Love Nest on Wheels (1937)
** (out of 4)
This here served as Buster Keaton's sixteenth and final film for Educational Pictures and it's actually a remake of the 1918 film, which he played a supporting part to Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. This time out Keaton plays part of a redneck family running a hotel, which is about to get foreclosed on unless they can come up with some funny. A couple stop by on their honeymoon and agree to buy a camper the family has but there's only one problem and that's Uncle Jed's cow is stuck in it. LOVE NEST ON WHEELS is a charming movie even if the laughs are all there. I think the original film was much better but this one here does allow one to see many members of the Keaton family as we not only get Buster but also Myra, Louise and Harry. The supporting player also features vets Bud Jamison as well as Al St. John, another member who was kicking it with Buster over a decade earlier. Most of the gags here can be seen in the original Arbuckle short including one where a rope running from the barber shop to the kitchen pulling a bucket-like device ends up knocking the hat off St. John several times and of course he takes it out on Buster. Another gag involves an elevator being ran by a horse outside pulling a rope and the highlight is a scene where St. John gets his head stuck in the door. None of these gags are overly funny but they are charming in their own right and the cast certainly makes this film worth checking out. This marked an end to Keaton's stay at Educational and having watched all sixteen films in a row I can't help but feel that some fans have overpraised them. I understand Keaton hated his time at MGM but those films were certainly better than the majority of these two-reelers.
