What Keaton Shorts Work Best?

The Electric House and Keaton Prints Getting Better All The Time

Buster Keaton goes a route followed by other comics who’d spoof household labor-save devices, in this case a residence wired to spare owners even getting off a chair. Now that electricity was part of virtually all homes, anything seemed possible. Buster would always be a proponent of squirrelly convenience, his electric train table server built in the 50’s much like one he conceived for this long-before two reeler. He also spent idle hours as Metro gagman (post-major stardom) building gadgets for amusement of office visitors like Lucille Ball, who’d later recall his ingenuity. The Electric House then, is hobbyist as well as filmmaking Keaton, who I’ll bet constructed, or at least took hand, in the short’s every device. At least one laid him low, an escalator on which BK fell and snapped an ankle. Witnesses could actually hear the break, as I almost do whenever I re-see and cringe at the mishap. There might lay disadvantage of learning how these shorts were made.

We got The Electric House among festival Keatons unspooled at Greensboro’s lost and legendary Janus Theatre, prints courtesy of Raymond Rohauer, who flew in for part of the month-long spree. At that time (1973), just seeing The Electric House was a major event. The only home-use Keaton two-reelers were Cops, Balloonatic, a Griggs-Moviedrome The Haunted House, which quality the seller rated only “fair.” Any beyond these might be had from galaxy-away South America (a dealer named Enrique Bouchard, who also offered Keaton grail feature The Three Ages). I balked at ordering on doubt that nothing so far off could make its way to NC --- how then, by mule train over the Andes? Just to see a Keaton outside handful Blackhawk or Griggs sold was excitement plenty, so it mattered less how the print looked. In fact, it enhanced the thrill to look at something you knew (or was told) had been rescued within nick of time. To the devil then was due --- had it not been for Rohauer, we’d have lots less of Keaton.

Revisit to Keaton usually stop at four to five shorts for me over two or three days I'll devote. There can be, after all, too much of even best things. Each time raises a new question, such as how many of these could you play to the uninitiated? Decision comes down less to merit than how well each short has survived. A number are missing sections, gaps filled by explanatory titles. The usual we’re lucky to have them at all is fine for Keaton loyalists, who will indeed take and treasure any footage they can get of Buster, but is it reasonable to expect newcomers to embrace Convict 13 or Daydreams in the current shape they’re in? Maybe programmers need a guide list of ones of the group that are safe for general consumption. I could offhand suggest Neighbors, The Goat, and certainly most famous of the lot, Cops. As to others, it would need thorough review, of which half might click without allowances made, a difference between general and archival interest. As search continues for truant footage, one or more of the total of nineteen could hop from second column to first, should luck bring further upgrades.