उपयोगकर्ता समीक्षाएं

There have been a lot of very perceptive comments made by previous reviewers and I don't have much to add.

I have to agree with those who said it was a rather flat comedy with flashes of wit and charm.

Keaton gives an interesting performance as Professor Post. It seems a bit of a parody on Harold Lloyd, but also a precursor to Danny Kay's professor character. The movie is wise when it centers itself around him, but it seems that the scriptwriter wrote it for Keaton to improvise wildly, only to find Keaton sticking to the script. I imagine there was some tension between him and the director, with Keaton simply giving in and following the director's orders.

Thelma Todd stands out. She lights up the screen and exudes a knowing sophistication that only a few other actresses (Jean Harlow, Mae West and Katherine Hepburn) reached.

Again, I don't think that anybody but Buster Keaton fans will enjoy the movie and only Buster Keaton fans will have a few laughs out of it.

While it is true that SPEAK EASILY doesn't hold a candle to the genius of Keaton's best films, neither is it worthless as some have suggested. Outside pressures (namely MGM and his deteriorating family life) held Keaton back from performing at the inspired level he might have. SPEAK EASILY's main weakness lies in MGM forcing an uninspired pairing of Keaton with a vaudeville comic like Durante. The tension between Buster's physical comedy (which is never allowed to ignite as it once had) and Durante's verbal punning is something that never really works. Keaton's characters in all of the MGM talkies seem, for lack of a better word, dense. The inherent cleverness that Buster showed in his silent work was totally abandoned. Never again would Buster show the bravado, daring and quickness he was famous for. Instead, he would be shoe-horned by MGM into a series of roles as loser, victim and sap. For all those inherent problems, SPEAK EASILY still contains at least two slapstick sequences that prove Keaton could be just as funny in his talkies as he was in his silent work. The 'drunken seduction' with Thelma Todd's gold-digger is very funny. Miss Todd proves herself not only a fine comedienne, but shows excellent chemistry with Keaton. Also, Buster's utter, and totally inadvertent, destruction of the Broadway play during it's opening night performance is hysterical and features some fine stunt gags. Those looking for the sublime genius of THE GENERAL or SHERLOCK JR. will invariably be disappointed. That 'Buster' was long gone by this point in his career. SPEAK EASILY should be viewed as an enjoyable programmer that kept Buster working, if not at his peak, still as a capable gag man and entertainer. Admiring fans with an open mind will find much to enjoy here

What is the most harrowing movie ever made? The gynaecological nightmare of 'Cries and Whispers'? The acid psychodramas of Fassbinder? The discomfiting black comedy of 'Last House on the left? I'm sure for that portion of the film-loving public that tie their masts to the good ship Buster Keaton, there is only one answer - any one of his sound films.

I don't know what flayed my soul more poignantly in this movie - the grounding of Keaton's intricate and expansive physical art to humdrum slapstick; the painful hesitation of this master filmmaker with dialogue - not that he hasn't a lovely, comic voice, or that he can't make dialogue funny; it's just that the studio don't seem to have given him enough takes, and so he seems to be trying to remember his lines before he delivers, which only makes him - Keaton, not his character, look silly; or is it the humiliation of seeing Keaton caught up in a tawdry sex farce, when he has given us some of the richest accounts of romantic frustration in film?

No, I know what was most disturbing - having to watch Buster Keaton, cinema's greatest comedian, sit aside to observe Jimmy Durante doing his schtick. It is horrors such as this that get yer Dantes composing yer Infernos.

MGM seem to have got the curious idea that the best way to adapt Keaton to sound was to turn him into a Marx Brother, complete with verbal pedantry, elaborate, tedious 'clowning', shambolic slapstick, theatrical setting, triumph through chaos, and Thelma Todd. Keaton was just not that sort of comic, and where Groucho's malicious tongue and gleeful opportunism might just have made this plot work, Buster's socially inept professor can't, he is too studied and predictable.

What Buster needed was to be allowed experiment like Lang in 'M', or Rene Clair; he would never have tried to hold back the tide like Chaplin. When a film like 'The General' is alluded to - messing about with trains - the loss becomes even more apparent.

And the thing is, in patches amid the flat direction, the film isn't all that bad - there is an excellent jolt when a camera on the bus leaves Keaton alone at a railway station; and the denouement, if hardly original, is at least livelier than what went before. There is something almost endearing about the way Keaton slows down a plot that needs all the zip it can get.

There is a film in here about loneliness, emotionally paralysing order, the numbing effects of education etc., struggling to get out. The best way to appreciate this film is to watch not the narrative of Professor TZ Post, but of emasculated genius Buster Keaton, trapped in a prison of mediocrity, confounded by new technology, mocked by a malevolent fate (in this case the studio), retaining a stoical grace. Looked at like that, it becomes a kind of masterpiece.

