The Misadventures of Buster Keaton

Often overlooked in Buster filmographies and only recently included in the imdb, this is an interesting item in Buster's career. Not quite a film. It's actually one of two pseudo features that British Lion compiled from episodes of Life with Buster, his shot on film TV series, about Buster's misadventures both running a sporting goods shop, and a local theatre company.

The "film" is thus a series self contained skits built round one or other premise. Reputedly Buster didn't enjoy this series, missing the live audience of his previous show. Also Buster found it hard to come up with a half hour's worth of original material each week and in future would do only guest spots. You can sence this difficulty in the variable quality of the sequences here, many of which harken back to Buster's vaudeville days eg an onstage sequence with Buster as an idiotic suitor, one of 3, who come a courting..

Though some of the material is weak, Buster is as always a pro and he does have a few very funny moments, notably a reprise of the piggy bank gag from Cameraman, a fun poster sticking scene, in which Eleanor Keaton makes a brief appearance, and the climactic scene where he attempts to perform the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and the set falls forward on him just like in Steamboat Bill Jnr.. Eleanor again appears here as Juliet, a nice touch.

5 out of 10

Buster Keaton, a little worn around the edges, made a tongue-in-cheek compilation of his work in television skits about a poor, unsuccessful actor. His is the only name on the door of BK Productions, and while he's in charge of everything from acting to costumes, he doesn't get any good jobs and can't pay his bills.

Twenty-five years earlier, this might have been cute, but since it mirrors how his career ended up, it's not very funny. If you do sit through this one, it's probably to see him take up the entire running time, since he was usually in five minute, or less, cameos for the past ten years. He does get every minute of screen time, and he even recreates some of his old gags from his silent movies. You can watch him try to crack open his piggy bank as he did in The Cameraman, and while onstage during a terrible rendition of Romeo and Juliet, the set falls on top of him as it did in Steamboat Bill, Jr. You can also catch a glimpse of Buster's wife, Eleanor, who joins him in a couple of skits.

In the 1920s, Buster Keaton was one of the funniest comics alive. His short and full-length films from this period are true classics and many of the these movies are the equal to the best of Chaplin or Harold Lloyd. But, by the 1930s, Keaton made a HUGE mistake--leaving a friendly studio that allowed him lots of artistic freedom (Paramount) and moving to a prestige studio that, unfortunately, had no knack for comedy (MGM). After pairing him with the most inappropriate comic imaginable (Jimmy Durante--whose humor was all verbal was no match for the physical comedy of Keaton), his screen career spiraled slowly downward. By the time he made "The Misadventures of Buster Keaton" for British Lion Studios in 1950, Keaton's career was near its lowest point. Fortunately for him, television would bring a resurgence in interest in him, as his old films were suddenly being shown to a whole new generation and Keaton was able to carve out a little niche for himself in films. He'd never be the headliner like he was in the 20s, but he was once again popular. So, understand that this film came out just before Keaton had a career resurgence--and it's still from his best.

So is "The Misadventures of Buster Keaton" a good film? No. While it isn't completely terrible, it's NOT the sort of material that made him famous. Much of the physicality of his routine is missing--probably due to his age, as he could no longer do the insane knockabout things he did in his early films. Now this STILL could have worked had the film been better written and the gags been better timed. But too often, funny LITTLE gags were stretched out way, way too long--destroying the joke and making audiences bored as a result. The taffy gag, his putting up posters and the bit about the jealous husband all had promise but just needed LESS--to be done better, faster and with much better timing. To make things MUCH worse, during so much of the film there is a god-awful laugh track. It's too loud and seems completely unrelated to what Keaton and the rest of the cast are doing. In other words, if they breathe, there are JUST as many laughs as when they do something that is actually funny! The overall result is tedious and sad to watch for Keaton fans like myself. Not 100% terrible...but at times, darn close.