick. 

The stuff from the final included episode is probably the most lackluster, playing on the tired trope of Buster rehearsing with his leading lady with them reciting lines that make her jealous husband think they’re having an affair.  Except for the bit with Buster enthusiastically and unwittingly selling the husband a gun, there’s not much of anything original or Bustery to the humor there.

Warnings

Slapstick violence and a little suggestiveness.