B. Keaton had been around since the beginning of film-- the black and white shorts, to full length, on to the talkies. the title itself is a sign of the times... a parody of "speakeasy". if you're old enough, you'll know what it is! they were still in prohibition, combined with the depression, but it WAS the sweet spot between the two wars. people were looking for an escape at the movies. speaking of laughs, catch that three minute comedy bit right at the start between Durante and Brophy. Professor Post (Keaton) has left his educator's job and decides to get involved with a (terrible) show, although they really just want him for his money. but does he really have any money?? he's the "straight man" in this one. everyone around him gets the punchlines. not to mention Hedda Hopper, still in her acting days. Sydney Toler, Thelma Todd. Keaton sure hung out with the hollywood greats. it's pretty good. certainly historical, as an entry in his collection of work. some very clever bits. wordplay, some slapstick, which Keaton became known for. good stuff. directed by Ed Sedgwick. they made TONS of flms together. Story by Clarence Kelland. had SO many of his short stories and novels turned into film. Ruth Selwyn died so young at 49, from cancer, according to several sources. she only had eight roles before leaving the business.

Thelma Todd brings burlesque to a script replete with gags, some of them funny, as when Keaton carries her folded up looking like a filled bag. Pre-Code license pervades and Todd takes this to new realms. The Broadway show as conceived is quite brilliant with snow flakes, costumes, sets, dancers, music, balloons and genuine art, for a few moments, before Keaton tears it all apart. The Producers, Night at the Opera, owe somewhat. You don't get such a steady stream of sight gags and stunts, as with the trains, unless it's Keaton. Not many big laughs, but surprising in its disregard for conventions of good taste audiences might expect to see lived up at an MGM movie. Hedda Hopper does a great job as the tasteful Mrs. Peets.

I watched 'Speak Easily' one night and thought it was o.k., but missing something. Maybe Buster Keaton strangely speaking threw me off, or the labored line delivery of a leading lady. The next day I kept thinking about the movie, though. I couldn't get Durante's song out of my head, I kept trying to better remember Thelma Todd's first scene, I considered that maybe Keaton did do some funny falls and physical comedy. The next night I watched a scene with Thelma Todd as a conniving chorus girl trying to impress Buster and Jimmy with her sex appeal. A very funny scene, the actors excellent, their faces, their eyes, their silly expressions. So I watched another scene, their show is opening on Broadway. Buster in his blissful innocence botches every act. Again, I was laughing out loud, appreciating Keaton's clowning and tumbling. So the next night I watched the whole movie again, and this time I see it for the first time: It's Stupendous! It's Sensational! It's Sublime! Three great comedians! Todd dances! Durante sings! Keaton speaks! Sure it ain't poifect...but there's a lot of laughs in this picture.

Not laugh out loud funny, by still mildly amusing and lighthearted tale of an introverted professor whose supposedly inherited a fortune and decides to bankroll an inept broadway play until his fortune attracts the attention of a tenacious gold-digger (Todd).

Keaton's antics are subdued here appearing as the straight man to Durante's comic antics, whilst there's ample support from future 'Charlie Chan' Toler as the besieged stage director, and vivacious Thelma Todd as the would-be wife who sees an opportunity to secure acting fame and fortune via the cashed-up Keaton. Their drunken apartment liaison is probably the film's highlight, elsewhere proceedings sometimes become tedious and trivial despite a straightforward plot.

Mild romantic comedy doesn't become too ambitious, playing the formula sufficiently well to entertain despite some occasional pacing problems, 6/10.

I cannot say more or less than many other reviewers have said except that I thought SPEAK EASILY was a dreary dud. Only Thelma Todd lightens up the screen when she and Buster are on the couch at her apartment. Pre-Code stuff! The notable thing about Buster, to me, is to hear what an excellent, resonant, speaking voice he had. It is deep and rich. He still manages some physical capers at the climax.

Keaton fans, you will not "die a thousand deaths" if you view this. Nothing Keaton does is bad, if for nothing else then for his presence. That being said, Buster was a silent start who was best when doing stuff created by his own mind. By 1932, the silent era was dead and the studios owned the movies. That Buster Keaton of "Seven Chances" and "Steamboat Bill Jr." was no more. That could never be recreated.

Times changed, films changed, and Buster adapted. Better this Buster than no Buster.

