Keystone Hotel

This is not the best sound comic short ever made (I would give that to either Laurel & Hardy or WC Fields), but it is a very good one, and perhaps the best illustration that much of the best of the Three Stooges really was handed down from Keystone, as the first two thirds of this really do resemble a particularly good Del Lord Stooges short. The gags surrounding cross-eyed Ben Turpin, in particular, are superb, as are the gags around a shaking reducing machine, and naughty old Keystone stalwarts gazing through keyholes.

The giant pie fight and Keystone Kops scene leave me a bit cold, though I suppose they were deemed essential in a short using old Keystone people. But, frankly, if you're the type to seek this kind of short out, you've seen all these gags before in better silent versions.

So -- definitely worth seeing, and its unfortunate (and a little odd) that Warners did not follow this one up with a series with this crew.

Worth watching only as a curiosity. The cast is composed of famous silent comedians who are no longer famous. It's pretty bad but mercifully short.

Count Ben Turpin shows up to judge the beauty contest at the Keystone Hotel. On hand are such local luminaries as mayor Chester Conklin, police chief Ford Sterling, and hotel detective Hank Mann.

It's a straight-up, old fashioned slapstick comedy that uses the comics who prospered during the silents, usually at Mack Sennett's studio, doing gags derived from that era, complete with a collection of comics emulating the Keystone Kops; the contestants for the contest include several former Sennett Bathing Beauties, and a nice-sized pie fight. It was undoubtedly a lot of fun for those who remembered slapstick comics in the contemporary audience. As a fan of silent comedy, it was a pleasure for me.

In 1935, somebody came up with a brilliant idea: make a talking short that would epitomize the slapstick comedies of the silent era. Silent comics, pushed into obscurity by the advent of talkies, were readily available.

Never mind about the plot; it only exists as a framework on which to hang new renditions of classic silent gags. The finale, of course, is a massive pie fight in the hotel ballroom while the Keystone Kops rush to quell the riot. Segments of the pie fight are frequently used as stock footage; it's likely that everyone has seen portions of it at one time or another.

Altogether, a nostalgic short that captures the flavor of the silent era. Good fun.

My specialty in the comedy shorts field are those produced by Columbia Pictures, however, "Keystone Hotel" (Warner Brothers-Vitaphone Corporation), is perhaps my all-time favorite of any comedy short from any studio. What more could one ask for in a two-reeler paying homage to the early slapstick comedy of Mack Sennett? There's plenty of everything Sennett made famous...The Keystone Kops, car chases, bathing beauties (well sort of...there is a beauty contest), pie fights, and a dream cast of former Mack Sennett players still doing what they did best some 10-20 years earlier. I highly recommend this film. It's funny, fast-paced, and a real delight to see old timers like Ben Turpin and Ford Sterling at the top of their game.

It's too bad that a series wasn't developed from this terrific crowd pleaser.