Mooching Through Georgia

Mooching Through Georgia (1939)

** (out of 4)

Columbia short has an old man (Buster Keaton) telling of how he helped win the Civil War by outsmarting the Yanks. Most of Keaton's sound material was rather hit and miss and that holds true with this short he did for Columbia. I think the biggest problem with some of Keaton's later films is that studios didn't allow him to be Keaton but instead tried turning him into someone else. There's a lot of stuff borrowed from The Three Stooges shorts including numerous hits to the head but Keaton still manages to shine in this unoriginal material. There are a few nice laughs including one scene where Buster and his brother accidentally sign up for opposite sides of the war. Another good joke comes when Buster must face a firing squad. A lot of the jokes are rather lazy and require Keaton to just fall down or stumble across something and these here are the jokes that don't do Keaton's talents any justice. If you're a fan of Keaton then this is worth watching but others should start off with some of his silent classics.