Buster Keaton als Lebensretter

Buster in a watch repairman who is infatuated with a lady. They go to the circus but instead of her falling for him, she's taken a strong liking to the handsome trapeze artist. So, later Buster tries his hand at the trapeze...with predictable results. Can he still manage to get the girl?

If you are looking for the genius and style of Buster Keaton's silent films, then you probably will be more disappointed in this short from Educational Films (a company, despite its name, that made comedies). The film lacks the brilliance and timing of his early efforts. However, if you can repress the part of the brain that expects that, then this film is actually pretty pleasant. Plus, it was a HUGE improvement over the types of films he'd just finished making for MGM--as pairing him and his sweet style with Jimmy Durante was simply insane!

Unlike Keaton's first film for Educational, "The Gold Ghost", this one finds him playing a much more physical character--with lots of pratfalls and trapeze tricks that look like the best of Keaton's old shorts. However, the story itself is only okay--so don't assume it's quite up to the standards of the 1920s Keaton. Still, it's pleasant and nice to see him getting back to his more physical style, as that was his forte.

Buster is lovestruck. And when he falls he falls hard.

Love at first sight was a common plot point in his silent shorts so why not carry the tradition over into his sound shorts? Keaton adds a visual joke to the first encounter by seeing the girl of his dreams through a distorted lens. The motif also allows Keaton to perform his tried and true looks of romantic longing - the droopy, dreamy eyes as he gazes at his beloved, the fluttery hand motions and his over eagerness to please. He's like a damaged puppy. Stop licking me!!

But in Keaton's world view love is fickle so in the time it takes for Buster to win her hand he loses it even quicker to a circus trapeze artist. Keaton's love of gadgetry comes into play as he creates his own makeshift high wire set in the back yard in an attempt to re-win his girl back. One of the key components missing from Keaton's film persona while at MGM was his penchant to pratfall. The studio was afraid he would get hurt and made him scale back his tumbles to the point where he would mostly just slip and slide around. The Educationals' freed him from that constraint. He could fall all he wanted as long as the films were released on time. And fall he does in the best sequence of this leisurely paced short.

Allez-Oop! (1934)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Buster Keaton's second film at Educational Pictures has him playing a watch maker who falls in love with a woman (Dorothy Sebastian) who he eventually takes to the circus. At the circus the woman ends up falling in love with a performer who of course turns out to be a jerk and Keaton gets his chance to shine. This is a pretty poor film from start to finish and it's yet another example of one feeling sorry that a talent like Keaton had to appear in it. It's well-known that Keaton hated his years at MGM but the majority of the films he did there were certainly better than this. The screenplay is fairly poorly written and this includes the silly attempts at laughs early on, which are pretty much scenes of Keaton dropping or breaking things. The "romance" between Keaton and Sebastian is fairly poorly and certainly won't remind people of their work in SPITE MARRIAGE. The stunts towards the end of the film are good but by this time most viewers would have turned the film off. The ending is also rather violent and the unpleasant nature doesn't sit too well in a comedy. Harry Myers, best known for the drunk in Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS, has a small role here.

Overall this is a solid feature, rather than an especially good one, yet it does contain a couple of sequences that are quite good, and that for a few moments hearken back to Buster Keaton's glory days. Some of the material does not really give Keaton that much of a chance to use his best talents, but he and the rest of the cast get pretty good mileage out of the story.

The story has Buster involved in a rivalry for the attentions of Dorothy Sebastian. Since his rival is a trapeze artist, Buster feels the need to compete with him on his own ground. There are a couple of sequences that work particularly well. Early in the movie, Keaton and Sebastian have a complicated miscommunication, and it is handled well, getting good mileage out of it. Later on, Buster has some funny moments in trying to demonstrate his agility. As in some of his silent features, when Keaton plays a clumsy character, he actually demonstrates his own considerable physical agility even as he performs pratfalls.

Overall, this is a solid slapstick comedy that is worth seeing. The setup is a familiar one, yet the story is not all that predictable, and there are at least a couple of sequences that give Keaton some good material to work with.