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Steamboat Bill Jr. starring Buster Keaton

Steamboat Bill Jr.

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Product Description of Steamboat Bill Jr. courtesy of Amazon.com

 The last of the independent features made in the prime of Buster Keaton‘s career, Steamboat Bill Jr. is a large-scale follow-up to The General, substituting a Mississippi paddle wheel for the locomotive, and replacing the spectacle of the Civil War with a catastrophic hurricane. Keaton stars as William Canfield, Jr., a Boston collegian who returns to his deep-southern roots to reunite with his father, a crusty riverboat captain(Ernest Torrence) who is engaged in a bitter rivalry with a riverboat king coincidentally, the father of Willie s sweetheart (Marion Byron). Keaton s athleticism and gift for inventive visual humor are in top form, and the cyclone that devastates a town (and sends houses literally crashing down around him) is perhaps the most ambitious, awe-inspiring and hilarious slapstick sequence ever created.

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Pajama Party

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Pajama Party (1964) starring Annette Funicello, Don Rickles, Buster Keaton

 In short, Pajama Party  is an Annette Funicello beach party movie.  But in addition to the gyrating young girls in bikinis,Pajama Party adds large amounts of clown-level  zaniness as well. The basic story has 3 intertwining plots – a Martian invasion (led by a clean cut, inept Martian teenager and managed by Don Rickles), a beach party complete with teenage angst, and some inept crooks (including Buster Keaton as an American Indian, still wearing his traditional pork pie hat — with a feather in it). There’s a lot of humor in the movie, with slapstick that borders on the Looney Tunes. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it and hope you do as well.

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The Shakiest Gun in the West

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The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968) starring Don Knotts, Barbara Rhoades

 In short, The Shakiest Gun in the West is a very funny Don Knotts movie. Set in the American Old West, Don plays the part of Jesse W. Haywood, a recent graduate from Dentistry school. He is going out west to make his fortune. His final exam in dentistry school is funny, as is his boarding the train out West. Along the way, his stagecoach is held up by two robbers (his reaction being very funny in itself). And one of the two robbers is a lovely woman, “Bad Penny” Cushing (Barbara Rhoades). But, she is soon arrested, and given an opportunity for a pardon in exchange for infiltrating a wagon train heading out west …. And to break up a ring of gun smugglers.

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The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

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The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) starring Don Knotts, Joan Staley, Dick Sargent

In The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, Luther Heggs (played by Don Knotts), is a typesetter for his small town newspaper, the Rachel Courier Express. He aspires to be a reporter however and gets his big break when the editor (played by Dick Sargent of Bewitched fame) asks him to spend the night at the old Simmons mansion that, 20 years before, was the site of a now-famous murder-suicide. The case has aroused local interest not only because of the anniversary but because the nephew of the murdered couple, Nicholas Simmons, has returned to Rachel aiming to tear the mansion down.

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The Incredible Mr. Limpet

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The Incredible Mr. Limpet, starring Don Knotts

The Incredible Mr. Limpet is a very funny, entertaining film, starring Don Knotts. He’s the mild-mannered Henry Limpet. Set during World War II, the patriotic Mr. Limpet, an avid fan of fish, tries to enlist in the Navy, only to be rejected due to his poor eyesight. A wish magically comes true, and Henry Limpet is turned into a fish, who becomes the Navy’s secret weapon during World War II.

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The Reluctant Astronaut

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The Reluctant Astronaut (1967) starring Don Knotts, Leslie Nielsen

 Don Knotts takes his ‘nervous fraidy-cat’ character to outer space (or at least to orbit) in this funny, family-friendly comedy.  The Reluctant Astronaut begins with Roy Fleming (Don Knotts in the title role) appearing to be in a space capsule orbiting the Earth. Until the camera zooms out, and reveals that instead he’s operating a kiddie ride at an amusement park.  Once the ride is over, he leaves the ride (with the help of the actor who played one of the ‘old men’ on the Andy Griffith Show). In order to demonstrate to the audience that Don Knotts’ character has a severe fear of heights.  On his break, he asks one of his fellow employees at the amusement park for a date. And after much begging, she reluctantly agrees.  His normal day at work is interrupted by an urgent call from his mother, causing him to dash home.

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Jackie Gleason: Genius at Work

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Editorial Review of Jackie Gleason: Genius at Work, courtesy of Amazon.com

Jackie Gleason knew that to produce his top-rated weekly CBS variety show he needed more than just witty monologues, innovative June Taylor choreography and big name guests. He personally had to garner the respect of his national audience, which he did superlatively with a cavalcade of compelling and lovable characters. As television’s pioneer weekend evening entertainer he created iconic personas and deservingly earned the title “Mr. Saturday Night.”

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