Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films 1917-1923 (Masters of Cinema) DVD, 1917-23

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MovieMail's Review

Buster Keaton - the little fellow with the porkpie hat and the frozen face - never knew any other purpose in life except to make audiences laugh. His film career began in 1917, when comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle saw him on the vaudeville circuit and hired him. After making a series of Arbuckle shorts, including The Butcher Boy, Coney Island and The Cook, Keaton struck out on his own in 1919, when he acquired Charlie Chaplin's old studio and began producing his own independent comedies. Before turning to feature production in 1923, he created some of the finest short comic masterpieces of the silent era in nineteen two-reelers, the finest of which include The High Sign, One Week and Cops. This stunning four-disc set includes the thirteen surviving Arbuckle-Keaton shorts and all of Keaton's own two-reelers plus a 180-page book that evaluates his genius.
Buster merely tries to go about his business and stay out of trouble, which of course isn’t long coming. When he inherits an opponent, it's not a single antagonist, but a whole crowd. When he flees from a cop, it's seldom a single cop, but the entire police force - he’s a little man against big universe. His environment isn't malevolent however, it's merely a challenge. Buster is fascinated by mechanical objects, and he surpasses himself in their mastery, employing some of the most amazingly agile and wonderfully funny slapstick found on film. His grave face, full of energy, nobility and intelligence, retains its dignity even when he's clobbering someone. His trademark look isn't at all uncomprehending, it's preoccupied; he's concentrating - latent energy waiting to leap into motion. And when that coiled spring finally erupts, it's with more acrobatic and athletic agility than the cinema has seen this side of Douglas Fairbanks! He turns clumsy tumbles into graceful ballets, with constant, rhythmic, precise energy; his intense physicality - running, jumping, somersaulting, diving - is simply astonishing.

R. Dixon-Smith on 6th October 2006
View all 5 of R. Dixon-Smith's reviews

Film Information

Director - Buster Keaton

Produced - 1917-23

Main Language - Silent

Countries & Regions - American film

Cast - Buster Keaton, Roscoe Arbuckle

DVD Details

Certificate:	U	Publisher:	Eureka / Masters of Cinema	Region:	2
Length:	720 mins	Cat No:	EKA40211
Format:	DVD B&W

DVD Extras

4 discs. Specialist audio commentary on 6 films by Joseph McBride
180-page accompanying booklet.

Film Description

Capturing Keaton’s first steps in front of a camera this box set charts his early association with ex-Keystone Kop Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle through to headlining, starring in, and directing his own box office smash hits. Using Chaplin’s old Hollywood studios in 1920, Keaton’s sophisticated technical inventiveness coupled with his haunted-yet-handsome ‘Stone Face’ persona, created a succession of the most timeless, classic comedy shorts ever realised. Features The Butcher Boy (1917), The Rough House (1917), His Wedding Night (1917), Oh, Doctor! (1917), Coney Island (1917), Out West (1918), The Bell Boy (1918), Moonshine (1918), Good Night Nurse (1918), The Cook (1918), Backstage (1919), The Hayseed (1919), The Garage (1919), The “High Sign” (finished 1920, released 1921), One Week (1920), Convict 13 (1920), The Scarecrow (1920), Neighbors (1920), The Haunted House (1921), Hard Luck (1921), The Goat (1921), The Playhouse (1921), The Boat (1921), The Paleface (1922), Cops (1922), My Wife’s Relations (1922), The Blacksmith (1922), The Frozen North (1922), Daydreams (1922), The Electric House (1922), The Balloonatic (1923) and The Love Nest (1923).