lowbrowstudios

Keaton's winning streak of finely executed talking shorts continues with the service comedy TARS AND STRIPES – (1935). Despite the punning title this is an enjoyable, freewheeling two-reeler. Filmed on location at the U.S. Naval Training Base in San Diego, it plays as a breezy alternative to the many service features being turned out by all of the major studio's at the time to help promote the military. Those features, starring the likes of a Jack Holt, a Jimmy Cagney or a Wallace Berry, always had a credit thanking which ever arm of the service cooperated in the making of this picture. Here it looks like the Navy opened their doors to Keaton's crew and gave him free rein.

The storyline is a series of overlapping running gags as Buster bedevils his commanding officer played by Vernon Dent. What makes this short so satisfying are the amiable qualities that the on-site location filming gives it. As Buster runs around the grounds in his sailor whites ships are moored in the bay acting as witnesses to the various pratfalls into the water. While most of the byplay is between Keaton and Dent the star comic does intermingle with the real sailors stationed at the base - especially the ending during a parade ground formation and Keaton plays it straight, acting as a real sailor would running out to his commanding officer to accept his medal.

The gags on display here all have a rhythmic flow to them as Buster makes frequent trips in and out of the brig while attempting jobs assigned to him by the Chief Gunner's Mate - who gets the brunt of it when Buster fails miserably. Once again Keaton attempts to paint a mast from a shaky scaffolding, tries to tie knots and learn the intricacies of rifle training. The best gags are the variations of Buster constantly late for mess call. Regardless of how or where the line is when seaman Buster arrives he always ends up at the end of it. This is solid sight gag comedy performed without the need for sound. When he is alone watching the other recruits go through their paces he is suddenly able to perform a quick formation rifle routine under the watchful eye of Dent's girl. This was the magic of Keaton - regardless of his constant bumbling and ineptitude there was always boiling, just under the surface, a quick-thinking, agile paragon just beneath that flat hat facade.

When it comes to the top comedy shorts made in the Thirties the high water mark has always belonged to the works of Laurel & Hardy. Their finely tuned films were the perfect mixture of visual humor in a world of sound. By the time Keaton created the fifth short in his Educational series, HAYSEED ROMANCE – (1935), he had become just as comfortable at mixing his silent style with the needs of sound. The results are an overlooked minor classic. It plays like a prime Laurel & Hardy short with two strong sequences that naturally flow into each other.

Buster answers an ad to work a farm as a potential husband. When he meets the comely blonde miss of the house his interest peaks but of course, she didn't place the ad – that would be her behemoth of an aunt. He immediately settles in to a bucolic existence down on the farm. While Keaton always made comedies in varied surroundings he always seemed at home in rural settings among the cows and chickens. After breaking more dishes than he washed Buster settles in for a quiet evening's peace and contemplation only to be shattered by the Aunt's thunderous recital on the organ that shakes the house like the San Andreas quaking. This is followed by a splendid slapstick episode as Buster attempts to sleep in the attic with a leaky roof on a rainy night. Keaton builds this sequence through incidental gags and mounting mishaps. Needless to say both he and the aunt take quite a few headers through a two story hole and out into a mud puddle.

This short was a revelation for me as it showed that even with the time and money restrictions Keaton was able to turn out quality work that stood out with the best that was being done in the shorts comedy field at that time. It just drives home all the more how MGM squandered his talent.

After the demise of the "The Boyfriends" series Hal Roach hired Mack Sennett's ace director Del Lord to create a new series "The Taxi Boys". THUNDERING TAXIS was the last released in the short-lived series but was actually the first one filmed (according to comedy historian/guru Richard Roberts) and is one of the wilder examples of meshing silent film techniques with sound comedic stylings. Silent comedy veterans Billy Bevan and Clyde Cook are recruited to recreate their glory years. At one point the action stops so Cook can revisit a clam eating routine first performed by Bevan in WANDERING WILLIES (26). Lord goes all out using fast motion, mechanical (these taxis get bent , twisted and turned)and impossible gags (a cabbie's arm stretches to incredible lengths to retrieve an unpaid fare), and even animation (an old silent comedy dodge). In fact, if ever there was a live action cartoon this is it.

Bud Jamison leads a ragtag, misfit crew of cabbies who line up each morning for inspection and then promptly get toppled over like bowling pins. When a taxi war breaks (thanks to the lovely Muriel Evans, who once again loses her skirt)out they show what a true cowering, sniveling group they are. Cook and Bevan get pushed to the forefront of the fight but it's all about the gags - a taxis with headlights for eyes peer outside the garage to see if the coast is clear; lethal spits of tobacco juice break windshields, knock over whole cabs and make them spin like a top on the road. This short is not about plot or character development. Our two heroes are just as much props as the taxis are. Dirty tricks abound and when Bevan tries to retaliate he gets a telephone pole crashing upon his car for his troubles. Eventually a chase breaks out but by now all of the cabs on both sides are so damaged that it's more of a junk yard derby featuring bouncing heaps on the road.

All in all this is a fun short for lovers of sight gag comedy.