The story is funny, and there is some amusing slapstick. Buster plays his role well, adds some Buster to it, and is believable as a clueless college professor. Jimmy Durante is larger than life, in a hammy sort of way, but it's a good contrast with Keaton if anything. The movie works, and the closing scenes – the show on Broadway – is madcap with a modicum of brilliance.

We can ask what if. What if the silent era had never ended? What if Keaton and Arbuckle had not been separated so suddenly? What if the studios had taken over the industry with their formulae? Look, this is a pretty good film. It's not Keaton being tragically reduced to nothing. (Such was never possible! The great ones always adapt.) The tragedy is what happened to Roscoe Arbuckle. What happened to Buster? He hung in there and made people laugh.

T.Z. Post, college professor, receives a false letter stating he inherited $750,000. Now with financial means, he withdraws his life savings of $4,000, and decides to finally going out & live. After having his baggage sent on a train to Chicago, he meets a traveling vaudeville troupe, and decides there good enough for him to put on a show on Broadway. The night of the show, poor Prof. Post has to hide from his creditors, settle the relationship woes between girlfriend Pansy and & floozy diva Eleanor, and still make sure the show must go on. After watching many of Keaton's silent gems, this one is a pain to sit through, but I felt, it could have been a lot worse. Supporting cast Durante, Todd, & Selwyn come off very annoying at times, but still likeable. A pre-Charlie Chan Toler is good as the frustrated show director. 90% of the script is badly written as MGM is trying to pass this off as a poor man's Marx Bros. film where many of the sight gags fall flat from the beginning. Compiled with Keaton's drinking problems at the time, this movie just is a sad moment in Buster's life. Rating- 3.

MGM felt its star Buster Keaton needed a funnier foil for his comedies. His last opposite, actor Cliff Edwards, didn't quite work out in his three movies with Keaton. The co-star appeared daily on the studio set pretty well soused with alcohol on his breath. MGM turned to vaudeville and radio personality Jimmy Durante as its choice to pair him with Buster, who was seeing his private life crumbling right before his eyes. The Keaton-Durante team appeared in three films together, the first, February 1932's "The Passionate Plumber." Their second, August 1932's "Speak Easily," turned out to be their highest critically-acclaimed movie. Film reviewer Doug Sarnecky picked it as "my favorite of Keaton's MGM talkies. Keaton does star in the role well with an excellent supporting cast." When the studio hired Keaton, MGM made sure to have its scriptwriters adapt published plays and novels for his movies. "Speak Easily" was no exception. Clarence Kelland's 1932 story was used to follow introverted college Professor Post (Keaton) as he gets fooled by a letter his assistant forged in order get him out of the stifling confines of the university to see the world. The letter stated the teacher had inherited a large sum of money. On a train ride out of town, Post meets James (Durant), a manager of a dance troupe, who convinces him to finance a Broadway show.

Even though "Speak Easily" was categorized as a comedy and not a musical, Durante belts out several tunes, interspersed with a few of his typical corny jokes. Jimmy's schtick harkens back to his early years playing on the New York City piano bar circuit. Durante, born and raised in the Lower East Side Manhattan, plied his raw song-and-joke talents after dropping out of seventh grade before teaming up with childhood friends Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson on the vaudeville stage and in radio. Durante got his big break in acting appearing on Broadway in Cole Porter's 1930 'The New Yorkers,' where Hollywood scouts recognized his high energy.

Critics praise Keaton's drunken scene with veteran comedic actress Thelma Todd, playing Eleanor Esprere, a gold digger who believed Professor Post actually did inherit a fortune. Cine Outsider Slarek praised "Speak Easily," writing "some inspired physical comedy alternate with some of the funniest drunk acting I can readily recall. Keaton's vocal delivery is at its best, suggesting that with the right script he could have made that transition after all." The clever script delivered such lines as "Have you ever seriously considered marriage?" coos Eleanor as she makes her first serious move on the professor. "Yes," he replies. "That's why I'm single."

Playing a drunk in the scene reflected Keaton's off-screen personal life as his troubles mounted. His ten-year marriage to Natalie Talmadge was officially over, and with his bouts of drunkenness becoming increasingly volatile, she gained sole custody of their two sons. The comedian gave up his prized home, 'The Italian Villa' in Beverly Hills and much of his life savings to her. "Speak Easily" was a hit for Keaton, however, and MGM put up with his despondent drinking to allow him to make another movie in the following year as his contract was nearing completion.

The greatest film comedian of all time? Well, if he had made better sound films than this, I think that would have been indisputable. Or as his partner here, one Jimmy Durante, may have put it, "indispicable."

Buster Keaton's transition to sound went over well at the box office. He had some of his biggest hits in talkies, including this one. But watching "Speak Easily" makes you wonder why. It doesn't move like classic Buster. It doesn't make you laugh like classic Buster. It just gives you Buster, playing a fish out of water - too convincingly.

