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Buster Keaton – 65th Anniversary Collection

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 Editorial Review of Buster Keaton – 65th Anniversary Collection, courtesy of Amazon.com

 An entire missing segment of Buster Keaton’s career is filled in with the release of this collection, which comprises the 10 shorts Keaton made at Columbia Pictures in 1939-41. If you’re a Keaton fan (and why on earth wouldn’t you be?) this section of the great man’s work has always been in dispute–and above all, hard to see. After his career collapsed at the beginning of the 1930s, Buster Keaton struggled to find a niche in Hollywood, and the Columbia contract was essentially his last sustained opportunity to headline in films on a regular basis. It was a difficult fit from the start: Keaton did not have the artistic control he enjoyed over his 1920s classics, and director Jules White (who helmed most of the Columbia shorts) had a radically different view of comedy from his star. White guided the hijinks of Columbia’s busiest comedy stars, the Three Stooges, and his leadpipe-to-the-noggin style did not mesh well with Keaton’s measured, logical approach.

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The Art of Buster Keaton

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Editorial Review of The Art of Buster Keaton, courtesy of Amazon.com

 Buster Keaton was arguably the cinema’s first modernist, an old-fashioned romantic with a 20th-century mind behind a deadpan visage. His films brim with some of the most breathtaking stunts and ingenious gags ever put on film, all perfectly engineered to look effortless. And, as Kino’s magnificent 11-disc boxed set The Art of Buster Keaton conclusively shows, they are among the funniest ever made. Keaton warped gags until they left the plane of reality in such shorts as The Playhouse (1921) and The Frozen North(1922), and takes a logic-defying leap into the very nature of cinema itself in his hilarious Sherlock Jr. (1924).

He takes on the mechanical world with Rube Golberg ingenuity in The Navigator(1924) and perfects his match between man and massive machine in Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), which features the funniest hurricane scene ever put to film, and The General (1927), one of the greatest comedies of all time.

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The General

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The General (The Ultimate Two-Disc Edition)

Product description of The General courtesy of Amazon.com

 NEWLY MASTERED IN HD FROM A 35MM ARCHIVE PRINT STRUCK FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
THE NUMBER 18 GREATEST FILM OF ALL TIME (AFI 100 YEARS… 100 MOVIES)

Consistently ranked among the greatest films ever made, Buster Keaton s THE GENERAL is so brilliantly conceived and executed that it continues to inspire awe and laughter with every viewing. This Kino Ultimate 2 Disc Edition was mastered in HD from a 35mm archive print struck from the original camera negative. Rejected by the Confederate army as unfit, and taken for a coward by his beloved Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), young Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) is given a chance to redeem himself when Yankee spies steal his cherished locomotive. Johnny wages a one-man war against hijackers, an errant cannon and the unpredictable hand of fate while roaring along the iron rails. Every shot has the authenticity and the unassuming correct composition of a Mathew Brady Civil War photograph, wrote film historian David Robinson, No one not even Griffith or Huston and certainly not Fleming (Gone With the Wind) caught the visual aspect of the Civil War as Keaton did.Read More »The General

The Buster Keaton Collection

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Editorial Review of The Buster Keaton Collection, courtesy of Amazon.com

 The Buster Keaton Collection presents three of the first films (one, The Cameraman, a near masterpiece) Keaton made for MGM beginning in 1928, an arrangement that gradually ushered the great comic actor and director into the sound era but ultimately deprived him of creative control. The Cameraman, considered by many to be Keaton’s last important silent work, is an unusual story about a tintype portrait photographer (Keaton) who becomes a newsreel cameraman in order to win the heart of a secretary (Marceline Day). After flubbing an assignment by double-exposing some action footage, the hapless hero tries to prove himself in several memorable sequences of Keatonesque knockabout comedy (including a Chinatown street battle). There are also a couple of grace notes, such as a scene set in Yankee Stadium in which a solo Keaton exquisitely mimes the moves and attitudes of a pitcher. But The Cameraman’s strange, almost subconscious power is in its variation on an old Keaton refrain: The hero’s conflict over different kinds of authenticity, represented here on either side of a motion picture lens–the difference between capturing something real and living it.

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Mary of Scotland 1936

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Mary of Scotland (1936) starring Katherine Hepburn, Fredric March, John Carradine

Synopsis of Mary of Scotland

A historical movie, dealing with the life of Mary of Scotland. With some typical Hollywood liberties with historical fact. But with excellent performances all around.

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Bambi

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Product description of Bambi The forest comes alive with BAMBI, the critically acclaimed coming-of-age story that has thrilled and entertained generations of fans. Now digitally restored… Read More »Bambi

Angels in the Outfield (1951)

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Angels in the Outfield (1951) starring Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh

In Angels in the Outfield, Paul Douglas, stars with Janet Leigh, as the hot-tempered Pittsburgh Pirates manager.  His hard-luck team goes on a winning streak thanks to some heavenly intervention.

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Million Dollar Duck

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The Million Dollar Duck (1971) starring Dean Jones, Sandy Duncan, Joe Flynn

 In The Million Dollar Duck, a lab worker (Dean Jones) takes home a laboratory animal (Charlie the duck) to prevent it from being destroyed, as a pet for his son. However, the duck’s exposure to radiation has mutated it. And it now literally lays golden eggs when the family dog barks. At first, the scientist, this ditzy wife (Sandy Duncan) think this is a Godsend. Until they begin to get greedy, and their neighbor (Joe Flynn) begins to get suspicious.

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The King of Comedy

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DVD review of The King of Comedy (1982), starring Jerry Lewis, Robert Deniro

 Jerry LewisThe King of Comedy is not the typical Jerry Lewis movie.  It’s not a comedy. It’s not for the children.  It isvery dark comedy (although rated PG). The King of Comedy looks at the behind-the-scenes life of Jerry Langford. Played straight, and brilliantly, by Jerry Lewis. He’s a talk-show host seemingly similar to Jay Leno or David Letterman.

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The Ladies Man

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Editorial Reviews of Jerry Lewis’ The Ladies Man (1961), courtesy of Amazon.com  Jerry Lewis conjured up one of his simplest concepts for this 1961 hit, but… Read More »The Ladies Man

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