Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton had a new documentary by Kevin Brownlow (author of The Parade's Gone By..., a book which I own but haven't managed to finish reading yet.) on TCM last night, So Funny It Hurt!. The documentary is all about Keaton's years at MGM and his downfall from great silent films like Sherlock Jr. and The General to schlocky movies co-starring Jimmy Durante. I didn't watch So Funny It Hurts! because I really like Buster's silent films and I've read quite a few biographies on him (including a really awesome one called Buster Keaton Remembered co-authored by his second wife Eleanor).

However, there was a really interesting article entitled "Deadpan Alley" on Slate about the documentary that made me think about catching it when it reruns on December 19. The parts the intrigued me:

"In a filmed interview from the '60s, the older Buster bemoans the Marx Brothers' lack of on-set preparation, remembering that "When we made movies, we ate, slept and breathed 'em." There's also a rare clip of Keaton delivering lines in painfully phonetic Spanish; before the days of dubbing, films were simply remade several times in different languages for the international market. In a scene from one of Buster's early shorts, Coney Island, the famously stone-faced comedian can be seen laughing heartily after whacking Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in the head with a mallet."

It sounds pretty interesting, and perhaps worth spending 38 minutes on.

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