Buster s'en va-t'en guerre

Buster's talkie years get a bad rap but this one is solid. It's fascinating to watch Buster's take on WWI, especially now that I know he actually was a WWI veteran and saw combat. There's some genuine movie magic here. If you're a Buster fan, it's worth a watch.

"Doughboys" is worthy of a higher rating than the above. It is a film where Buster Keaton had more creative control and is a more satisfying comedy than his other talkie films for "M.G.M." He wouldn't be allowed any further creative freedom after this film. I would imagine Buster would have found it difficult in making "Doughboys," what with the story being about a young socialite serving in the First World War. The comedian himself was a veteran of the same war and saw action in the trenches. The laughs are pretty good in this film and Buster performs some effective slapstick. He doesn't execute any of his usual dangerous stunt work but that doesn't matter. He is given a good plot to work with, as is the rest of the cast. He is a rather clumsy soldier in everything he does and manages to incur the wrath of his drill sergeant. However and just like in his silent films, Buster employs a lot of perseverance in order to win the day. The comedian certainly has a good voice for talkie films and that wasn't the reason for his decline. One of Buster Keaton's far better films from this period of his career.

Keaton had more control over this film than he had on the previous "Free and Easy". MGM had tried to portray him as a sad clown, but happily they left him alone on this feature. Buster based this film on his experiences in the army during World War I. It is obvious from this movie that Buster was a peace loving man who really detested war. In his social satire, he is more subtle than Chaplin, but it's there. Buster is closer to his silent character here, but he does have to handle dialogue. He's still a little aprehensive, but remember, this was only his second sound film! The gags in this film are as clever as anything he did in his silent features and there is even a little, charming, impromptu musical interlude with Buster and Cliff "Jiminy Cricket" Edwards fooling around on ukeleles. This film was partially remade by Buster as a Columbia two-reeler called "General Nuisance". It is one of his better Columbia efforts.

Doughboys (1930)

* (out of 4)

Horrendous and embarrassing "comedy" features Buster Keaton playing a rich man who accidentally signs up for the Army but once there he's pleasantly surprised and happy to see the woman (Sally Eilers) who kept turning him down on the outside. After a classic (THE CAMERAMAN) and a good film (SPITE MARRIAGE) it pretty much went downhill for Keaton when he signed with MGM. I think some of the movies he made for the studio are underrated or at least overly criticized but DOUGHBOYS is without question the worst and I'd say it's also probably one of the worst to come from a major studio during this era. I'm really not sure where the start because the entire film is just one embarrassing moment after another but I guess we can start with the screenplay. This type of comedy certainly didn't go hand and hand with Keaton because he's the last type of comedian who should be playing a part like this. The actor constantly looks as if he's being held back by the screenplay and what's even worse is that every once in a while we're given "classic Keaton" routines but even these here fail miserably. There are a few instances where Keaton's style of slapstick is used but it just never works because the script is so lazy. Keaton slips and slides around in some mud, gets in trouble with the drill sergeant and for the first twenty-minutes of the movie he just comes across annoying by constantly giving dumb answers to questions. Eddie Brophy plays the drill sergeant and he too comes across quite annoying as he does nothing but scream and it's not funny. The direction is weak, the comedy has no laughs and the entire production just has a very cheap feel to it. There are a few chuckles here and there but that's not good enough for someone with as much talent as Keaton.

DOUGHBOYS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1930), directed by Edward Sedgwick, stars that deadpan silent film comedian Buster Keaton in his second sound comedy. Not essentially a movie about those working for the Pillsbury Company, this is one about soldiers during the first World War, then commonly known as "doughboys." Though an improvement over Keaton's initial talkie, FREE AND EASY (1930) set in the Hollywood movie studio, it's far from his silent masterpieces made during his peak years of the twenties.

The plot revolves around Elmer Julius Stuyvesant Jr. (Buster Keaton), a hapless millionaire hopelessly in love with a shop-girl named Mary Rogers (Sally Eilers), whom he waits for every day holding a bouquet of flowers hoping she'd go out with him. In spite of her constant rejections, he refuses to give up hope. As he awaits once again by his limousine outside the store, a recruiting parade headed by a pretty blonde passes by, attracts the attention to Elmer's driver to abandon his post and enlist. At the advise of his manservant, Gustave (Arnold Korff), Elmer goes over to an employment agency to hire a new driver. While doing this, Elmer unwittingly enters a recruiting office where he finds himself enlisted into the Army. While in the platoon with other "dumb clucks" consisting of the ukulele playing Nescopeck (Cliff Edwards), Elmer ends up under the tough watch of Sergeant Brophy (Edward Brophy). As Elmer intends to resign, he soon encounters Mary, also in the Army now acting as hostess in the entertainment division. After some basic training and constant yelling by Brophy, the troop finally heads over to France where the outcome of the war is anything but all quiet on the western front.

With war themes as surefire material for many comedians dating back to the silent era, and future comedians as well (Abbott and Costello in Universal's BUCK PRIVATES (1941) being a classic example), DOUGHBOYS is obviously a wise choice selection for Keaton. It's been said that some comedy material used in this production was based on Keaton's own experience in the war. It must have been a funny war where Keaton is concerned. Being a straightforward comedy, there's time during its 79 minutes for some brief song interludes composed by Howard Johnson and Joseph Meyer. Though "Military Man" is heard briefly during the early portion of the story, the second in command, "Sing" (Sung by Cliff Edwards and reprized by an unidentified soldier) gets the full treatment during a canteen show that concludes with an Apache dance with Keaton in drag. On the humorous side, many of the comedy routines are carefully planned out and don't extend themselves to boredom. One, in particular, where Keaton's Elmer is forced to go through a physical, ends abruptly. Considering how amusing that scene was, it makes one wish for its continuance to what's to take occur afterwards. Another amusing bit, clipped into the well documented, "So Funny It Hurt, Buster Keaton and MGM" (2004), is one where Elmer, ordered to go out and get some German prisoners, finds some at the dugout where he has a friendly conversation with them and their leader, his former manservant, Gustav. As in most cases in DOUGHBOYS, some routines work, others do not. From what I can see, the funny gags outnumber the weaker ones. Interestingly, since the story takes place "over there" during World War I, take note where the lovesick Keaton briefly sings a few bars of the then popular tune to "You Were Meant For Me" that was originally introduced in the 1929 MGM musical, "The Broadway Melody."

Of the members of the cast that include Victor Potel (Svendenburg); Frank Mayo (Captain Scott); and Pitzy Katz (Abie Cohn), Edward Brophy playing the tough sergeant is truly worth mentioning. He's a sheer reminder to the latter yelling sergeants in Army comedies, namely that of Frank Sutton's Sergeant Carter in the popular TV sit-com, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." for CBS(1964-1969) starring Jim Nabors in the title role. Shows like this indicates how the military comedies never seem to go out of style.

As with most Keaton comedies during his MGM years (1928-1933), DOUGHBOYS is forgotten. Having initially watched DOUGHBOYS on late night television in 1978 from WKBS, Channel 48, in Philadelphia, then the home to many MGM film titles, it's good to know that, good, bad or indifferent, DOUGHBOYS still available for viewing long after it ceased showing on broadcast television. Thanks to the Ted Turner library where this and other Keaton MGM titles have became readily available on home video (1993) and DVD, DOUGHBOYS continues to be shown on Turner Classic Movies as a insight to those interested in learning more about the comedy legend of Buster Keaton and why his career slowly dipped into decline while under the reign of the MGM lion. (**)