As Professor Post, Buster is urged to leave his lonely sinecure teaching the classics at a fancy college and "go out and find life." Led to believe he has just inherited $750,000, he does so, and meets a troupe of traveling showpeople. Falling in love with one, Pansy Peets (Ruth Selwyn), he decides to take them to Broadway on his dime. Only he doesn't really have as many dimes as he thinks.

There are actually three comedy legends in this film. In addition to Durante, who is the troupe's combination comic and piano player and pretty good here with his miles-of-malaprops-a-minute manner, you have Thelma Todd. People who talk about Buster's tragically curtailed career should take stock of Todd, who died at 29 just as she was poised to take off in an era of funny women. She shows a lot of her realized potential here, as a gold-plated vamp who latches onto Buster when she learns he is putting on the show.

"Have you ever thought seriously of marriage?" she asks Professor Post.

"Yes, that's why I'm single," he replies.

There is also a sequence where Todd's character attempts to blackmail Post by having him caught out in his bedroom, something that could really happen back in the 1930s. This is set up by a beautiful two-hand drunk scene (just watch Todd's reaction after gulping Buster's cocktail!) before moving on to a variation of a routine Buster did many times, trying to carry an unconscious woman to bed, before Durante shows up to give the sequence a terrific capper. The scene is so good it belongs in a much better movie.

Durante isn't overbearingly antic here, but he has little to do except tell lousy jokes and string along the willing professor (whom he calls "that guy with the face") about his dog-and-pony show's prospects. Selwyn's a weak female lead, even with a fourth Hollywood legend, gossip-page pioneer Hedda Hopper, playing her overprotective mother.

Buster is at the center of what's wrong. He's not convincing as a professor, and his comedy mannerisms tend to be slow and obvious. It's been said he struggled in the sound era when MGM tried to make him play sad and sympathetic. There's some of that here (in the beginning Post is warned his lonely condition may drive him to suicide) but also a tentative quality to his line readings, long pauses and repetitious head bobs that may be his famous drinking problem showing up on screen or else just difficulty managing the different demands of talkie comedy.

The film limps along, an occasional funny line or good physical comedy bit standing out all the more for the tedium around it, until reaching an awful finale where the show makes its Broadway debut with assorted mayhem both on- and offstage. Every tired gimmick is trotted out, while Buster overplays Post's idiocy for the sake of some lame slapstick. It's a real wince-producing conclusion that leaves a more sour aftertaste than "Speak Easily" deserves.

People who want to see the worst of Buster will be disappointed with "Speak Easily," though not nearly as much as those who come to it wanting to see more of why he was so great.

This movie is a stitch, but the best part is the finale, by far. So stick through it until the end - or fast forward - and you'll get a mixture of broad farce and clever comedy that will reward your patience.

Buster Keaton's comedy here doesn't much interest me. Jimmy Durante's I find a lot more enjoyable. But it's the disastrous premier of Speak Easily, a Broadway review, that you want to watch. Everything goes wrong, and the results are a stitch.

Thus proving I'll watch Buster Keaton in pretty much anything?

Buster is trapped in a weak script, one with very few truly funny bits, and the pace of this film is sluggish at best. He and Jimmy Durante have a couple of moments, but overall this one is pretty stiff and lacks charm. Even the banter is toned down to a pale reflection of good pre-Code films. Buster needed creative control and to be set loose to shine, and it doesn't happen here. His best physical moment is when he uses some creativity to get Thelma Todd up off the floor, and I smiled when he opened the umbrella to cover himself the next morning. The best line comes during a review of a dance number:

Keaton: But it would be much more effective if you were in the nude. Durante: Professor, Professor. That's out. No nudes! Keaton: But, James, it was done so in Athens. Durante: Yeah, they might get away with that in Athens. That's a college town!

Professor Post (Buster Keaton) lives a sheltered life at Potts College. He is surprised by a $750k inheritance. He boards a train where he meets a group of performers including James (Jimmy Durante) and dancer Pansy Peets. James convinces Post to pay for a Broadway showing of their musical Speak Easily. Diva actress Eleanor Espere (Thelma Todd) lures the unsuspecting Post into a compromising position.

While Buster may still be a star during his talkies, there is no doubt that they are his lesser work. It has some stunts but nowhere near his earlier risky action scenes. He is a perfectly fine comedic actor but his silent personality is far more charismatic. He dominates in a silent movie. In a talkie, he is only a part of the cast. This does have Jimmy Durante but they don't really act as a comedy team. This is fine but pales in comparison with his earlier legendary work.