The E-Flat Man

This was one of the two-reelers Buster made for Educational pictures in the thirties. These films were nowhere near as good as his classic work from the twenties, nevertheless they do provide amusing entertainment. In this one Buster is eloping with his sweetheart and unbeknownst to them the shop next door is being burgled. The police arrive looking for the burglars and Buster and his girl mistakenly head off in the cop car. Before long they are being chased, leading to some shenanigans in a farm and with hitch-hiking attempts. This little film is not as bad as some would have you believe and is worth seeing, especially if you're a Buster fan.

E-Flat Man, The (1935)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Here's yet another very unfunny Buster Keaton film that he did at Educational Pictures. This time out Elmer (Keaton) and his girlfriend (Dorothea Kent) are about to elope but while they're sneaking out of her house a robbery is taking place next door. The thieves head off in Keaton's car and the future husband and wife team accidentally take a police car. The couple hear that they're wanted by police so they go on the run but soon the police learn the truth but our young couple don't get the news that they're no longer wanted so they just keep running. THE E-FLAT MAN is yet another dud from Keaton and Educational. I think it's fair to say that no one should go into any of these Educational pictures expecting anything near his classic silent pictures but at the same time I don't think it's too much to ask that they at least deliver a few laughs but sadly that never happens. This is a pretty flat story from start to finish as the screenplay really doesn't offer us anything we haven't seen countless times before. Fans of Keaton's THE SCARECROW will see a similar scenes here but you'll also see how badly it doesn't work here. There's even a spoof of the hitchhiking scene from IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT but it too falls flat on its face. We even get a bizarre ending on board a train that comes out of no where and ends just as fast without the joke ever paying off. The one saving grace is that Keaton and Kent at least has some nice chemistry together. Keaton's performance is somewhat lacking but Kent is so cute and charming that she'll at least put a smile on your face.

I don't know what force made Buster Keaton do those awful Educational Pictures "comedy" short features but he sure feels lost in mostly all of them. Probably the transition to talkies played its part on him too, like on many others of his era as well, and he had to sign up for everything that was thrown his way to stay busy and relevant but, after watching seven of those pictures, they all feel dated to me, bland, unfunny and most certainly uncreative.

The E-flat man is one of the better ones of them, at least it doesn't seem all that ridiculous from the get-go as the vast majority of all of Buster talkies up to that point in his career. But just like pretty much all it lacks cohesive storyline, continuity, jokes (what's simply crucial in a Buster Keaton movie) and from a technical side - a good sound editing as well.

In this one Elmer (Buster Keaton's frequent Educational character) elopes with his girl in the middle of the night but mistakenly takes the police vehicle instead of his own, stolen a little earlier, and while on the run they encounter some giggly situations.

Buster here is that same old chap we fell in love with a while back but he's bored to death and it's visible in every scene - that he's only in it to get a quick buck and move on to the next project, that he is suffering with finding out whether he belongs in this new world of talking pictures or not. Time will prove that it's never going to be the former, and it makes me sad to see talents go to waste and do something they aren't worthy of but it's also a part of their journey, the one that helped them become better and stronger (and hopefully do some more decent pictures), so I'll keep digging for bronze (I can only dream of gold under these circumstances).