The Official Buster Keaton Thread

[Spectre07]

Following on from John's post in the Upcoming classics thread, I thought it was about time Buster Keaton had his own thread. I know there's been coverage of Keaton releases in the Silent Cinema Thread but Eureka are about to release a substancial number of his films in October so a thread in it's own right is justifiable. So to kick off here's the announcement:

Eureka’s Master of Cinema range in October: The Complete Buster Keaton Short Films Collection 1917-1923 Box Set (4 Discs), is a lip-smacking propect considering the quality of the previous MoC range. The blurb:

Containing 32 films - with a running time of over 700 minutes - this collection documents Buster Keaton’s short films between 1917-1923. 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. The Masters Of Cinema series presents the following films in a four-disc box set, with audio commentary by Joseph McBride on six of the films, and a 212-page book:

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), The Love Nest (1923) (*features audio commentary)

[Spectre07]

Apologies for the repetative nature for those who've frequented the Silent Cinema Thread but:

Buster Keaton - A Hard Act to Follow documentary.

[Spectre07]

If you haven't already got it, Play are doing the The General: Special Edition an excellent disc and currently at an excellent £7.99.

And to accompany it they've also got

Buster Keaton: College / Steamboat Bill Jr. / Three Ages .

[John Hodson]

Highly recommended aperitifs:

The General: Special Edition
Buster Keaton: College / Steamboat Bill Jr. / Three Ages
Buster Keaton: A Hard Act To Follow
The Buster Keaton Chronicles
TCM Archives: The Buster Keaton Collection

The main course:

The Complete Buster Keaton Short Films Collection 1917-1923 Box Set (4 Discs) (Masters Of Cinema)

EDIT: same train of thought I see

[Spectre07]

and robbed from your suggestions in other threads.

[John Hodson]

Quick heads up, since I posted the link above to The Buster Keaton Chronicles, the price has been reduced to a very reasonable £16.99 delivered.

[Spectre07]

As I've already got

The General
Three Ages
Steamboat bill Jr
College

I'm going to wait for the The Complete Buster Keaton Short Films Collection which doesn't have any of the titles above.

[derek timbrell]

The shorts were all released in France a while back (for info see http://www.frombutcherboytoscribe.co.uk/keaton/video_detail.php?item_no=28), so it'll be interesting to see how the new set compares.

[dadamson]

Hello,
I wouldnt get too excited about BK Chronicles if I were you. I already bought the set and found the picture to be awful in some cases (e.g. College, Steamboat Bill Jr, Balloonatics, One Week, The Boat and Three Ages). Apart from those film I found the picture to be generally quite good (Thames Silents are fine, and so are the Art of BK, apart from the fact that the latter uses the dreaded "Automatic Scratch Removal"). I suppose it is still worth bying if you dont care about picture as the set does last for about 20 hours.
Thanks for letting me moan.

[John Hodson]

Can't - won't - argue against that; the quality of the Network set is blown away by the Cinema Club releases and I have great hopes for the upcoming MoC set. But I'd still recommend the set to Keaton 'virgins' who want a snapshot of a great breadth of the great man's work at relatively low cost. You can always rent it, or buy it and flog it on later.

Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's Buster Keaton - A Hard Act to Follow from Network is another thing altogether. Excellent quality, a Lindsay Anderson narration and fascinating interviews. It's quite frustrating to think that this was first broadcast on ITV at peak viewing times; it wouldn't get a look in now would it?

[John Hodson]

For those with Sky Cinema, they are showing a season of Keaton films right now:

Wednesday 4th October
9.30am - Back Stage
10am - The Hayseed
10.30am - The Garage
11am - One Week
11.30am - Convict 13

Thursday 5th October
9.30am - The Scarecrow
10am - Neighbors
10.30am - The Haunted House
11am - Hard Luck
11.30am - The 'High Sign'

Friday 6th October
9.30am - The Goat
10am - The Playhouse
10.30am - The Boat
11.05am - The Paleface
11.35am - Cops

Monday 9th October
9.35am - My Wife's Relations
10.05am - The Blacksmith
10.35am - The Frozen North
11am - The Electric House
11.30am - Day Dreams

Tuesday 10th October
9.50am - The Balloonatic
10.20am - The Love Nest
10.50am - The Three Ages

Wednesday 11th October
10.15am - The General

Thursday 12th October
10.30am - College

Friday 13th October
10.35am - Steamboat Bill, Jr.

