Top Five Gags: Daydreams

*Spoilers.*

November 27, 1922: the day Daydreams was released. It’s a little flimsy, a string of gag sequences revolving around Buster trying different jobs to support his girl and inevitably causing havoc wherever he goes. Middling at best, but it still has its moments.

 

Looking for the Cat

Love this little bit of business. While working at an animal hospital, Buster puts a cat in a carrying basket to bring it into the vet. Naturally, the bottom has fallen out of the basket, so he leaves the cat behind, which he doesn’t realize until he opens the basket up again. The moment of beauty here is when, after peering into the empty basket and holding it up to see the bottom is missing, he turns it upside down and shakes it, as if he thinks the cat might still be in there somewhere! A tiny moment, but it’s so great.

 

 

Catching a Skunk

The cat and a dog have both run off, and Buster goes out to look for them. While he finds the dog, he mistakes a skunk for the cat and carries it inside instead. This is a wonderfully executed gag—rather than actually seeing the skunk spray Buster, we cut directly from him stepping inside with the skunk to him coming out in a bathrobe, grabbing a shovel to bury his stinky clothes in the yard. As a perfect capper, out comes the dog to bury its collar alongside him.

 

 

Putting Out the Fire

Buster’s now working as a street sweeper, and when he encounters an avalanche of ticker tape from a parade, he decides to deal with it by lighting it on fire (you know, as you do.) Within moments, flaming ticker tape is blowing everywhere, which leaves Buster flailing to control the high-powered hose and put it out. Bonus points for the moment when Big Joe Roberts hurls the bass drum from the parade band at Buster, who blasts it back with the hose.

 

 

Evading the Cops

After a disastrous theatrical debut, Buster is being chased by the cops and desperately needs to get out of his conspicuous Roman centurion costume. He comes to an outdoor display at a clothing store and quickly helps himself to a pair of pants, a jacket, and a hat. With the store owner demanding payment and one of the police who’d been chasing him eyeing him suspiciously, Buster is stuck—until he reaches into his pocket and discovers a wad of cash. Unbeknownst to him, a pickpocket had stolen that money from the store owner earlier, stashing it in that pants pocket when a cop came by. Nice resolution to a fun circular gag!

 

 

Water Wheel

Still running from the cops, Buster has hopped onto a paddle steamer, but the police have enough time to board before it departs. With them now searching the boat, Buster hides out by sitting inside the water wheel—until the boat starts picking up speed, of course. I’d say this is the most famous gag from this short, and while the barrel-rolling Damfino from The Boat is better, this is still a ton of fun. Buster starts out able to keep up with the spin of the wheel but quickly loses his footing as it speeds up. He tumbles around the inside of the wheel, he clings to the exterior and gets dunked every time it revolves, and he just generally has a bad time. But as always, a bad time for Buster is a great time for us!

Daydreams (1922)

In a way, this is sort of the Three Ages of Buster’s independent shorts.  By that, I mean it’s less of a story and more of a conceit that allows for a series of gag-filled vignettes that are only loosely connected to one another.  As a result, it’s big on laughs but short on story (admittedly, this is much easier to get away with in a short.)

When his girlfriend’s dad doubts Buster’s prospects, Buster vows to go to the city and make his fortune, promising to shoot himself if he fails.  (Wait, what?!  No, seriously, that’s the agreement – that makes this another Buster short with some pretty dark humor for the ‘20s.)  He sends back glowing, carefully-worded letters to his girl about his progress, leading her to imagine his careers as being far more glamorous than they really are.  For instance, when he tells her about “cleaning up on Wall Street,” she pictures him as a stockbroker, when in fact, he’s naturally working as a street sweeper.  The short offers several sequences of Buster’s various misadventures, interposed with these daydreams of what he’s led his girl to believe he’s actually doing.

Even for a short, it’s a pretty thin story, and as the ludicriously-high stakes show, the details aren’t hammered out all that well.  The central hook is amusing, and the glimpses of Buster in these over-the-top success-story fantasies are fun (unfortunately, though, Daydreams only exists in fragmentary condition, and most of the daydream scenes themselves are lost – still shots of Buster in his dream scenarios stand in for the missing scenes.)

However, Buster’s assorted work scenes are really funny.  While the structural narrative of the short displays a little of Buster’s fatigue with the two-reel format, the gags are as shiny as ever.There are great flourishes throughout; some of my favorites include the poor dog in the vet sequence trotting behind Buster to bury his collar after they’ve been sprayed by a skunk (yet another good animal screen partner for Buster,) as well as the absurdity of Buster trying to clean up a ticker-tape parade in a wind storm.  Also, we’re once again treated to an excellent chase scene with some splendid cop gags.  I love Buster’s trick with the fire escape – so clever! – and the famous water wheel scene is fantastic.

Renee Adoree plays the girl here.  She’s not one of Buster’s regulars, so I’m not familiar with her, and she doesn’t get much to do – even though the short’s framework hinges on her daydreams, all that really requires her to do is stare thoughtfully into space for a second or two.  More familiar faces appear in similarly small roles.  Big Joe Roberts makes a brief appearance as the mayor, and Buster’s dad Joe plays the girl’s father.  As per usual when working with his son, Joe Keaton takes the opportunity to show off his talents for giving Buster a swift kick in the rear.

Warnings

Slapstick violence and a little gunplay.