Parlor, Bedroom and Bath

A far funnier film than I was led to believe. All Keaton fans usually hate the Metro movies, but there are delights here. Reginald Denny makes an excellent farceur and the inimitable Charlotte Greenwood is a surprisingly good match with Keaton. They have some exhausting physical scenes with each other and somehow, it clicks. Buster undergoes more punishment in these pictures than the ones he wrote and directed. It is almost as if someone at MGM decided that masochism was what made him funny. Nevertheless, he manages to shine as a timid soul who turns himself into a very enthusiastic lover. The film is "stagey" in that it keeps at times to a rendering very much like a proscenium theatre. It's fast. And fun.

Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton were the top comedy actors of early filmdom, each with his own characteristic persona. And, among all of the early and later comedians, none played a better dumb straight face role than Keaton. Not until Peter Sellers came along was there another actor who could so well mix straight face with buffoonery, slapstick, screwball antics and clever - but ever so short, lines.

Keaton proved to be as good in the talkies as he had been in the silent movies. But for the stripping of his creative freedoms in new contracts after the advent of sound, he might have given us many more years of great comedic roles. Thankfully, recent generations are coming to see the genius and talent of this great entertainer.

It is tempting, as some reviewers have alluded, to judge Keaton mostly on his slapstick scenarios, which were often so prominent in his best silent films. But, Keaton was so much more than falling down comedy. And he continued to show his broader genius into his first talkies, as this film shows - even as the studios kept imposing more and more strictures that would eventually relegate him to small and then bit parts. When given good scripts and a fine supporting cast with good roles, Keaton and company could make smashing comedies. This is one such film, with Reginald Denny, Charlotte Greenwood and some others helping build the comedy.

In Parlor, Bedroom & Bath, we see Keaton at his deadpan best. Just listen, look and laugh. How anyone can watch this film and not howl during a good half dozen segments is beyond me. The film itself is wacko from the start. So, put the best wacko actor of the time in it and all you have is a great laugh vehicle to enjoy time and again.

PB & B pokes fun at a lot of aspects and stations of life. The rich and trivial, success and workaholics, glamor and the plain, marriage and love, fidelity and infidelity - all get a little treatment with humor and slapstick. It's too bad for those few folks who may have watched this film and just don't know how to laugh. Sometimes, we have to look for the genius and great in the simple. And there's plenty of that in this film. I wish all who watch it anew the same or more laughter from the head and the heart that I have had.

Here are some favorite lines from this film. This IMDb page for the move has many more under the Quotes section.

Jeffrey Haywood, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll marry Angelica myself." Virginia Embrey, "What?" Jeffrey, "Yeah, and then I'll poison her and marry you." Virginia, "Where are you going? Jeffrey, "Where am I going? To get the poison."

Jeffrey Haywood, to Reginald Irving, "I might fix it so she could be the mother of your children." At that, Reginald faints.

Jeffrey Haywood, "Listen, Polly, we've always been good friends, haven't we?" Polly Hathaway, "Yes. But you're scaring the friendship out of me."

Reginald Irving, offering to pay the farmer for their ride to the hotel on his hay wagon after their car lost a wheel, "How much do I owe you?" Hay wagon driver, "Ya think two dollars would be too much?" Reginald, "Yes." Wagon driver, "Well, then give me a dollar."

Polly Hathaway, "You have all the passion of an infuriated clam."

This is a great film that is very funny especially once it gets going. The premise is that an engaged couple wants to wed but can't do so until the girl's older sister does so (they don't want her to appear to be an old maid). The sister is having a hard time finding anyone to marry because she insists her husband be a great lover (and have great other things, as a sly comment as one dumped suitor comes out of the swimming pool implies). Into this madness comes Buster Keaton who is run over accidentally by the fiancé. Sensing an opportunity, the fiancé begins to spread the rumor that Keaton is a great lover. Soon not only the "old maid" sister, but every other woman in the area is pursuing Keaton.

Keaton was a master comedian and it really shows here. I'm just floored that this, like many of his other sound films aren't better known, since Keaton really did manage to keep the laughs coming for over 50 years in the movies. This is a perfect example of the good stuff he did that most people don't know about. This is a very funny comedy full of wicked pre-code japes as well as typical Keaton style physical gags. I put this film on expecting to smile here and there and instead found myself chuckling steadily through out.

Recommended to anyone wants to see a good screwball comedy with more than a few risqué moments.

"Parlor, Bedroom, & Bath" combines Buster Keaton's comic skills with a decent supporting cast and a light-hearted story about tangled romances. The first half is mostly bland, but things pick up later in the movie.

Jeff wants to marry his sweetheart Virginia, but Virginia refuses to get married until her fussy, spinsterish older sister Angie gets married first. When Jeff runs into (literally) mild-mannered nonentity Reggie Irving (Keaton), he decides to pass off Irving as a notorious playboy, to arouse Angie's interest. The plot also involves some other characters and their own romantic difficulties, and the build-up goes on for too long. It is all rather slow-going for much of the film, with the only laughs coming when Keaton gets an occasional chance to display his non-verbal comic ability. The part worth waiting for comes in the second half, when all of the characters converge on a hotel, in a lengthy and pretty good comic sequence.

Overall, it's not much when compared with Keaton's silent films. But if you watch, make sure to stick around for the last half of the film, when things get a lot funnier.

Surprisingly funny for one of Buster Keaton's widely derided MGM talkies. Meek little Buster is built up as one of the world's great lovers, part of a plot to marry off a society dame and clear the way for her younger sister's nuptials. Hijinks ensue in this romantic farce.

Buster may not be doing the incredible stuntwork that made him famous in the silent era, but his lovable persona and physical comedy fit well with the rest of the ensemble in this film. Buster's always fun to watch, and here he's surrounded by a handful of lovely ladies, as well as the inimitable Charlotte Greenwood and familiar character actors Cliff Edwards and Edward Brophy. Greenwood's tall and lanky physical shtick is a great match for Keaton, and their scenes are fun. The extended hotel room scene is a riot, as Buster confusedly practices his seduction technique on several unsuspecting women.