[John Hodson]

Right; the MoC Keaton set is on the streets it seems. This is a comment from the Criterion forum on both the booklet and the films themselves:

Originally Posted by greggster59

The book opens with a quote from Keaton's autobiography. Then there is a preface from MOC's Nick Wrigley called "About This Box Set". This is followed by a list of the DVD contents with cast and production info. Several pages are devoted to excerpts of Keaton's recollections from a November 1958 interview.

The bulk of the book is called 'A Roundtable On Buster Keaton". It consists of e-mail correspondence conducted during March and April 2006 between Jean-Pierre Coursodon, Dan Sallitt and Brad Stevens. Their credentials are displayed at the beginning of the section. Their discourse covers the films in this set. Some of it is highly informative and some of it reeks of over analysis. Overall, though, its a very worthy exercise.

The last pages are another excerpt from Keaton's autobiography, an article on the fate of the famous Italian Villa built by Keaton, a selected bibliography and the DVD credits. Throughout the book, there are some wonderful photographs of Keaton and company, some rarely seen.

It is evident that a lot of work went into this.

As to the quality of the films themselves they are progressively transferred from the same sources as the French Arte set of 2001 with new intertitles and some newly discovered footage to make this set as comprehensive as possible. Joseph McBride's six commentary tracks are also a nice addition. These alone make the collection a very important release.

I do have a few issue with the quality of the new transfers, however. Despite being progressive where the Arte set was interlaced, the bit rate of the new DVD's is actually lower than the Arte release. This could be attributed to improved compression technology since the release of the Arte set but it also means that the data on the DVD's do not fill up the discs and, in fact, take up less space than the interlaced Arte set. IMO, it would have been beneficial to up the bit rate as some of the titles actually look less sharp than the Arte. There are a few exceptions. Cops, for instance, looks a lot better. By comparison, Neighbors looks about the same and The Playhouse, to my eye, shows slightly more detail on the Arte version.

To sum up, this is the collection of Keaton shorts to own if you don't already have the Arte set. For those that do, the book and commentaries may be a reason to upgrade.

And some grabs here.

[John Hodson]

The Beaver compares the MoC set to the French Arte set here.

[Spectre07]

From those screen grabs I can't see why DVDBeaver have concluded the MOC set is better picturewise.

[Person A]

I can easily see myself laying down £40 notes on the (virtual) table for the Eureka set.

However, as a current owner of the Network collection, it would have been nice if DVDBeaver had compared the transfer quality of the shorts from that set as well.

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by Person A

I can easily see myself laying down £40 notes on the (virtual) table for the Eureka set.

However, as a current owner of the Network collection, it would have been nice if DVDBeaver had compared the transfer quality of the shorts from that set as well.

I managed to unload my Network set in anticipation (well, in anticipation of this appearing in a sale somewhere down the line...)

[clydefro]

Originally Posted by Spectre07

From those screen grabs I can't see why DVDBeaver have concluded the MOC set is better picturewise.

The MoC is progressive while the Arte set is interlaced. The sixth set of caps clearly shows combing. It's a terrific set given that the content is between eighty and ninety years old.

[Mtanner]

Originally Posted by John Hodson

Can't - won't - argue against that; the quality of the Network set is blown away by the Cinema Club releases and I have great hopes for the upcoming MoC set. But I'd still recommend the set to Keaton 'virgins' who want a snapshot of a great breadth of the great man's work at relatively low cost. You can always rent it, or buy it and flog it on later.

Yes, this is me. I am new to Keaton (having only seen The General a couple of years ago and due to youth or whatever I should blame it on, thought it only OK) and saw the Chronicles in store yesterday and although I'd been meaning to get the Cinema Club set, when I saw all those included as well as a significant amount of other titles, it was too good to pass up and is a great introduction. First one I went for was Sherlock Jr. and absolutely loved it. Seemed to have a similar lyricism to The Purple Rose of Cairo, yet to think of this as being sixty years before...timeless, indeed.

Anyway, that and a couple of the short films put me in a Keaton mood so I ordered the TCM Archives set too. I'm also wondering are there any biographies people would recommend? I did a quick search and there seem to be quite a few.

[EvaUnit02]

Did Keaton make any talky films?

[John Hodson]

Yes, he did. There are a couple of DVD collections featuring his later work, some of it, sadly, when he was suffering the effects of his alcoholism (evident in that it destroyed his judgement and timing).

But he also made some lovely cameos in later life, when he'd beaten his demons and his work was being rediscovered.