TCM Archives: The Buster Keaton Collection (DVD)

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Interestingly, Keaton's silent-screen rival, Charlie Chaplin, was no more fond of the talking era than Keaton was, but Chaplin owned his own movie studio and wrote and produced his own films. Thus, when the talkies came along, Chaplin could afford to ease into them smoothly and gently with movies ("City Lights," "Modern Times") that were virtually silent well into the talking age. Keaton did not enjoy such a luxury, and it shows to his disadvantage.

In "Free and Easy" Keaton again plays an "Elmer," this time Elmer Butz, the contest manager for a girl, Elvira Plunkett (Anita Page), who has just won a beauty pageant as Miss Gopher City, Kansas. Their prize is a trip to Hollywood, where Elmer insists he is going to make her a movie star. It is no surprise that he's in love with her.

But once in Hollywood, he finds he has a rival, a handsome young actor named Larry Mitchell (Robert Montgomery), who falls for Elvira the first time he meets her. The problem with this situation is that we can see in a flash that Larry is a really nice guy and that he and Elvira hit it off famously. So where, we have to wonder, will this leave Elmer?

"Free and Easy" moves along more slowly than Keaton's previous two pictures, and it contains far too much talk and far too few visual gags. It relies on Hollywood cameos (Jackie Coogan, John Barrymore), romance, and musical numbers to carry it along, diluting Keaton's natural gifts in much the same way that MGM would dilute the Marx Brothers' zaniness in their later movies.

Keaton often seems adrift in the story. He is as much as anything the poor soul, the fool, the sap in this film, falling down more than usual for him and being absent from more footage. What few scenes Keaton is allowed to handle on his own are inspired, to be sure, especially a sequence on the MGM lot where Elmer tries first to get in and is then chased from pillar to post.

But the film's "Pagliacci" ending is a complete downer, and Keaton's agreeing to do it must have been one of the actor's most ill-advised moves. We leave the movie feeling cheated and manipulated. "Free and Easy" would be the beginning of the end for Keaton the star.

Video:
Of the three movies, "The Cameraman" and "Free and Easy" show the most faults in their picture quality. The image is often marred by minor age marks--lines, scratches, and smudges--and "Free and Easy" is further marred by a few somewhat blurry reels. The imperfections are not excessive, however, and the movies are still quite watchable. In fact, they are probably the best video transfers of these films ever made. Definition ranges from so-so to excellent, depending on a given sequence, as do the B&W contrasts, which can sometimes be strong and other times slightly faded. "Spite Marriage" is the best of the three prints, quite good for its age. It shows better B&W contrast and sharper delineation than the other two, plus it shows fewer signs of age.

None of the prints used for the Warner Bros. Keaton transfers were digitally restored, and none of them compare to the quality of the Chaplin prints used in WB's Chaplin box sets, prints which were mostly found preserved in the Chaplin family vault in near-perfect condition and restored from there. Still, no one should find the Keaton prints at all objectionable, and they are undoubtedly better looking than anything previously available to the public.

Audio:
"The Cameraman" on the first disc and the documentary on the second disc are in two-channel Dolby stereo, mainly because "The Cameraman" is accompanied by a new musical soundtrack and the documentary is also newly made. Otherwise, the sound of the original synchronized sound-effects track on "Spite Marriage" and the early talking sound on "Free and Easy" are in single-channel Dolby Digital mono, the latter somewhat dull and pinched, but still listenable. No matter; the sound works efficiently in each case. There is little that we today would associate with high-end audio, it's true, yet there is nothing to distract us, either, like excessive background noise.

Extras:
The two discs in the package are crammed full of good material that will make any Keaton fan jump for joy. Disc one contains the feature films "The Cameraman" and "Spite Marriage," with introductions by "Turner Classic Movies" host Robert Osborne. On "The Cameraman" there's an audio commentary by film historian Glenn Mitchell, and on "Spite Marriage" there's a commentary by silent-era film historians John Bengston and Jeffrey Vance. All of the commentaries are straightforward and informative, much more substantial than many of the commentary tracks on other discs that provide little detail you'd care to remember for more than the moment. The first Keaton disc also includes photo montages from "The Cameraman" and "Spite Marriage," plus seventeen and fifteen scene selections respectively.

Disc two contains the feature film "Free and Easy," which is divided into seventeen scene selections, along with a thirty-eight minute documentary, "So Funny It Hurt." Narrated by James Karen, an actor and a friend of Keaton, it details Keaton's unfortunate years with MGM. According to the documentary, MGM only wanted the performer, not the essence of the performer's talent. They wanted Keaton to toe the line, follow the script, never improvise, and never give them any trouble. It was his downfall. In those days MGM was a factory that had little regard for personal initiative, and because Keaton could not conform to their tightly regimented system of filmmaking, he was fired within a few years.

The two discs are housed in a foldout, plastic-and-cardboard case housed in a cardboard slipcover. English is the only spoken language provided throughout the set; but English, French, and Spanish subtitles are available for those who need them.

Parting Thoughts:
Interestingly, both "Spite Marriage" and "The Cameraman" were later remade as vehicles for another MGM star, Red Skelton, "I Dood It" in 1943 and "Watch the Birdie" in 1950, with Keaton acting as an uncredited consultant and gag writer. It's indicative of the once great comedian's decline, yet Keaton himself is said to have never aspired to greatness and seemed, at times at least, resigned to his fate.

Anyway, the three films in WB/TCM's Buster Keaton Collection complement each other nicely and offer a good overview of this sometimes neglected comic actor and writer. Together with the informative commentaries, the excellent documentary, and the best video transfers of the films yet, the set finally does some small justice to the work of the Great Stone Face. Overall, I'd rate the Film Value for "The Cameraman" an 8/10, "Spite Marriage" a 7/10, and "Free and Easy" a 5/10. The composite score indicated below seems to me a fair assessment of the three films as a whole.

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