The Triumph of Lester Snapwell

This was another rarity I found on the Buster Keaton DVD collection, "Industrial Strength Keaton". In this one, he plays the title character trying to take a picture of his girlfriend Clementine (Sigrid Nelsson) and her mother (Nina Varela) through various periods of photography. Except for narration meant to convey the wonders of the Kodak camera to Lester over the years, the whole thing has a feeling of a classic silent comedy with Buster giving his still expert timing, all to quite hilarious effect especially when tangling with the heavyset Varela. This is particularly amazing considering Keaton's age and his previous struggles, both personally and professionally. So on that note, I highly recommend The Triumph of Lester Snapwell.

The Triumph of Lester Snapwell (1963) is an inoffensive little commercial from Buster Keaton's late career. Though it's designed to do nothing more than advertise Kodak's newest camera (for 1963, anyway), it does permit Keaton to do some of his understated physical comedy. It is not anything innovative or on par with his golden age of the 1920s, but it is a much better fit for his talents than the awful Beach Party films.

The "plot" is little more than a series of vignettes taking place in different time periods, showcasing the photographic methods of the day. Buster jumps from the 1860s to the 1880s to the 1920s to the 1950s and then finally into the modern day, hoping to snap a photo of his much younger girlfriend Clementine. It's interesting to see all the camera models in addition to Buster doing his thing.

A minor entry, but a cute and inoffensive one too.

I find myself laughing harder at Buster-in-decline than at the youthful genius of the Silent Era. Even as I laugh out loud at him, I'm in awe that this artiste of the pratfall had not lost his touch through the decades.

TRIUMPH OF LESTER SNAPWELL is certainly not in league with the Classic Buster of the 20's. But while the production values are minimal, you'll still come away deeply impressed by the the man's adroitness. His physical humor is fully intact and perfectly timed. You'll find yourself rewinding the tape to scrutinize how the hell he set up his gimmicks so seamlessly. (Case in point: Buster "inadvertently" closes the back of a camera on his tie, so that it's left hanging from his tie. It takes a very dexterous fellow to make clumsiness look so flawless.)

This Kodak promotional film was produced to tout the newly-released "Instamatic" which featured an easy-to-load film cartridge. So naturally they wanted to show the pitfalls of all the earlier awkward technologies. Enter Buster, who demonstrates through the ages how the photographic arts have progressed over the last 100 years.

By the way, this 20-some minute short was available on a video titled "The Lost Films of Buster Keaton" (available from Grapevine Video, Phoenix AZ). Also on the tape were two other shorts --

"Ford Van Commercial" where Buster loads up an Econoline with everything including the kitchen sink. And a lion to boot.

And "The Home Owner". This was a creative promotional for a 1950s-era prefab housing community. Buster is sold on the strength of the pretty neighbor as much as the quality of homes. And once again, I found myself hitting the rewind button over and over to admire the artistry of his surprising stunts. This guy was pushing 70 and still performing miraculous pratfalls. (I was especially jazzed by a spill into a swimming pool. He was pushing a shopping cart, got distracted by a pretty lass, the cart went into the deep end and pulled him along after it ... Buster did an amazing flip in the air to sail far PAST the cart, halfway across the pool.)